It was late the night of their second day in Los Angeles as three men were watching the activity up the street from where the truck was parked. None of the three looked very happy.
Joe asked, "What do you think?"
"Looks like we found gang central," Dan answered. There were two-dozen people standing around a number of tricked out cars, doing nothing but drinking and talking. Music, loud enough to be heard a block away, was coming from one of the cars. All of the men sported the same tattoos on their arms.
Recognizing two of the men from the pictures that Sonny had taken with his cell phone, Joe said, "There are the two guys who shot Sonny."
The two guys were walking around and drinking beer like they didn't have a care in the world. One of them was carrying a bag from a taco stand, and was walking around eating a taco. There wasn't much doubt about which one was named 'Taco.'
"I see them," Donny said.
Glaring at the two men, Dan said, "We've been in town two days and we've found them already. It has been five days since Sonny was shot and they are still haven't seen the inside of a jail. I wonder what is taking the police so long to find them."
"It is hard to find something when you aren't looking for it," Joe said.
He knew that anyone familiar with the area would have known exactly where to look for the two men. He suspected they hadn't even hid out for a single day.
Dan said, "I'm going to call the cops and let them know where Dingo and Taco are."
Dan pulled out the cell phone Donny had purchased at the Wally Mart and called 911. Despite an expectation that he would get put on hold, the call went right through to an operator. Taking care not to identify himself, he explained where the two suspects in the robbery were located. He named the two men and specified the robbery and the shooting that had taken place just to ensure that sufficient details were provided to give credibility to his report.
A half an hour passed before they spotted a patrol car. A five-minute delay would be understandable. A fifteen-minute delay would suggest that something significant was happening nearby. A thirty-minute delay convinced all three men that the police were uninterested in catching the gang members.
Donny said, "Finally, they got here. Let's watch what they do."
The bright lights of the city showed the policemen in the car quite clearly. The men in the patrol car looked away while driving past the gang. It was as if by not looking at them they could pretend they weren't there.
"They didn't do squat," Dan said in disgust.
Joe said, "They are scared. I don't think they would have stopped and arrested those two who shot Sonny, even if they did see them."
"I noticed that," Donny said shaking his head. The two men who had shot Sonny hadn't even bothered to turn their backs to the police car. "The gang doesn't seem to be worried about the police at all. They just laughed at them."
It was obvious who was in control of this neighborhood and it sure wasn't the police. The police car drove past the truck. The car slowed down when it passed by them. Both cops in the car were checking out the occupants of the truck. Joe touched the brim of his hat with his forefinger while smiling directly at the police officers.
Once the police car had passed, Joe said, "Assholes."
Dan said, "Those two cops sure as hell checked us out though."
Looking back at the police car, Joe said, "We better get the hell out of here before we attract any more attention."
"You just can't keep from stating the obvious, can you?"
Snorting, Joe said, "It is a necessity. Look at the company I keep."
"Don't be a smart ass," Dan said.
Joe nudged Donny with an elbow and said, "Hey, he quit calling me a dumb ass and has started calling me a smart ass. I'm moving up in the world."
Donny laughed.
Dan didn't feel much like laughing considering that the police didn't respond to the 911 call.
He said, "Calling the police didn't do much good. We'll drive by here tomorrow in the light and find a good place to watch them. Maybe we can get the police to arrest them tomorrow."
"One of the rooftops of the buildings around here ought to do," Joe said. The dark made it a little difficult to see the roofs. From his perspective, that made it a perfect place from which to watch the action.
"The question is, which one gives us the best coverage of our game," Dan said studying the buildings that lined the street.
"We'll see, tomorrow," Joe said.
Dan just shook his head and started the truck. He pulled onto the road so that he would drive past where the gang was hanging out. He wanted to get an idea of what the gang was doing.
"What time will we start scouting around tomorrow?" Donny asked watching how the gang reacted to their driving past. The gang members gave them a quick glance and then ignored them.
"I figure about six in the morning. We won't have an audience," Dan answered. He looked out the window at the gang while he drove past. There sure were a lot of them doing nothing.
"We'll find a good spot and then spend the day there. We need to figure out their habits before we do anything," Joe said.
He had already accepted that the police weren't going to do anything and that it would be up to them to get the gang members to the jail.
"All three of us?" Donny asked.
"No. It will be just me and Joe. You need to take care of Sonny if he gets released from the hospital tomorrow. Hank and his sons are supposed to show up sometime in the afternoon. It would be nice if someone was there to greet them," Dan said.
He headed the truck in the general direction of the Wally Mart. It was getting late, and they would need to be up early in the morning.
"Why me? Why not you?" Donny asked thinking about spending an evening with Hank.
Knowing why Donny was trying to duck out on staying back, Dan said, "I guess I could take Sonny over to the college when he gets out of the hospital tomorrow. I wouldn't mind checking out all of those coeds for an hour or two. You know what they say about California girls."
"I suppose I can help Sonny move back into his dorm," Donny said suddenly coming to the realization that he was about to blow a golden opportunity to check out a lot of attractive single women.
"What do they say about California girls?" Joe asked.
"Hell if I know," Dan answered.
Donny laughed at the exchange, and then said, "I'll tell you tomorrow night."
"We'll probably be gone most of tomorrow night," Dan said. "You and Hank can take the next day."
Donny groaned and said, "I'm going to have to listen to him tell the story about the twelve point buck again."
"It only takes him two hours to tell it," Joe said.
Hank had a reputation for never shutting his mouth. He liked to tell stories and told them in such detail that an hour could pass while he related how he brewed his coffee in the morning. The story would have digressions about how he had once talked to someone who had visited a coffee farm in Columbia, the physics behind perking, and the current price of coffee beans on the international market.
Donny said, "Two and a half hours."
Dan grinned and said, "He'll probably tell you all about that fight he was in back in his rodeo days. That'll eat up another fourteen hours."
"Too bad Flower won't be there," Donny said.
"You mean Rose?" Joe asked with a smile. Hank's wife's name was Lily and Donny had once made the mistake of calling them the flower girls. They hadn't been happy about that.
"Yes," Donny said.
"That girl is sweet on you," Dan said.
"Don't talk like that," Donny said.
Everyone expected them to get married one day. Even Rose and he expected that. There weren't many women his age out where he lived so he didn't have many choices. For that matter, Rose didn't have that many choices in men. The lack of choice didn't affect their feelings towards each other, though.
Joe enjoyed the subtle art of rubbing salt in wounds, so he said, "She's a pretty girl. She'd make a good wife."
"Yes, she is," Donny said, "The problem is that if I take up with Rose, I have to put up with Hank."
"Don't forget about her two brothers," Dan said with a grin.
Joe said, "They aren't all that bad. Compared to Hank they are kind of quiet. Of course, they are a bit high strung when it comes to guys taking up with Rose."
"Until Rose tells them otherwise. What Rose wants, Rose gets ... as far as those two are concerned," Donny said.
He had found out the hard way that they tended to go overboard in the other direction when they tied him up and delivered him to Rose after she had expressed an interest in him. That was the beginning of a long courtship.
"I remember that time when she happened to mention to them that she wanted you to visit one Saturday night," Dan said with a grin.
"They are just good old country boys," Joe said with a laugh.
He also knew all about the time when Donny had been delivered to Rose by her brothers.
Donny was about to make a reply when Dan's telephone rang. Picking it up off the dashboard, Donny opened it and handed over to Dan.
Putting the phone to his ear, Dan said, "Hello."
"Really?" Dan asked with a very serious expression on his face.
"Are you all right?"
"Where are you?"
"We'll be there to pick you up in thirty minutes."
"Just hold tight, and lay low," Dan said.
He closed the cell phone and set it on the dashboard.
"What was that about?" Joe asked. It was obvious to him that Dan's mood had taken a turn towards angry.
"Sonny left the hospital and is waiting for us to pick him up," Dan said. His voice was tight.
"Why did Sonny leave the hospital?" Joe asked.
Dan's grip on the steering wheel tightened before he answered, "We'll talk about it later."
"I'd rather talk about it now," Joe said. He wanted to know if they were going to be walking into a situation that might require a little preparation.
"And I'd rather not," Dan said.
"If it is what I think it is, I bet it will be on the radio," Joe said while he reached over and turned on the radio. It hadn't been on for more than thirty seconds before there was an announcement that there had been a shooting at Central General Hospital. The station's disk jockey said that they would have more details as soon as they become available.
"Are you ready to talk about it now?" Joe asked reaching over to turn off the radio.
"Three gang members showed up in Sonny's room and he shot them. He slipped out of the hospital and is waiting for us in a parking garage," Dan said. Looking at Joe, it was obvious to him that the man wanted a few more details. He said, "That's all Sonny told me."
"Three guesses as to why they showed up there and the last two don't count," Joe said.
He was pissed and that wasn't good for the subject of his anger.
"Pepper. He told the gang about the discussion I had with him."
"Got it in one," Joe said. He swore that Pepper was going to pay for that.
"I think we're going to pay a little visit to Pepper," Dan said.
He was so angry that he could chew nails.
Donny said, "I imagine that the police are looking for Sonny about now. I'm sure they aren't pleased about him leaving the hospital. We're going to have to ditch Sonny's truck. The police will assume that he's using it as a getaway vehicle."
"I didn't even think about the police," Dan said.
It only made sense that since they were law-abiding citizens that the police would go overboard enforcing the law with them. He said, "They are going to want to talk to Sonny and I don't think Sonny should be talking to them. If they throw him into a jail cell then he's probably as good as dead."
"That's going to be a problem," Joe said.
He was thinking about the expense of having to bring in a lawyer to make sure that Sonny didn't end up going to jail.
Dan said, "If they have laws against smoking in a hospital, then you can imagine how they are going to react to him shooting a gun in there. It wouldn't surprise me if they don't arrest him for defending himself."
Donny said, "It is wrong when you can't trust the police to do the right thing. What in the hell kind of place is this?"
"It is the kind of place where a guy in a hospital bed, isn't safe," Joe said.
Thinking about why Sonny had been attacked, Dan said, "We are definitely going to pay a visit to Pepper."
"What are you going to do?" Donny asked. He had visions of Pepper sprawled out on a floor somewhere with a hole in the middle of his forehead.
Dan glanced down at the speedometer and saw that he was speeding. He eased off the accelerator thinking that it wouldn't be a good time to get pulled over by the police.
He said, "Do you remember that bull that gored me?"
Surprised by the sudden change in topic, Donny answered, "Yes."
"If I remember correctly, that was the last time that bull was used in a Rodeo," Joe said. Being in the business of providing bulls to rodeos, he tended to keep track of things like that.
"That's because we ate it at the Fourth of July barbecue," Dan said.
"I thought that meat was the toughest damned thing you've ever cooked," Joe said looking at his brother. He had no idea that Dan had done that.
"It was horrible," Donny said.
Grimly, Dan said, "That bull was lucky. Pepper's luck just ran out."
Joe looked over at Donny and made a zip-it gesture. Too much more talk was going to set Dan off and he didn't want to be around when that happened. Donny nodded his agreement and stared out the front window of the truck.
When they got near the hospital, police cars were rushing everywhere. There were so many emergency vehicles that the entire area was lit up with red and blue. Joe commented, "Someone stirred up a hornets' nest."
Dan said, "I think they get upset when people are shooting at each other in a hospital. I figure it has to do with the noise."
"You think?" Donny asked relieved to see Dan taking a little lighter tone.
Dan pulled the truck over to the side of the road in front of a parking garage that was two blocks from the hospital. There was a thud from the bed of the pickup truck and a quick rap on the back window. Dan drove off while watching the horde of police cars that had surrounded the hospital in his rear view mirror.
Five blocks away, Dan parked the truck in the parking lot of a grocery store. He said, "Donny, you get to ride in the back."
"Sure," Donny said.
Joe got out of the truck so that Donny could slide out. Joe leaned over the wall of the truck bed and said, "Get in the front seat, Sonny."
Sonny climbed out of the bed of the truck and hugged Joe.
"I'm glad to see you," he said.
Taking a look at Sonny in his hospital gown, Donny said, "Nice outfit."
"You like it? I can get you one," Sonny said.
He looked over in the direction of the hospital and could see how it was lit up from the lights of the police cars.
Donny leaned over and whispered, "Take it easy around Dan and Joe. They are real pissed."
"Are they mad at me?"
"No. They aren't even all that pissed at the gang," Donny said.
"What are they angry about?" Sonny asked.
"I'll tell you about it later," Donny said, "You better get in the truck before Dan has a stroke."
"It's that bad?" Sonny asked.
"Yep," Donny answered.
Once everyone had settled into their places, Dan drove off. When the truck turned a corner, a gun slid across the bed and hit him in the side. He picked it up and noticed that Sonny had unloaded it before setting it down. Donny lay in the back staring up at the sky thinking that there weren't many stars in a Los Angeles sky. He wondered why anyone would want to live there.
Inside the truck the atmosphere was a little tenser. Rather than letting Dan start the conversation, Joe asked, "How is your health?"
"I got a bit of an infection in my lungs," Sonny answered. He coughed and there was an ugly rattle in his lungs. "It is almost cleared up though."
Hearing the rattle in Sonny's lungs, Joe said, "I think we have some antibiotics in the back of the camper."
"You aren't talking about giving me that stuff you use on the cattle, are you?"
"It is the same stuff they give you in the hospital," Joe said.
"No it is not. I just discovered that they give it to you in pills. All my life you have been giving it to me in a hypodermic that is intended for use on cows," Sonny said.
"Quit whining," Joe said. "I use the same stuff."
Sonny said, "I know. It is just that the damned needle hurts."
"No other problems with your health?" Dan asked. He wanted to get back to the Wally Mart where he would have a good chance to check Sonny over. For all he knew, the young man could have been wounded again.
"I keep getting weird twinges in my legs," Sonny answered. "It wasn't so bad until I shimmied down the telephone pole."
Joe grimaced at the idea of climbing down a telephone pole. He said, "I bet climbing down a telephone pole wearing a hospital gown is one of those 'experiences of a lifetime.'"
Sonny said, "You can reproduce that feeling by trying to have sex with a roll of barbwire. I've got splinters on parts of my body where wood just doesn't belong."
Thinking of the kind of damage that could be done trying to shimmy down a telephone pole after getting shot, Dan said, "I'd like to get you to a doctor, but I'm afraid he'd turn you over to the police. We aren't going down that road until we have to."
Joe said, "You're going to get off your feet and stay that way until you've healed up a bit more."
"Okay," Sonny said. He was relieved to have his family around him.
Dan said, "So tell me what happened."
Sonny said, "I'm in bed trying to sleep and I hear the door to the room open. I'm thinking it isn't time for the nurse to show up so I grab the handgun. The three bastards walked up to the bed and pulled out their pieces. I take out the first two before the third one is able to get a shot off. I guess the noise of that gun scared the hell out the last one because he started to do that stupid ass chicken dance routine while pulling the trigger on his pistol. I just took aim and shot him."
"Did you kill them?" Dan asked. It wasn't good that Sonny had fired first. He knew how the police would view it.
"I hit them dead center of their chest with a forty-five at eight feet. They are pushing up daisies," Sonny said. He wasn't sure how accurate the little gun was, but he was close enough that the bullet should have hit where he was aiming.
Dan hit the steering wheel in anger and said, "I should have known they were going to go there. One of us should have stayed in the room with you."
Pointing his finger at Dan, Sonny said, "You know something that I don't. Why did they come to my room?"
"Pepper."
"What in the hell did he do?" Sonny said. There were times when he didn't think too highly of his boss, but he didn't think the guy was nasty.
"You know that gun of his that didn't work. Well, it didn't work because he had the firing pin removed from it," Dan said.
"Why did he ruin a perfectly good gun?" Sonny asked incredulously.
"He didn't want anyone to get shot," Dan answered.
His tone of voice didn't leave any doubts about how he felt about the matter.
Disgusted, Sonny said, "He's got to be the dumbest man in Los Angeles."
"I agree," Dan said.
"I do, too," Joe said.
"He should have told me that the gun didn't work," Sonny said getting angry. There was no way to describe the feeling he had when he had pulled the trigger and the gun had gone click. Pepper had seen him check the gun to make sure it was loaded on several occasions.
Dan said, "I told him the error of his ways, but I don't think it registered. He was of the opinion, more or less, that you deserved to get shot. I guess he told the gang that I had a long discussion about what happens when you point a gun at a Daniels. I think he took it as an eye for an eye kind of justice thing and passed word to a gang member. Hell, he probably told them what room you were staying in."
"What now?" Sonny asked. He was half tempted to go down to the store and shoot the dumb idiot who effectively sent the gang members to kill him. He was pretty sure that Dan was already planning to do that.
"You're going to lay low," Dan said. "Joe and I will find a nice place to watch the gang tomorrow. We'll see what we do after we learn a bit more."
"What about Pepper? Is he going to end up like that bull that gored you?"
"You knew about that?" Dan asked looking over at Sonny with surprise.
The young man had only been six or seven at the time.
"We ate him at the Fourth of July barbecue," Donny said. "One taste of that meat and I knew it didn't come off a steer or a heifer, and there was only one bull that you would have barbecued."
"You are too damned smart for your own good," Joe said shaking his head.