Chapter 5 End of the Week Brings Wanted Posters

On Tuesday morning the Sheriff was informed that he had two visitors waiting to meet with him and they were not going to take no for an answer. The Sheriff and Undersheriff walked down to see who the visitors were and what they wanted. They were shocked when one of the visitors was a special agent with the NSA and the other was with the US Marshall Service. They asked to speak to them in the Sheriff's office.

After verifying who the two men were they told the Sheriff that they believed Deputy Tomas was the target and that a hit had been green lighted on him by the Los Muertos Cartel from the boss himself. They have no leads on who the boss was but they knew that when any hits came down from that Cartel it was only the boss who sanctioned them. They also believed that they knew who carried out the hit but they were confused as the person who they believed was the shooter has no known ties to anyone who has committed a crime. The NSA agent said that they believed that Deputy Tomas had somehow gotten too close to the cartel whether he realized it or not. The US Marshall then said that they would like to hide the fact that Deputy Tomas lived through the shooting as they believed the cartel would try again if they knew he was alive. The problem with the Los Muertos Cartel was that there were no tattoos or anything that signified that they were part of the cartel until something happened then it was the dark suits and white faces that showed up. It had been almost 8 years since the cartel showed up and the feds along with local law enforcement knew very little about the organization. Anytime that a suspected member was about to be caught it either came out as a false lead or the person executed themselves as to not talk. The only hits that were known to have come down had all been on the heads of other cartels, the leaders of biker gangs and one cult leader. The big question was why had Deputy Tomas been targeted and would there be more law enforcement officers being targeted. The Sheriff and Undersheriff agreed to doing a news release and to keeping it hidden that Tomas had lived. They then contacted Tomas's family and asked if they could put out the press release and it was agreed upon to do so and also to have a funeral.

On Wednesday a press release went out stating that a Deputy Sheriff had been gunned down in his front yard. The news explained that the Deputy was walking into his own house when he was gunned down by an unknown subject. It was stated that the deputy died on the way to the hospital. The deputy had left behind two sons who could not be contacted for a statement. The Sheriff expressed his sadness and condolences for the family and stated that the family asked to not be bothered at this time. That the funeral would be scheduled for next week. The investigation was ongoing and if you have any information please do not hesitate to contact the Sheriff's office.

Sheriff Office Investigator Ivan Del a Rosa had grown up in the streets of South LA and had known the gang life before him stepdad came along and turned his life a round. Ivan had been assigned to help with the investigation in Deputy Tomas's shooting. Ivan pulled up to the McNeils's house and went in so he could ask Deputy Tomas's youngest son Wade questions. As they were sitting and talking Ivan asked if they had any video cameras and Wade said yes that the doorbell recorded but also that his dad had security cameras all around their property that were hidden where you could not see them. Wade pulled up the video and as they went back to the day of the shooting Ivan stopped him and said do not watch this and do not let anybody have access to it I am going to get a warrant so that we can take this evidence and since your dad is not able to sign a waiver. Ivan called his captain and told him what he had discovered. While waiting for the captain to get the search warrant typed up and signed Ivan continued to talk with Wade. He asked Wade if Tomas had been seeing anyone and Wade told him that his dad had been dating a nurse on and off for about a year now that they had been taking things real slow and pulled up a picture of her. He sent the picture to Ivan's phone. Ivan thanked him and then when he got the call from the captain he downloaded the security video off of the desktop computer. Ivan drove back to the office wondering if the cameras caught anything as he was not sure how many Tomas had but Wade had made sure he got all the videos.

Ivan sat down and began to go through videos to set a timeline of events that happened. He first went to the video and watched as a female who he identified as Vanessa Olivas arrived at the house and used her key to go into the house. There was video from inside the house where you could see the kitchen and the living room. As he watched Vanessa went to the desk and took a piece of paper and went back to the table. She sat down and began writing and from her body language you could tell that she was crying. You see her check her phone and then she withdraws a handgun from her purse. She puts what she had been writing in her purse and walks out the door with the pistol hidden behind her back. Ivan switches to the doorbell camera and it shows Deputy Tomas arrive and start walking up to the house, it is then blocked by Vanessa as she steps out the door but it does catch her bringing the pistol from behind her back. The next full thing that can be seen is Vanessa leaning over Tomas and kissing him and then shoving something into his shirt before walking out the gate and out of the view of the camera. However Ivan did notice that a black SUV had driven up right as Tomas was getting to the door but it stayed on the street and then as Vanessa went out the gate it pulled up out of sight. "I hope you have at least two more camera angles Tomas," Ivan mutters to himself as he switches to the next video. This one has an angle on the gate and a better angle to see that Vanessa did take the paper she had written on and shoved into his shirt. The next camera shows the road and shows as the SUV rolls to a stop. Ivan chokes on the coffee he is drinking when a dark suited white face painted man steps out of the vehicle and waits for Vanessa. Ivan see him slap her and then put her into the SUV. As he calls the Sheriff he tells him you are never going to believe this but I know who shot Tomas and am almost certain that the Los Muertos Cartel was involved. After taking screen shots and capturing what he needs, Ivan begins writing up an arrest warrant for Vanessa Olivas.

The Sheriff called a meeting with the investigators to go over the new information and see if they could now answer any questions that they previously had. The one question Ivan had was what did Vanessa shove into Tomas's shirt after she shot him. As they began to talk he asked if any paper had been collected at the scene and when the answer was no they pulled the video back up and continued to watch it. They observed the responding Deputies arrive, they saw Tomas's outer vest removed and then they observed the paper blowing around before it finally hit the fence. They all stared at it on the video screen and then Ivan pulled his phone out and called a patrolling deputy to get to Tomas's house to see if that paper was still there. He believed it might be the missing link that they could need. While they waited for the deputy to contact them they looked up at the live news that was announcing that an arrest warrant had been issued for Vanessa Olivas 32 yrs old female, Brown hair, Green eyes, 5 '2'' and 190 lbs. If any information on her whereabouts please contact the Sheriff's Office. A semitruck rolling down Interstate 40 towards Flagstaff passed a billboard with Vanessa's picture and information on it. The driver just grinned knowing that the cargo he carried would not be discovered and she would not wake up until she was at the compound. He turned up the radio and continued driving. He couldn't wait to have a taste of some of the other merchandise that he carried, some were awfully young but that is what he liked.