chapter three "The Unknowns" by RJ Dodd

Chapter three. Mexico.

    The fruit freight depot  is in a mean, sparsely lit, back street just on the outskirts of the Mexican town of Tijuana, near the USA- Mexican border. The shabby collection of sheds and rickety corrugated iron roofed outbuildings glories in the name of Miguel’s Flying Fruit Freight, at least that is what the cracked and faded sign above the door once said, but that had been painted many years ago  when Miguel was a young man with dreams, dreams of quitting the hell hole of Tijuana and moving north to what he saw as paradise, the United States of America, like his dreams the sign is now faded, cracked and the paint chipped.

    Miguel’s vision of one day having a fleet of lorries transporting the cheap fruit from the flatlands around his part of Mexico never seemed to get off the ground, maybe it was the monthly payments to the local “protection and insurance” gang that ran his area, paying for the medical attention for his asthmatic wife, helping his aged mother with the rent for her cockroach infested shack or  maybe he was just a terrible business man.

    All of these concerns mattered not at all to him now as he and his two employees, a couple of middle aged men he had known from his childhood, lay on the blood soaked earth just inside the yard where he kept his one battered old truck. It would never matter to him because just beside his blood spattered body and the bodies of his two men lay three severed heads, theirs.

    The execution had been swift and brutal, four men had walked into the front office, all of them carrying guns. Miguel and his two old friends were engaged in their nightly game of cards. One of the intruders motioned for the three amigos to move out into the rear yard where one of the gunmen spoke only one word “Arridolarse”  the three Mexicans immediately obeyed him and knelt on the ground,  with amazing speed two of the gunmen unsheathed large cane cutting machetes and simply lopped off their heads, it took three seconds.

   

     Business discussion and conclusion…Execution…. Mexican Drug Cartel style.

     Hundreds of flying night bugs flitting around the lone suspended light over the yard paid no attention to the scene below them as the unlocked  wire mesh gate was pushed open and one of the gunmen climbed into the  rusty vehicle, casually driving it out into the lane where  another vehicle, a large Mercedes, is waiting..The headlights on the limousine flash once and it moves off, followed by the fruit lorry. They both move slowly along the dark alleyway towards the slightly better lit main road.