The ‘den’ Triplets
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2010 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 14  

Gathering Information

When everything had quieted down, I decided to go to the jail and see if I could talk to the would be witness who had been involved in the Aaron Shoemaker case.  “Guys, I’ve decided to go to the jail and see if the would be witness is still there and see if he is worth using as a witness.  I’ll probably be back shortly.  I can’t imagine someone like him being willing to talk, or even consider being a witness against the police, for nothing.”

When I walked into the jail, I had the funniest feeling.  Everyone walked by me without saying a world.  In fact, no one was talking at all.  When I approached the officer at the desk, he stood and asked, “How can I help you Mr. Naylor?   Sheriff Patrick said you might be coming for a visit.”

I looked at the officer’s nametag, “Good evening, Officer Gibbs.  I would like to speak to one of the inmates.  I understand that he might be helpful in a case that I’m handling.  His name is Harvey Fish.  Is he still in custody?”

Officer Gibbs nodded, “He’s still in custody, but he’s speaking to a lawyer for the Police Union who is handling the defense in the prostitution ring.  If you’ll wait in the room behind me, I’ll bring Inmate Fish, in, to talk to you, as soon as the other lawyer leaves.”

I was sitting waiting for Inmate Fish and was thinking, ‘I guess the police have been told to treat me with kid gloves.  Why is a lawyer for the defense talking to Gibbs?  Is Gibbs going to try to play both sides of the case, or is he in cahoots with the prostitution ring people?’

I was about to leave, when Officer Gibbs finally escorted Mr. Fish into the room.  Mr. Fish didn’t look anything like what I had anticipated he would.  I estimated that he was about forty years old.  He needed a shave, but his hair had recently been trimmed.  In fact, he was probably a good looking man when he was cleaned up.

I stood and stuck out my hand. “I’m Mike Naylor.”

“Mr. Naylor, I know who you are, and I don’t think you want to shake my hand, since there is no telling what kind of germs are on it.  I don’t think you want to be carrying home germs to your three young sons.  What can I do for you?”

“Since you know who I am, then you know that I’m the prosecuting attorney in the case against the prostitution ring who has been black mailing the young people of our community into working for them.  I was hoping that you might be willing to be a witness, and describe what happened here at the jail the night the police had put Aaron Shoemaker in your cell, and told you inmates to have your way with him.”

Mr. Fish started to laugh, “How much are you willing to pay for me to testify?  Mr. Otis offered me twenty thousand to testify that I saw nothing inappropriate the night the kid was in the holding cell with us?  What are you offering?”

“Mr. Fish, first of all, I am not willing to pay anything for you to testify.  You seem to forget that I was here and observed first hand what was happening.”

I stood to leave. “Sorry to have inconvenienced you.”

Mr. Fish motioned for me to sit down, “Sit your ass down, Mr. Naylor.  I just wanted to see what you would say.  I’ll be more than happy to testify for the prosecution.  I know what living the life of prostitution is like.  I’ve been doing it for nearly twenty years and am well past my prime.  I’ve had to resort to other means to be able to exist and that’s why I’m in here again.  I tried to pick the pockets of an an undercover copper.  Of course it didn’t help that I had four other wallets not belonging to me in my possession.  My eyes and hands got a little greedy.”

I chuckled, “The trial starts on Monday.  Since it’s the weekend, I guess that you will be residing here for at least the next two or three nights.  I’ll bring you some toiletry items so you can dazzle the jury and the judge.”

As Mr. Fish was being taken back to his cell, he yelled, “Make sure you find some jurors and a judge who are pleasing to look at.”

When I arrived at the house, Aaron and Tim were there waiting for me.  Aaron looked forlorn, “Mr. Naylor, what kinds of questions will you and the defense lawyers be asking me, on Monday.  I’m probably going to come out of the mess being ridiculed by everyone in school.”

“Aaron, if at all possible, you will not be asked to testify.  I am going to try to prevent any of the victims' names from ever surfacing, except for one or two persons.  I would like for you two guys to be at the two meetings, tomorrow, if at all possible.”

Tim Patrick nodded. “Mr. Naylor, we’ll be there.”

It was a quiet night and Mother didn’t even make an appearance.  The most exciting thing that happened was that Antonia called to talk to Jacob.  Jacob came into the room where Todd and I were sitting. “I’m going to pick up Antonia and the two girls.  The Howards have asked us over.  I should be back shortly.”

After Jacob had departed, he had a visitor.  Reverend Stocker was at the door asking to speak to Jacob.  When we informed him that Jacob was not there, he ordered, “Tell Jacob, I expect to see him in church in the morning.”

Todd and I decided to take advantage of the time alone before the boys decided they were hungry.  We were putting the boys to bed, hopefully for the last time, when Jacob returned.  He stopped in to see if there was anything he could do.  When we told him the boys were ready for bed, he announced, “I’ll take care of them when they wake up in the middle of the night.  I promise I won’t drop them.”

As we were finishing breakfast, Todd informed Jacob, “Jake, Reverend Stocker stopped by last night.  He wanted us to inform you that he expected t see you in church in this morning.”

“Like thunder, he will.  Guys, can I go to church with you guys, so I can let him know that I indeed was in church, should he bring the subject up again, and I’m sure he will?”

I expected Jacob to not go to church, but to ask to go to ours caught me by surprise, “Of course you can go to church with us.  That way we can each manhandle one of the boys in their carriers.”

When we walked into the nursery, the attendant put up her arms, “Sorry, we’re fresh out of places for infants to sleep.  I hope they’ve been fed.  There is only me and my assistant.”

I laughed, “Doris, the boys have been fed and should sleep through the service.  If they wake up, feed them some corn flakes and they’ll be fine.”

“Mike, we only stock sugared cereals these days.  It makes the children go back to sleep quicker since they can’t taste the knock out drops.  Don’t worry; we won’t drop the boys on their heads more than twice.”

I noticed that several times during the service, Jacob started to squirm.  I leaned over and whispered, “Jake, what’s the problem?”

“I keep waiting for the hell and damnation part of the service to take place.”

“Jake, I don’t think you’re going to hear anything like that.  Reverend Miller doesn’t usually bring up hell, unless it has to do with the scripture passage his sermon is based on.”

When we picked the boys up in the nursery, Doris commented, “Mike, your sons were quiet the entire time.  I guess they’re going to be hellions when they get older.  I may have to resign from the nursery.”

Mother wanted to go to a restaurant for lunch, but I deferred, “Mom, I don’t want to push our luck with the boys.  They're about due to wake up and want to be fed.  Besides, I have a meeting at two, to meet with the victims of the prostitution ring.  You can help Todd with the boys while Jake and I go to the meetings with the victims of the prostitution ring.”

When we arrived at the church, Pastor Miller was there with five other clergy persons. David and Jeff had set up a table to welcome the visitors and to assign them a number.  I was pleased that Tim and Aaron were there and were actively participating.  I had decided on a couple of things that I wanted to have happen, if any of the victims would arrive.  The first thing I insisted on was that they should not have to give their name if they did not want it known.

I asked that the counselors attempt to have the victims write down how they got involved in the ring, so I could I review how they were trapped into being part of the ring.

It was almost 2:15 when three people arrived together.  David and Jeff welcomed them and introduced them to the clergy.  It was interesting to watch as the arrivals were made to feel more comfortable.  By 2:30, there were seventeen young people in attendance some of them started to talk individually to the pastors and others were talking among themselves.

I decided to stay out of the proceedings at first and just walked around and listened.  Finally, one young man challenged me, “Who are you and why are you so interested in what is going on, here.”

I got everyone’s attention, “I’m Mike Naylor.  I am the person who is going to be presenting the case to put the people who had been ruining your lives in jail, so your younger brothers and sisters do not have to endure what you have had to go through.  I plan not to identify any of you by name, unless you should give me permission to do so.  I have three young people in attendance who have stepped forward and offered to be identified should the need arise.”

“There is going to be another meeting at the social center at seven o’clock tonight.  We welcome you to come at that time to meet some more of your fellow victims and see that you weren’t the only people who were being forced to do things against their will.”

I stopped the meeting at four o’clock and David told me that we had 19 people who had attended.  The clergy all volunteered to be in attendance at the evening meeting as well.  I took the written descriptions of how the victims were entrapped so I could read them and to determine if I could pick up any patterns for the operations.

When Jake and I arrived at home, there was a car in front of the house.  Jacob moaned, “Oh no.  That’s the Stockers’ car.  What do they want, now?”

When Jacob and I entered the house, we were immediately confronted by Reverend Stocker, “I thought I left word that you were to be in church this morning.  What are you trying to do?  Make me look bad?”

Jacob turned red, “Mr. Stocker, I did go to church this morning, where the pastor wasn’t shouting that everyone was going to hell.  Needless to say, I do not plan to set foot in a church where you are the pastor, ever again!  Now, if you will excuse us, we need to eat and get ready for another meeting.”

After a quick dinner, Jacob and I went to the social center.  On the way, I was thinking, “Jake, do you suppose there will be anyone at the meeting tonight.  There can’t have been too many more victims.”

Jacob grinned, “Mike, I think you might be surprised.  I get the feeling from talking to some people this afternoon, that the operation was much larger than anyone might have suspected.  It seems that many of the clients were from out of town and the encounters took place in the motels.  It seems to me that perhaps the motel operators were also involved and were perhaps extortion victims of the rings, as well.”

“Good grief, I never thought of something like that.  I’ll have to get David and Jeff on that, first thing in the morning.  I’d do it tonight but they seem to be able to get the victims to lighten up.”

When we arrived at the social center, there was a sign that said, ‘Naylor meeting in Game Room 1.’

When Jake and I walked in, the room was almost full.  I recognized some of the participants from the afternoon.  Jake and I started to act as counselors and still we weren’t able to get to everybody.  At nine, I finally decided to close the meeting, “Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for coming, but it has been a long day for most of us, especially the clergy members.  Let’s give them a hand for being willing to donate their time to talk to you.”

“I want to assure you that I will not use your names in the legal proceedings that begin tomorrow.  I want to thank you for coming and being so open.  I realize that it must have been difficult for some of you, but now you know that you weren’t the only person that the ring had entrapped.  I can’t tell you what to do, but I’m guessing your parents would be very supportive of you, if you haven’t already told them what happened.  Oh yes, there will be some who will react and throw you out, but now you know there are people out there who will support you, should that happen.”

As Jake and I were walking to our car, we were approached by Pastor Miller, “Mike, this has been one of the most enlightening and rewarding days that I have had since I became a pastor.  Some of the young people are terrified about what their parents would do if they were to find out what happened.  I can not understand why parents would instill that kind of fear into their children.”

Needless to say, it was a very short night.  I was reading the papers the young people had written about their experiences and trying to find some common threads.  The only thing that seemed to tie the cases together was when the young people had gotten their drivers license just before they became ensnarled in the web of the prostitution ring.

I fell asleep over my desk because the next thing I knew was that Todd was shaking me, “Mike, you’re going to be in no shape to go to court in the morning.  Come to bed and get some sleep.”

I woke early and was really nervous.  I felt ill-prepared for the case.  I couldn’t not do a good job.  There were too many young people who were depending on me to help them.  As I was leaving for the office, I pointed at Jacob, “You’re going to be my first witness.  Just answer any questions as honestly as you can.  You probably should be in the courtroom before ten, since I have no idea when I will be calling you.  A lot depends on the tactics the defense attorney decides to use.  He may well try to stall for more time.   Also, I don’t know the judge who is presiding.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  I certainly hope that Mike is able to prevail over the jerks who were connected with the prostitution ring. 

It certainly is nice to know that there are, in fact, ministers who don't use their pulpits to spread that hate, guilt and evil, that Rev. Stocker holds so dear.

That man, and people like him, should be separated from society and stuck in a room together so they can share their spiteful, hateful filth with others of their ilk and not force it on anyone else.

I am ready for the next chapter, and I hope we can finally get to the trial pretty soon.

I probably should mention that E Walk has had some more health issues, so, for what it's worth; some positive thoughts and prayers could be helpful.  Let him know how you feel about his stories and send him your best wishes,

Thanks,

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 12/10/10