WHODUNITS

Lucha libre

Pepito and Alberto were walking down the street. They were two luchadores from Mexico who had come to Los Angeles to practice wrestling. Pepito was very small, agile and quick, contrary to Alberto, who was tall and built like a tank. Both were bald.

They were going to a used warehouse to take their illegal stuff. They actually were smugglers and dealt illegal Tequila from their native town, Barata, in Mexico. The truck wasn't coming. They began to stress:

• What the hell is our driver doing? said Alberto with his strong Mexican accent.
• No stress, he's going to come soon, Pepito reassured him.
• I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling...
• Everything will be fine, don't worry. We just have to take the last stuff out of the last truck, and everything will be over, we will stop our businness and start living, explained Pepito.

The thing was a complete flop. TheIr truck had been intercepted by the Rocks, the rival gang which detained the most important place in the trafficking in LA. The truck driver had been killed, and four Rocks members were now driving it. They came to the warehouse and destroyed the front gate by driving through it. Pepito and Alberto, waiting for the truck, were very surprised. Fortunatly, they were able to jump behind a container for protection.

Suddenly a smoke grenade blew up. Then everybody was running. Two gunshots sounded in the smoke and the sound of the engine of the truck went out. The police arrived thirteen minutes after. There was nothing in the warehouse. All the containers of Tequila had disappeared. They found a body behind a container. It was the corpse of a tall and muscular Mexican man with a mask on his head. There was a bullet hole in the mask just between the eyes. Blood was running on his face, another bullet had wounded him in his chest.

After checking his clothes, they found a wallet in his pocket. There was a Mexican ID card in it. His name was Alberto Vargas, and by the fact that he hadn't any American papers, they deduced that he was an immigrant. An assistant noticed the presence of bottles with the image of Mexican crosses stuck on them, it convinced them to conduct an investigation.

The police sent the bottle to an analysis laboratory and the body to a forensic scientist. The analysis concluded that the liquid in the bottle was Tequila. Alberto had been shot to death, they found the same Tequila in his stomach, as well as a decomposed sheet of paper . They thought that he had swallowed it just before his death because the paper hadn't been totally destroyed by gastric juices.

They discovered that Alberto was wanted by the Mexican police for illegal trade . The analysis of the paper was a success and they found what was written on it. They could read :

" PHONE ME FOR THE EXCHANGE. WE'LL BE ON TIME. 217-748-2411 "

This phone number was the number of a certain Gary Hoper. The police searched his home with by the FBI's operation chief Jason Fischer. He kicked the door open, shouting:

" Here's the FBI ! You're under arrest! Go out of the house with your hands on your head. "

Hoper came out, he was handcuffed. When they took him to the police station and interrogated him, he said immediatly that he was paid to bring the Tequila from Barata, Mexico, to Los Angeles. After an hour of questioning, he finally said that Pepito Mendes had called him to change the plan. He had had to destroy the front gate and go out with Pepito after Pepito killed Alberto. He gave Pepito's phone number to the officer who had questioned him and was sent to jail for illegal trade and collusion in a murder.

Thanks to his phone number, the police had located Pepito on an Eastside road. After two hours of questioning, he said that he had killed his best friend for money, and burst into tears. He acknowledged all the facts againt him. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison for murder with malice aforethought, breach of trust and corruption.

He committed suicide in his cell after 4 years in prison.

By Hugo Corbineau and Jean Lemoine