Double Down My Turn

By Mark W. Faler

Detective Tony Cicero is leaving Sugar Land, Texas and heading to Las Vegas. He just got done putting the Millionaire Murderer in prison for life. The serial killer is the twin sister of the Millionaire Murderer that Cicero put in prison for life. Now that Coralee Brandon is behind bars her twin sister is out to get revenge for her. All the people that worked to put Coralee away are going to get their payback. Tony has finds himself deep into a drug ring investigation. There is corruption, murders, and back stabbing everywhere. The one thing that makes him happy is his girlfriend Wendy Santino who just happens to be his partner. Now he tries to find the twin serial killer before she finds him and take down the drug dealers running one of the biggest rings he has ever seen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark W. Faler
• Release date: Aug 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536561104

Mark W. Faler

Mark Faler was born in 1964 in Frankfurt, Germany. Being epileptic he had gone through many trials and tribulations as a child. His family had moved from to place to place finally ending up in Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania in 1982. In 1984 his life completely changed. At 18 years old he was charged with many crimes he did not do including murder. Spending 5 years in a state prison for something he did not do gave him a new outlook on the world around him. In this autobiography he tells his story. What his life was like before prison, what it was like in prison, and what it is like today

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Funerals always depressed me. Being in the police force I had attended several of them through my career. I quietly sat next to an older man who tried to hide from other folks at the funeral that he was weeping, he must have been a family member.. Tears had come down my face that day to. The line of visitors went out of the long winded funeral home path and two blocks down the street. Many police officers waited along with detectives and members of the FBI. Through the years Frank Conway and I had solved many cases and had put terrible people away leaving the victims families relieved that the culprit was caught and punished.  Frank enjoyed his life in Sugar Land, Texas and being a detective even more. It was not to long ago he had still been riding a horse to survey a crime scene. The ungodly heat did not bother Frank, I barely heard him complain about it. As for me I never shut up about it, I was a New Yorker and use to change in weather. It was always hot in Texas even on so called cool days.  This day it really did not matter hot or not. Frank and I were friends and spent a good 10 years working side by side together. When I got the call that he had a hear attack and passed away I went to my garage to cry without letting my family see my tears. It was like loosing a brother, well in this case a father. His wife sent the information to me telling me where everything was going to be. The next day I took the 25 some hour trip from Vegas to Sugar Land to pay respects.  The serial killer Coralee Brandon took a big tole on me and a bigger one on Frank That was probably a piece of the puzzle that lead to his heart attack. With great hesitance Frank took his wife's advice and retired from the Sugar Land police force in 2014. I knelled next to the coffin and said a quiet Hail Mary. Finally I kissed Frank on his head and stuck a Johnny Cash CD, his detective gold badge in his coffin with all the other nick knacks people placed with him. After the burial and 21 gun salute for his service in the Marines during Vietnam War I headed home. I was to use to Frank and Sugar Land and wanted to make a new start. Las Vegas always seemed like a good place to solve crimes with all the glitz and glamor that surrounded it. Then there was the desert and many disagreements and debts paid buried in it. The desert was the mafia burial ground and solved many problems from snitches to sneaky card dealers. The Deputy chief of the Las Vegas Police Department agreed to put me on a trial basis working with another homicide detective to see how we worked together. If everything went well this would be my new home.  Before leaving Sugar Land in Spring of 2014 I made my preparations to have a place to live in Vegas and had all my furniture moved there. Knowing Billy Jean Brandon had me on a serial killer list would not leave my head. The poor little boy Sammy Jones who was killed including all the people involved in the case was breaking my brain in half. Coralee Brandon killed 27 people in her reign of serial killings before going to prison for life. Now her long lost sister Billy Jean Brandon was trying to catch up. Who knew how many Billy Jean would kill and how long her taste for the kill would last. I was sure Frank was on the list to along with many others that crossed the Brandon line of death path. If luck was on my side I would never run into Billy Jean Brandon or hear from Coralee Brandon again. I knew that would not be the case. Sooner or later Billy Jean would find me.

The night I found out Coralee Brandon had a sister who was out for revenge I had no doubt both Frank and I were on the list. Who knew where show would show up. Could she be following one of around or tailing the unmarked police car while we were on patrol. Every time a saw a shadow in a quiet place I took a second look making sure nobody had a gun pointed or an ax behind me. Three things sat in front of me at my desk back in Sugar Land while still working there. A cup of warm coffee whatever flavor doughnut was left and the newspaper. I was addicted to seeing any odd types of killings that seemed like something Billy Jean would do. These two were hard to figure out. They moved around like crazy rabbits, had different techniques, then any serial killer I have never come across and almost dared us to find them. The only reason we found Coralee was because of a good tip from the little boy Sammy Jones. Las Vegas would be a good change for me and might clear my mind of my dealings with Coralee and Billy Jean. Like most horrific murders they just do not leave your head because you move. They follow you around waiting for you to make a mistake, waiting for you to show vulnerability, waiting until you feel comfortable. Just like the people watching the casinos through the eye in the sky Billy Jean Brandon was looking and waiting for me.

The Las Vegas detectives were quite welcoming to me. A desk was already prepared for me and a Las Vegas Police Department blue coffee cup sat on the table next to a newspaper. A few minutes later a pretty young woman took a seat at the desk across from me so we faced each other. She looked out of place, she belonged in Vanity Fair magazine not at a police detective desk. Her hair was long and black wrapped in a neat pony tail. You could tell she hit the gym many times a week just by her posture and healthy color. For a few seconds neither of us spoke. We were waiting to see who would make the first move, almost like a date. Detective Wendy Santino, nice to meet you. I reached over to her hand almost knocking over her Red Bull energy drink. Anthony Cicero, from Sugar Land Texas. She had a look of surprise on her face making me think she already disliked me. From Texas? Where is the accent. Never picked it up. Drove around with JR. Ewing for 10 years and the accent didn't take. She did not look much older then 25 making me wonder if she had any clue who J.R. Ewing was. I was sure she never heard of the television show Dallas. Well Detective Santino I can tell you spent sometime in the Bronx. In the good Ole Big Apple. The black straight hair gave her away along with the hidden accent only another new yorker could make out. Yeah the Bronx, I grew up with grandparents there. Spent a lot of time around Italians cursing so if I curse do not take offense. Who was I to take a stand on that, I cursed like a second language. Now I was partners with a woman I instead of an older man so I would have to tone it down. A buzz came over her phone. Lieutenant Warrant wants to see us. New case, sounds like a good one. I hoped it was not another serial killer case, to much work, to much pain.

It was to soon for me to know where all the offices were so I followed Santino through the path leading to the bosses office. Like a gentleman I held the door opened for detective Santino and quietly walked in behind her. I could tell the Lieutenant caught me looking at the young female detective butt and I quickly looked away. I was sure he did it many times. Santino stood like she was in front of the president. You have a new case for us sir. This guy was big and not someone I cared to mess with. He reminded me of Mike Tyson just taller, muscle on top of muscle. Drug deal went bad down on the strip. Some young kid was found in a garbage dumpster missing his tongue. Looks like he was dealing with a payback from a money he owed to a low life pimp. Who knows. Go down to MGM Grand and see what you can. As I went to walk out the Lieutenant stopped me. She has a nice body but do not let her see you checking her out, girl has a bad temper. Enjoy your first case.

As we drove down the strip I could not take my eyes off the neon lights that surrounded me blinking bright colors. Hotels reached up high as or higher then 100 floors. I had never made my way to Vegas so the sight was brand new and amazed me. Detective Santino had been in Vegas for the last 4 years so she was not as amazed as I was. As we turned into Las Vegas Boulevard it was not as pretty as the front was. We were getting closer to the crime scene and it surely was not as clean as the front of the MGM. I saw shadows of the homeless wobbling at the end of the dark ally looking at the situation going on. Better get use to that Tony. You will find the homeless everywhere. She was right. The Sinatra, Sammy Davis and Dean Martin movies from the 1950's and1960's did not show the alleyways or the people living in cold tunnels beneath the city of Las Vegas" I told her I would get use to I but I knew it would take some time. Once we got to the scene we flashed our badges and ducked under the yellow tape.

Santino climbed up on top of a small stool and looked over to view the contents of the garbage dumpster. I could see her cover her nose from the smell. You two. Take the body out carefully and place it on the ground. Carefully The two heavy officers made their way up to the top of the dumpster and found a way to get the young mans body to the pavement.  You could see in their eyes they did not like being bossed around by a woman let alone a young one. I bent down a looked over the dead body before me. He was only a teen. African American kid, skinny, did not look like a local druggie, he looked like an all American teen. Other then being dead and his missing tongue he did not look as bad as I thought he would. He must have been caught in the middle of a bad drug deal or missed on a payment to someone. The question to me was why the missing tongue? Sounded a bit extreme to keep a kid quiet. I could not picture another teen doing this. A good ass kicking would suffice for gang problems. Hopefully it was not another serial killer case, my heart could not take it.

As I walked around the scene to see if anything caught my eye I found nothing. No blood to be seen or leftover items that might have been dropped by the perpetrator. Another officer came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. Detective, we haven't found anything yet, whoever did this knew what they were doing and took everything with them. They are not always as smart as they think they are. Lets go talk to those people at the end of the street. Homeless does not mean blind. These people walking around down here could have been walking around when this kid was killed. The officer and I walked down the street towards the ghostly looking crowd to have a talk.

It did not take long for a group of people to come up to us. I was surprised to see a few of them did not fit in what I would call a homeless person. Some of them just looked down on their luck, maybe to much time in the local casinos. An older woman walked up to me and reached out her hand. Reluctantly I went for my wallet to give her some money. Put your wallet back in your pocket son. I am fine. The man who did that to that poor boy had two other people with him. The two held him down and the other was the one who was doing something to him. Before I could get a question out I was pondering over why she denied my help. Could you see if they were adults. That is not a big kid and I do not think 3 adults would be needed to hold him down. But who am I to say how hard a person would try to get out of a situation like that. Still one big man could have held him down. I thanked the woman and quietly stuck a $20.00 into her coat pocket hoping she would use it for food. Detective Cicero, we found something. I walked back to the scene while the officer who came with me continued questioning the group.

The victim was now on his side and Santino was looking the wallet she found in the victims pocket. Abraham Delroy. 12 Boulevard Avenue, Las Vegas. It is his driving permit. He also has a pass for a MGM Grand employee. And a Paris Hotel and Casino pass. Must have been going home or coming to work. We will have to check with the hotels and see what his schedule was. Learn more about the kid. My bet was he saw something he should have not seen somewhere in the vicinity and that was that. I am going to take another look around the back. It was very dark and I got a weird feeling that I was being watched. In the corner of another dumpster I saw a bicycle wheel sticking out. I walked over to the dumpster which was about 100 feet from the crime scene. These cops were not very proficient on checking around for clues. I put my gloves on and took out the pieces of the bike that were in the dumpster. Maybe the people who attacked the kid left prints on the bike, it could be a lead. I called for Santino to come down to where I was and bring the CSI guy with her. What did you find Tony. I found a bike, I was thinking there could be more prints besides the victim on it. Maybe they grabbed the handlebars. The chain is gone, and so is one of the tires. I looked over to the crime scene investigation guy. Do me a favor and get all the prints you can find off of this thing. We might get lucky. After some more small investigation at the scene the coroner put Mr. Delroy into the Medical investigation car to take him to the morgue to do what medical investigators do. The worst part of the job is informing the family and it is even worse when we have to tell a parent about a child.

Once we arrived at 12 Boulevard Avenue both of us hesitated to get out of the car. We could see who we presumed to be the mother looking out from the front door window. She opened the door slowly probably praying we were not there to bring bad news about something. Detective Santino spoke first. I could see how the mother was holding on the door awaiting the bad news. Ms. Delroy, is your son Abraham Delroy? Yes he is. Is there something wrong with him? I saw her hand grab tighter telling me she already knew. Ms. Delroy, Abraham was found dead last night near one of the casino's. We are very sorry. Lucky for Ms. Delroy I have good reflexes and was able to catch Ms. Delroy before she fell to the porch. She cried out to Jesus in tears just like Sammy Jones mother did when her son was killed in the Coralee Brandon serial killer case. After ten or so minuets we all walked into her home and sat down across from each other. I finally spoke up. No offense mam but are you Abraham mother or grandmother? I only asked because she looked much older then a mother she look for a teen son. I am sorry Abraham lives with me. I am his grandmother Delilah Delroy and legal guardian. My daughter left him when he was a very little boy. She was not able to take care of a child, drugs and all. He has been with me since he was an infant. One of the things that told me she must have been a grandmother was the inside of the home. It looked like my grandmothers' home did when I was young. Nothing to play with or comfortable furniture, no computer, no updated anything. The elder woman wiped away her tears with her napkin clearing her voice. Where did you find him detective. Santino continued with the conversation. Ms. Delroy Abraham was found in an ally near MGM Grand and unfortunately I cannot go over any thing yet until we have our facts straight.  Ms. Delroy leaned back on her old 1940's flowered armchair. He was a good boy. Worked two jobs to keep us fed. He was at the Paris Hotel all day cleaning rooms and the Grand all night mopping floors, vacuuming casino floors, and was on his way to a manger assistant manager job with the cleaning crew. Santino took her hand to console her and I asked if I could go to take a look at Abraham's room. This way while I was looking around my partner could figure out more about Abraham and his daily life.

His room did not look like a teenage boy room should. It was more of a scholars or professors' office with a bed then a teen bedroom. As I looked at the shelves all his trophies had something to do with education. There was a Dr. Martin Luther King Speech award which he won 1st place. He had an award for spelling bees from 3rd grade all the way up to Scripps National Spelling Bee champ. He had awards from prep college. He had won a first place award for a thesis he wrote on behavior analysis while in 10th grade. On his small desk was a medium size laptop and a container of pens and pencils. Four notebooks were stacked for notes he had taken on certain subjects. African heritage, psychology, media, and the American justice system. Each one of them were filled from the first to last page. I did not know what I was looking for. Maybe I was trying to find a flaw in this young mans room. Was he hiding something from grandmother? Did he have a computer site full of something he should not have, was he smart enough to be a silent partner for a drug cartel in Mexico or Arizona. There was nothing. I was grasping at straws. As I backtrack to shut everything I had opened and looked at a bell rang from the laptop. You've got mail  I sat down on the leather chair and opened the laptop. I fooled around with the in-box mail and found the current email that had been sent. They want you to meet at the Grand after work. Be careful bud. They are some crazy mother......errs!!   That did not sound to good. I was sure it was not a group of people he cared to meet with. Being that he was found dead in a garbage dumpster with no tongue to account for, he had to have been set up.  But looks are sometimes deceiving. Maybe he was a smart well liked hard working drug dealer. Only time would tell.

The computer information would be important so I put it on the list of items to take out of the victims room which included the computer, the travel drives, and all his homemade DVD movies. Back at the scene things were beginning to die down and the CSI team were packing up. As we got out of the car something caught my eye. At the end of the road there was only one man and I could tell by the looks on his face he was to interested on what was going on He was an odd looking man very short and wearing a Yankee hat.. His face disappeared and he took a quick look again. This was a somebody, someone who knew something.  I took off after him. Age was kicking in because by the time I got to the end of the ally this guy was heading across the neon street. He was dodging in and out of the amazed visitors and I had no clue where he was. Two things were on my side. He was shorter then usual and wore a Yankee hat and windbreaker. He could be found sooner or later. As Santino and I drove through the famous casino streets I still did not see this man and after an hour or so of looking Santino and I decided to head back to the precinct.

I was to interested in that laptop to go home and have a good sleep so I made it an all niter. Did you do many of these in Texas? Santino asked. I spent many long nights looking for Coralee Brandon, if I did not do that who knows how many she would have murdered. It is what I do plus it is quiet and I can talk to myself. Santino picked up her thematic filled coffee cup and tapped me on the shoulder. We make good partners but I need sleep to work. Plus I have two kids. I will see you in a few hours I guess. That was a great thing to hear. She must like me because we did not argue onetime throughout our day. But this was only our first day.

I went downstairs to the evidence room to get the laptop back so I could get a better look at it. For now I would check things out and tomorrow all the geek techs could rip it apart. It was a top of the line MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3K whatever that meant. There was a sticker on the front that resembled an eye in the middle of the sky. I figured eye in the sky had something to do with his job at the casino. Under that were initials AD. I opened it up again and turned it back on. As the screen began to lite up the sound of casino bells and slot machines went o ff. Out of the blue his Abraham's appeared on the screen and gave me the creeps. I had just seen him dead and tongueless. He began to speak in an electronic voice box like Stephen Hawkins. Enter at your own risk the laptop exclaimed.  To tell you the truth I was a little hesitant. I sat down in the uncomfortable steel chair sipping on the soda I had picked up on the way down to the evidence room. I have a bit of knowledge about computers so I knew how to get to Abraham's documents. There were 5 documents lined up on the top right corner of the screen. The others were named and listed as graded which I believed to be school work. I moved first unnamed document to the middle of the screen and opened it. It did not look good for Abraham.

The Legacy of Pablo Escobar

Griselda Blanca/ Godmother of Cocaine

The Life of El Chapo Guzman

They were three of the biggest drug dealers in cocaine history. Why would he have all this information on these people. I hoped to myself it was just another college paper he was starting. I then opened the next document. Miami and How the Cocaine Cowboys Did It. The documentary film Cocaine Cowboys was attached. The next document had something that looked like a bus schedule, maybe drop off and pick u time fro drug deals. The last document was locked with a password. I had no clue what the password could be so the geek team would get this opened tomorrow. Up until daybreak I read everything in those documents and watched Cocaine Cowboys twice. I needed a quick nap and would go over all of the notebooks later in the day. Boy what a day it would be.

CHAPTER 2

Santino awoken me within a half hour of her arrival to the precinct holding a fresh out cup of coffee and a glazed doughnut You've been here all night? I thought you would go home by midnight. I guess you are addicted to cop work I laughed and agreed. The coffee surely did not come from our office it was hot and tasted fresh. Now I was sure we would get along. This was a fresh coffee from Dunkin Donuts. We sat down together so I could get my head together and collect what I learned the night before. I am not sure about this kid anymore. His computer is showing a different side of him. A drug side. What do you mean a drug side? I was not sure what I meant because I could not fit him into the Frank Lucas or George Jung list of dealers.He has some docs in his computer about big time cocaine dealers, a movie and notes on Cocaine Cowboys and a map that looks like a drop and pick up places for deals including where he ended up. Those were nothing big but it gave us a big chance of leading us to this kids demise. I have the geek team trying to get through a password that I bet has a whole lot of important information on it. Santino became more excited and I heard it in her voice. "Maybe we will find stuff on open drug cases