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Authors: Sylvia Nobel
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involvement. “They’re not often wrong.” Silence met my ears.
“Tell me, Walter, did your wife’s cousin leave a note of explanation?”
“Sort
of.”
“What
does ‘sort of’ mean?”
“It
was unfinished. The FBI found a notepad on the seat beside him. It said, I
can’t do this anymore, but get this, he never signed his name.”
“Any idea what he meant by that statement?”
“Considering
all the circumstances? Yeah, I might.”
5
And the circumstances proved to be interesting indeed. Walter confided
that Bob Shirley, along with three other agents and a Customs Inspector, were
about to be indicted for alleged involvement in a major cocaine trafficking
ring based in Tijuana, Mexico. Theoretically, that was the reason he’d chosen
to take his own life.
“I thought I knew the guy pretty well and I’m having a hard time
grasping that he’d be involved in anything so…so unsavory,” Walter grumbled.
“He wouldn’t be the first agent to fall from grace. Just a few months
ago, I read about four or five others who were arrested for simply looking the
other way when the loads were brought across. And these were people with long
and distinguished careers. Supposedly they’d pocketed in a few months what
they’d normally make in a year’s time. That has to be pretty tempting for some
people.”
“I never voiced it to Lavelle, but don’t think the thought didn’t cross
my mind.”
“Walter, tell me something. Do you know if he was having financial
problems? What does a Border Patrol agent make a year anyway?”
“I gathered things were tight, but I think they were doing okay. He’d
just gotten a promotion a few months prior to his death and I think Lavelle
said he was up to forty-seven, maybe forty-eight grand a year. Nowadays, that’s
probably not a whole hell of a lot considering he was supporting three kids, a
wife and his mother-in-law. But still….”
“Did he strike you as the kind of a person who’d be involved in
something like that?” I asked.
His short silence was telling. “Boy, you think you know someone and
then find out you really didn’t.” He went on to divulge that following the
agent’s death had come the revelation that he had apparently been linked to one
of the many White power groups operating in the area the past few years. It
was alleged that he’d even been spotted at a rally. This additional fact had
added to Lavelle’s burgeoning humiliation and spurred their hasty departure.
But my interest level really shot through the roof when Walter added as an
aside that Bob Shirley had also been the apprehending agent in the case of the
Mexican migrant found in Morita, the one claiming to have witnessed the UFO
abduction.
“Hmmmm. Now, that grabs my interest. What’s your take on
that?”
His
deep sigh hissed in my ear. “Probably just a coincidence, but I never got to
pursue that angle because Lavelle wanted to get the ‘hell out of Dodge’ when
this all came down.”
“Did
you talk to his widow about it?”
He
snorted, “Loydeen? That netted me a big fat zero.”
“Why
do you say that?”
“Every
time I tried to talk with her about Bob’s death, including just a few weeks ago
when we drove over there to tell everybody goodbye, she flat refused. The
strange part is she wouldn’t discuss it with Lavelle either and she seemed….”
A
crackling buzz obliterated his answer and I only caught bits and pieces of his
conversation for the next few seconds before the line went dead this time.
Rats. I tried several times to dial him back, but the ‘no service’ message
continued to blink back at me. Oh, well, I’d call him later. I had enough
information for starters.
Food was uppermost on my mind when we arrived on the outskirts of
Tucson. I pulled up beside Lupe again and pointed to my mouth. She got the
message and took the next exit. Within minutes we were seated
“Tell me, Walter, did your wife’s cousin leave a note of explanation?”
“Sort
of.”
“What
does ‘sort of’ mean?”
“It
was unfinished. The FBI found a notepad on the seat beside him. It said, I
can’t do this anymore, but get this, he never signed his name.”
“Any idea what he meant by that statement?”
“Considering
all the circumstances? Yeah, I might.”
5
And the circumstances proved to be interesting indeed. Walter confided
that Bob Shirley, along with three other agents and a Customs Inspector, were
about to be indicted for alleged involvement in a major cocaine trafficking
ring based in Tijuana, Mexico. Theoretically, that was the reason he’d chosen
to take his own life.
“I thought I knew the guy pretty well and I’m having a hard time
grasping that he’d be involved in anything so…so unsavory,” Walter grumbled.
“He wouldn’t be the first agent to fall from grace. Just a few months
ago, I read about four or five others who were arrested for simply looking the
other way when the loads were brought across. And these were people with long
and distinguished careers. Supposedly they’d pocketed in a few months what
they’d normally make in a year’s time. That has to be pretty tempting for some
people.”
“I never voiced it to Lavelle, but don’t think the thought didn’t cross
my mind.”
“Walter, tell me something. Do you know if he was having financial
problems? What does a Border Patrol agent make a year anyway?”
“I gathered things were tight, but I think they were doing okay. He’d
just gotten a promotion a few months prior to his death and I think Lavelle
said he was up to forty-seven, maybe forty-eight grand a year. Nowadays, that’s
probably not a whole hell of a lot considering he was supporting three kids, a
wife and his mother-in-law. But still….”
“Did he strike you as the kind of a person who’d be involved in
something like that?” I asked.
His short silence was telling. “Boy, you think you know someone and
then find out you really didn’t.” He went on to divulge that following the
agent’s death had come the revelation that he had apparently been linked to one
of the many White power groups operating in the area the past few years. It
was alleged that he’d even been spotted at a rally. This additional fact had
added to Lavelle’s burgeoning humiliation and spurred their hasty departure.
But my interest level really shot through the roof when Walter added as an
aside that Bob Shirley had also been the apprehending agent in the case of the
Mexican migrant found in Morita, the one claiming to have witnessed the UFO
abduction.
“Hmmmm. Now, that grabs my interest. What’s your take on
that?”
His
deep sigh hissed in my ear. “Probably just a coincidence, but I never got to
pursue that angle because Lavelle wanted to get the ‘hell out of Dodge’ when
this all came down.”
“Did
you talk to his widow about it?”
He
snorted, “Loydeen? That netted me a big fat zero.”
“Why
do you say that?”
“Every
time I tried to talk with her about Bob’s death, including just a few weeks ago
when we drove over there to tell everybody goodbye, she flat refused. The
strange part is she wouldn’t discuss it with Lavelle either and she seemed….”
A
crackling buzz obliterated his answer and I only caught bits and pieces of his
conversation for the next few seconds before the line went dead this time.
Rats. I tried several times to dial him back, but the ‘no service’ message
continued to blink back at me. Oh, well, I’d call him later. I had enough
information for starters.
Food was uppermost on my mind when we arrived on the outskirts of
Tucson. I pulled up beside Lupe again and pointed to my mouth. She got the
message and took the next exit. Within minutes we were seated
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