This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha Page 21

  CHAPTER 42

  Greg heard from Brenda just as spring broke in northern Virginia, weeks after he had dinner with Alexander and her in Quantico. She called from Philadelphia to say she had lost her purse and needed him to wire her some money.

  He didn’t believe she’d lost her purse, but he knew that whatever the real story was, if she was asking for money, she probably needed it. She asked for $200, but he wired $300. This was when he learned her new identity.

  Brenda Paz was now Ellysia Gonzalez.

  What Greg didn’t know was that the marshals had placed Ellysia Gonzalez in Kansas City, not Philadelphia. Brenda’s new apartment was on a nondescript street. Her days consisted of reading and studying for her GED and sometimes going out to look for temporary work with the help of the marshals. Anyone who knew Brenda would have foreseen that she’d grow bored. All she could think about was seeing her new boyfriend from Philadelphia. He was the only person she knew in her new life.

  Fed up and bored, Brenda had taken all of the money that the marshals had given her and bought a one-way ticket from Kansas City to Philadelphia. After a couple of days in Philadelphia, reality dawned. She realized in a tense moment that she needed to get back to Kansas City before the marshals found out she was missing. There was one man that she knew she could count on. Greg was the person she called.

  With her new Ellysia license, Brenda picked up the $300 from a convenience store a block away from Philadelphia’s Ninth Street Italian market. She booked a flight back to Kansas City and again disappeared into the secret world of witness protection.

  She surfaced weeks later when she called Rick Rodriguez’s cell phone. “Whatcha doing, Rodriguez, you barbecuing?” she asked in a bubbly, nonchalant manner.

  Brenda was still in Kansas City, and Rodriguez’s cell phone was one of the numbers she had memorized. Out of boredom she just called him. When he answered, she had made a lucky guess about what he was doing. It was during the afternoon on the weekend. Chances were he was barbecuing.

  Rodriguez was spooked. The detective assigned to discovering who had put the luz verde on Rodriguez had not yet closed the case, and Rodriguez thought maybe Brenda was spying on him. But it didn’t make sense. He knew she was in witness protection. He chatted with her for a bit, then got off the phone and tried to forget she had even called. How weird, he thought.

  When Brenda called again less than a week later, describing exactly what Rodriguez was wearing when he had exited the Arlington County police building, he got mad. Brenda had obviously been in town—that’s how she knew what he’d been wearing. His worries intensified when he realized she had been watching him, even possibly spying on him. Perhaps she was setting him up for some type of ambush. He focused considerable effort on figuring out what was going on, where Brenda was staying, and, most importantly, if she was back in Virginia to help pull off the luz verde on his head. But that wasn’t the case. Brenda had flown from Kansas City to Baltimore and taken a bus into Arlington not to spy on Rodriguez, but to see Denis.

  Kansas City was boring. She didn’t like the program and needed her friends. Of all the people Brenda thought she could reach out to, Denis was her first pick. She still loved him. And she felt very comfortable around his family.

  While in Arlington, Brenda stayed with Denis’s parents. When she went to see Denis, she saw Rodriguez as he was leaving the Arlington County prison where Denis was awaiting trial for the murder of Joaquin Diaz.

  Rodriguez was on fire. It was spring, and through the entire summer, fall, and winter of the previous year he’d lived with the threat on his life. The pressure was getting to him. Denis still hadn’t given him any information, and the detectives working his case hadn’t found any solid leads. As far as he knew, Brenda was in witness protection, but suddenly she was back in town and knew what he was wearing. This was the last thing he needed. He put out an all-points bulletin on Brenda and then called Greg.

  Greg was alarmed by the news. Dammit, he thought, I should’ve known it. He started making phone calls and eventually learned Brenda was staying with Denis’s parents. Not good. He looked up the address and immediately went to the Riveras’ house, where he found Brenda and took her to a restaurant. He wanted to shake some sense into the girl, but he knew the way to win her over was to appeal to her intelligence and convince her to go back to witness protection. She obviously had no clue what she was doing.

  Brenda was sullen at the restaurant, picking at her food with her fork as she explained her frustration with the marshals. She told him she was in Kansas City and lived in a bad neighborhood. It was full of methamphetamine addicts, whom she called “tweakers.” Greg pointed out that though the situation wasn’t ideal, it was a hell of a lot better than being here, where there were many people who wanted to harm her. She needed to stay in witness protection. Brenda countered that Denis was protecting her from the MS. He would make sure no one knew she was talking to the cops, and she could handle Denis. She trusted him.

  Greg didn’t trust Denis. Brenda looked at Denis through rose-colored glasses, but Greg saw something entirely different. Any kid who could do what Denis did to Joaquin Diaz could not be trusted, ever. Why didn’t Brenda see that? Greg knew Denis couldn’t protect her forever, if protecting her was even his intention. His house was the last place she should be hiding out. She was playing a dangerous game. Bottom line, she needed to get back to Kansas City, and fast. Greg’s arguments were clear. He appealed to her logical side. He used every bit of his persuasive nature and southern charm to win Brenda over. He pointed out that Kansas City wasn’t that bad. She had met a few people, and, as Greg reminded her, she even liked the federal marshal assigned to her case. He worked on her slowly, winning her over to good sense.

  By dessert Brenda had agreed to return. After all, Greg wasn’t a lawyer for nothing. If anyone could change her mind, he knew he had the power, and he’d done his best to wield it for her sake. However, she wanted to spend one more night before going back to the program. Greg knew it was risky because when Brenda was thinking on her own, she tended to follow her impulses, not her head. Right now he had her thinking objectively, just as he wanted. However, it was her life and he had to respect her need to make her own choices. He went home and eased his concerns by booking her a flight back to Kansas City for the following day. The next morning, just after breakfast, he drove over to Denis’s parents’ house to get her. Thank God she’s still here, he thought when he arrived.

  Greg made a day of it for Brenda before the flight, taking her to see some movies at the Lockheed Martin IMAX National Air & Space Museum. When it was time to drive her to the airport, he parked and escorted her inside, determined not to let her out of his sight. He couldn’t get her back to Kansas City fast enough for his peace of mind. After spending many hours killing time before her flight, Greg finally saw Brenda off with a sigh of relief.

  Brenda’s trip to Virginia was actually the fourth time Brenda had voluntarily left protective custody. First, she had run away from the Less Secure Facility in Fairfax. Then she had abandoned the FBI safe house to live on the street. Recently she’d snuck away from the marshals in Kansas City to fly to Philadelphia. Now she had slipped away again to visit Denis in Arlington. All four times Greg was there to bail her out of trouble, possibly saving her life on every occasion. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, always be there for her. Brenda had to make her own decision to stay put, to stay safe.

  Witness protection, formally known as the Witness Security Program, was not designed for teenagers. It was created to provide a safe living space for middle-aged federal witnesses who were willing to testify against organized-crime bosses in New York and Chicago. It was a program mostly for men who needed to disappear with their families. Essential informants in ongoing federal investigations into organized crime, these men had a reason to stay out of sight and mind. They sought to protect their families. By placing Brenda under witness protection, the government acknowledged the importance of her coopera
tion and the value of her knowledge of the inner workings of the Mara Salvatrucha on a national level. Such a young, naïve girl, with so very much power. Her placement in witness protection also reflected the government’s acknowledgment that the Mara Salvatrucha was an organized criminal group, one able to reach out and get to Brenda from many places within the United States. The marshals took Brenda’s security very seriously, as with any top-level informant. The long stretches of solitude required for security, though, were undoubtedly Brenda’s Achilles’ heel.

  Before Brenda had boarded the plane, Greg snapped her picture, proof she had boarded her flight. He took the photo at a memorable moment in both their lives. It was May 10, 2003. Walking out of the terminal, Greg couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever see her again.

  CHAPTER 43

  Brenda wasn’t back in Kansas long before the unthinkable happened. She spotted an MS member and was afraid that he had recognized her. The marshals didn’t take any chances. They moved Brenda to Rosemount, Minnesota.

  The process of moving Brenda from Kansas City to Rosemount was not pleasant. She was very confrontational. The marshals wanted to restrict her movements; Brenda wanted freedom. She had a long, serious conversation with her handlers. She told them she needed a social outlet in Minnesota, but they told her it was not possible. She needed to keep a very low profile at the outset. After some time they would review her security situation and see if they could allow her more freedom. They gave her the same ultimatum as Alexander: follow the rules or you’re out.

  Brenda called Greg from her new home in Minnesota, distraught. She couldn’t stand her restricted situation and was afraid of spending time alone. She reached out to him from hundreds of miles away for reassurances that everything would be all right. Brenda the needy teenager pleaded for help, but Greg had no leverage. She was out of the state and in a federal system. As much as he wanted to help her, he simply couldn’t. They were not even supposed to be talking on the phone.

  Greg explained that she had to make a life-or-death choice. She needed to find a way to follow the rules and move forward, or she could leave the program but face a life of probable squalor and possible death. For the duration of a very difficult conversation, Greg tried to keep Brenda focused on her future and how her sacrifice and distance from her friends could pay off. When the conversation ended, Greg hung up the phone with a heavy heart. Brenda was a young girl in an extremely difficult situation. She was in a secret federal program not designed to accommodate teens without at least one parental figure. He was not even supposed to talk to her and could do nothing to create change in her daily activities. Greg wanted to believe Brenda had some sort of social outlet. He had no idea she had been told to stay in a hotel room by herself. There was no way the marshals could know how much Brenda hated solitude.

  Greg was torn. He knew contacting the marshals about Brenda’s past misbehavior and possible future problems was the right thing to do. They should know that she was calling him and had been sneaking out. But if he blew the whistle on her it would only jeopardize her safety. She could lose her place in witness protection. Above anything, he wanted her to remain in the program. Calling the marshals to debrief them on Brenda’s wayward behavior and problems with loneliness, Greg decided, could only do more harm than good. He kept her trips to Philadelphia and Virginia to himself.

  It was late spring, and Minnesota was still cold and dark. Brenda was housed in a hotel room under relatively loose supervision. She thought over her situation. Her handler with the marshals would come by once a day to check in on her, stay for only a moment, and leave. He was strict, not a friendly man, and he was there to do a job, not become Brenda’s best friend or offer any consolation or empathy for her situation. Every day he told her not to leave the hotel premises. She hated that. She spent most of her time alone, waiting for the day she would be called back to Virginia to take the witness stand. There was nothing else to do.

  Sometimes she flipped her new license over in her hand. She recognized her face in the photograph, but she wasn’t from Ohio. Her name wasn’t Ellysia. The novelty of it had worn off, and she began to resent her weird new name and fabricated past. The marshals told her she could never again be Brenda Paz. But she was Brenda Paz. Brenda Paz had more personality and life in her pinky finger than most people had in their whole bodies. No new name could rob her of her identity and spirit. It was a confusing mess of personality crossdressing in a moment in her life when most teens are still stumbling over who they are and what their own name means to them as an individual. The reality of never again being Brenda Paz was unreal. Brenda Paz was someone she liked and was comfortable with, and having to deny her self was a heavy weight on her young psyche. Brenda chucked the annoying license on the floor, only to pick it up again many times while holed up in her room.

  Other times, Brenda couldn’t stop thinking about her future. She wanted an education and a job. She longed for the time when she could be through with all of this and put the MS permanently in her past. She cursed Veto. She cursed the damned situation in Texas that forced her to choose between her uncle’s house and the street. She cried and missed her family. Brenda was also terrified of testifying in court. How could she sit on the stand in front of Denis and say the words that would put him in prison for life? Could she even face Veto again? They were frightening thoughts. What worried her more than testifying had nothing to do with the MS, school, or a job. It had everything to do with the boy she had met in Philadelphia.

  One thought above all others reverberated in her head like a ringing tower bell. Brenda Paz was pregnant.

  CHAPTER 44

  Hormones coursed through Brenda, out of control. Three months into it, and her body was changing. Everything was changing. She cried herself to sleep. She was in a new place, with a new name, and would soon be a mom. Her pregnancy distorted her perception of reality and her situation. It amplified every worry and stressor in her life. The constant drone of the inner voice in her head became a shouting match she had with herself. Besides, who else was there to argue with? The angel on one shoulder shouted through her head to tell the devil on the other side to be quiet. She was emotional and weepy for seemingly no reason. She needed to be away from this place, away from the hotel, away from the marshals. She needed to be with someone, but not just anyone. Brenda desperately needed to be with her baby’s father.

  They still kept in touch. She knew he was still in Philadelphia. She longed to see him, hoping he would help her feel joy for the growing life inside her, and longing for someone who would share the burden of her doubts and fears about being a mother. Her need to be with the father of her child rose above all her other problems, doubts, fears, and logical reasoning. The marshals handling her in Minnesota were either oblivious to her need or simply didn’t care.

  CHAPTER 45

  With little interaction in her immediate surroundings, Brenda thought through every angle possible. How could she get back to Philadelphia? She didn’t have much money, certainly not enough to get far. And she knew Greg wouldn’t support her plans to run away. As much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself, her best option was to go back to Virginia, get back in touch with her homies there, if only for a short while.

  Brenda knew it would be only a matter of time before someone found out about her betrayal, but it was a calculated risk. She was still considered someone important, and as long as Veto and Denis didn’t say otherwise, Brenda was still a respected member. Even if someone suspected her as a traitor and wanted to kill her, there would be an investigation. It would take time before anyone could put a luz verde on her. She sat on the edge of her bed, alone, emotional, and resolute. She could get to Philadelphia from Virginia; she’d just have to be smart about it.

  When Brenda finally did reach out to her homies in Virginia, she had to go through Denis’s two trusted men on the outside. She couldn’t call him directly in jail. He had to make a call out to a preauthorized number and then wait on the line w
hile the person he called made a separate call to a third party. Only through these three-way calls was Denis able to speak with Brenda.

  Boxer and Filosofo were the only two men in constant contact with Denis. Boxer was one of the members chasing her when Greg rescued her from the McDonald’s. He was also Denis’s eyes and ears on the outside. Denis managed to rein in Boxer, but he couldn’t control the young MS member’s contempt for someone he considered a rat. Boxer hated Brenda and didn’t understand why Denis still wanted to keep her alive. Filosofo was a young member in Denis’s clique. He was an errand boy and did as he was told, mostly passing messages from Denis to other gang members on the outside. He asked no questions but agreed with Boxer that Brenda should be killed.

  When she finally got in touch with Denis, they had a long talk to catch up on everything. Brenda explained that she had been moved to Minnesota and how much she hated it there. Better than prison, Denis thought. He explained how he planned to escape custody during a transfer from the prison to the police headquarters where he had his interviews with Detective Rodriguez.

  Denis thought about getting the police to drive him from the jail in Arlington to an interview room in Alexandria so Boxer and Filosofo could set up an ambush, kill the cops in the car, and set him free. But then he quickly backed away from that plan. Boxer was hesitant about killing two cops at once, and Denis expected serious repercussions within the MS leadership if he tried to pull off such a stunt. Another idea was to break out of his cell through the window and climb down a rope thrown up to him from below by Boxer or Filosofo. But Denis needed information. He had to know if people had tried it before and what would happen once his homies arrived at the side of the building where they would throw him the rope.