West Mean Street: Sandra Lerner Mystery

By George W. Barclay Jr.

A businessman and sports promoter is charged with murder and DWI. The defense lawyer is asassinated, and Sandra Lerner takes over with help form detective Derek Strong. Violence and sex in a tough neighborhood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 26, 2001
• ISBN: 9781469783956

George W. Barclay Jr.

Dr. George W. Barclay Jr. is retired Beaumont Cardiologist. He writes adventure, mystery, science fiction and metaphysics. This is his twenty-sixth novel. He is graduate of Texas AM and Southwestern Medical School (MD FACC).

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Houston, Texas August 1992

The temperature achieved a hundred and the air hung heavily over busy industrial Houston that August. It was the least pleasant month in the least pleasant place.

On August 17, the Grand Old Party staged the most expensive extravaganza of all time and nominated President George Bush for a second term.

On August 18, the HOUSTON PRESS headlined Houston as number one in murder, armed robbery, rape, and drug trafficking, surpassing New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.

Elsewhere, Canada, Mexico, and the United States formally announced a free trade agreement.

America and Columbia arrested more than one hundred sixty-five government officials on charges of money laundering in a crackdown on international drug trafficking.

Hurricane Andrew ravaged Florida leaving two hundred and fifty thousand homeless and causing thirty billion dollars’ damage. An earthquake struck Cairo, Egypt killing five hundred and injuring more than six hundred and fifty thousand.

At 11 PM on August 21, Big Sam Deagio, driving 70 mph while intoxicated, struck the restraining wall of West Loop US 610 and caused a pile up of fifteen cars and trucks, halted traffic for thirty minutes, and caused multiple injuries and untold damages.

When Sam’s vehicle smacked into the concrete wall it swung around into oncoming traffic and was struck broadside by the vehicle following. The trunk lid on Sam’s Brougham model of the Chevrolet Caprice Classic sprang open, and the body of Lola Sonnier Whitely popped out into the oncoming traffic where it was run over several times by dodging vehicles.

Ten minutes later there were four HPD patrol cars, eight EMS, and one HFD truck at the scene. Lola’s purse was found to contain a Ziploc bag containing three rocks of crack, six baggies of cut cocaine, and a half bottle of Valium.

Sam, found unconscious at the steering wheel, was taken by EMS to the emergency room of Trauma Hospital where he was found to have ethanol intoxication and fracture of the right ankle. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit overnight, and the following morning was subjected to right ankle pinning and application of a long leg walking cast.

Lola, obviously dead and victim of multiple vehicle trauma, was taken to Ben Taub emergency room where she was found to be DOA. The emergency physician called the HPD and Justice of Peace. After examination by homicide specialists of HPD, District Attorney W.D. (Bill) Riley, Assistant District Attorney Marci Galbreaux, and Justice of Peace William Lowman, she was transported to the City-County Morgue where the following morning her body was identified by her husband, Dr. Donald Whitely, and sister, Althea Knobloch.

Two days later, Sam was taken to the Harris County Jail where he was met by his attorney, Roberto Allen, and bail bondsman, Caesar Deagio. Sam was charged with DWI, reckless driving, possession of a controlled substance, and first degree murder. Since he was a well-known businessman, was wearing a leg cast and walking on crutches, and both city and county jails were full, he was released on two hundred and fifty thousand dollar bail. His wife, Sophie Deagio, who hadn’t spoken to Sam for one year, agreed to take him back home, but refused to come get him. Charges were signed by Dr. Donald Whitely, W.D. (Bill) Riley, and Marci Galbreaux. The following week Marci presented the charges along with witness police officers to the Harris County Grand Jury where, with about two hundred other such cases, he was true billed.

On October 12, Sam’s jury was selected by Roberto and Marci, and trial was scheduled to begin on October fourteen. On Thursday morning, October fourteen, Sam’s lawyer, Roberto Allen, was found dead in a willow grove next to the railroad tracks alongside Holmes Road in West Houston. Roberto’s law partner, Anthony Parigello, not familiar with the case, was granted a continuance until October twenty-six. Autopsy revealed that Roberto died of a gunshot wound to the temple, obviously a homicide, and the murder weapon was thought to be a 0.38 caliber revolver.

CHAPTER 2

October 13, 1992 El Cyuga Mall West Mean Street

Roberto Allen was working late preparing his opening statement to the jury when his friend, Mark Galbreaux, knocked on the back door of his law office. Roberto walked to the back door.

Who is it?

It’s Mark; I want to show you something. Roberto let Mark in, and they exchanged greetings.

Come on outside, I’ve got something I want you to see.

The two men walked out into the alley where a Broncho was parked. Mark walked over to open the back, when two men wearing ski masks jumped from behind a dumpster. The lights were dim, but there was no question that each had a pistol pointing at Mark and Roberto. They slowly walked toward them. Mark broke and ran to his left down the alley toward his pharmacy, and Roberto ran to the right. After a few steps a third masked man with a pistol stepped from behind the dumpster of the Falun Gon. Roberto, now breathless, turned to the left and ran toward the willow groves in the back. The three men caught up, and the first hit him in the back of his head knocking him down. Then they kicked him until he got up on his knees. The first put his pistol up to Roberto’s temple and, while Roberto was praying, fired. Roberto died instantly.

CHAPTER 3

Friday, October 15, 1992 3801 South Main Houston, Texas

Sandra Lerner was reading the CHRONICLE about the death of her colleague, Roberto Allen, when Anthony Parigello walked into her waiting room, briefcase in hand, and asked for an unscheduled appointment. The door opened, and Sandra rose to greet Tony, when the office building and everything in it began to shake and tremble. Sandra almost lost her balance, but held on to her shaking desk. Tony dropped his briefcase, and held on to Betty and her desk until the shaking stopped. A vase of flowers fell off a filing cabinet, and Sandra’s framed law license fell down and cracked, but the whole thing was over in thirty seconds. Sandra turned and took a quick look out the window. Traffic was stalled on South Main, otherwise nothing. The sky was almost cloudless, and it was a beautiful fall afternoon. After recovering, she invited Tony into her office and asked Betty to call the local TV station and find out what caused the quake. She re-hung her cracked license and threw the broken vase and flowers into the wastebasket.

Tony was a long time friend of Sandra’s. They had gone through middle school, high school, University of Houston, and South Texas Law School as classmates and friends. Tony practiced general law and tried only DWI and personal injuries cases. He avoided anything complicated and was very uncomfortable in Criminal District Court. Tony asked Sandra to take over the case, charge anything she wanted, since Sam was rich, and handed her Alberto’s office file on Sam Deagio Jr.

Sandra opened the file. The first thing she saw was a plain yellow sheet torn from a legal pad with Whitely written in capital letters. The rest was just police officer’s reports, autopsy report, and death certificate of the decedent. Lola Sonnier Whitely, 30, black. Causes of Death, Asphyxia due to Suffocation and Motor Vehicle Accident. Manner of death, Homicide. There was a photocopy of Sam’s rap sheet. Eight previous arrests, all minor, and no major charges or jail time. One previous DWI.

Sandra remembered reading about the case last August. Big Sam was tackle on River Oaks High state championship team in 1969, and Bill Riley DA was quarterback same team. Sandra was in the ninth grade, and they were her adolescent sex symbols. Sam had married Sophie Tantalia who was in her class, and Bill had married Bette Tantalia who was in her sister Ruth’s class. No wonder Bill showed up in the Ben Taub emergency room. She wondered who Marci Galbreaux was.

Big Sam Deagio is my cousin. My mother was a Deagio, admitted Tony, smiling.

Small world! replied Sandra. What bothers me is that the DA and our client married the Tantalia sisters. They’re brother-in-laws. I remember the Tantalias from high school. Sophie was my classmate.

Don’t worry! The Deagios and Tantalias have never gotten along. Not since the old country. Take Sam and Sophie, they don’t speak half the time.

Where’s your office?

"El Cyuga Shopping Mall on West Mean. You familiar with the place? West Mean crosses the Old Spanish Trail about half mile past Loop 610. There’s a big federal project out there, the El Cyuga Housing Authority.

There’s an Exxon station out front, and our office is right across from the El Cyuga State Bank."

According to the newspaper account, Dr. Donald Whitely and Lola Whitely officed El Cyuga, and Sam owns several businesses on West Mean adjacent to the shopping mall.

That’s right, replied Tony. The El Cyuga Behavioral Clinic is several doors from my office and Sam’s Universal Gym and Ballroom is next to the shopping center. Deagio’s Bar and Grill, which Sophie runs, is across from the gym. Have you been out there recently?"

Not recently, I usually get up on Loop 610 west, drive north, and get off on Westheimer when I’m going to the Galleria or to River Oaks. Didn’t there used to be a big sporting arena out there, years ago?

That was Sam’s Sport Palace. They tore that down twenty years ago. All that land belonged to the Deagios. Sam and his brother, Caesar, leased it to developers.

Sandra flipped on the intercom and asked Betty to make two copies of Sam’s records. Betty couldn’t get the TV or radio stations, but the word was that Houston had experienced its first ever earthquake which measured 3.5 on the Richter Scale.

She explained to Tony that she was going to hire a private investigator, was going to New Orleans for the weekend, and would be tied up with a case in Coldspring next week. She would call him next Friday afternoon, and be ready by October 26 to defend Sam in court. She asked him to stay on as her assistant and sign her up as co-counsel, all which he agreed to, happily, with a great sigh of relief.

After Betty returned with the copies, she returned the originals to Tony, stood up, and shook hands.

Don’t worry, Tony. I won’t spoil Sam’s record. Tell Sam we’ll get him off and say hello to Sophie for me. I’ll try to see them next week – maybe Thursday. I’ll call in advance.

When Tony left, Sandra called Dirk Strong’s answering service, and left word for him to meet her in front of Taco Bell next to the ice rink, first level, in the Galleria at four. Sandra put on her shoulder holster, snubnose 0.38, light jacket, patted her left chest, grabbed a copy of Sam’s file, bade Betty bye, and left. She had to pick up her airline ticket and bag, meet with Dirk, and catch a plane at seven. This was her weekend to visit Austin in good old New Orleans, the one city that was hotter, sweatier, dirtier, and had more minorities than Houston.

CHAPTER 4

Wallace Derek Strong was a private investigator who officed out of his apartment in Atascocita Arms with just a pager and answering service. He was fifty, had had triple bypass, retired after twenty-five years with Dallas PD, five feet ten inches, one hundred and seventy pounds, quiet, unassuming, and didn’t stand out in a crowd. He was divorced, had a daughter at the University of Houston, and was currently dating Jerry Billings, a DPS narco cop out of Conroe. Sandra had seen him around the courthouse and carried his card. This was her first opportunity to hire him for a serious job. She bought three creamy Tacos with Diet Pepsi and sat down out front. He showed up wearing a two-toned brown suit with tie. Bulges revealed that he wore a shoulder holster, and back belt clip-on holster. They smiled in recognition, he ordered and joined Sandra after asking permission. Neither thought they were observed.

How about two murders for the price of one? asked Sandra.

How long we got? he replied.

Trial starts October twenty-six, that’s eleven days.

Cops already worked them up?

Yes and no – the usual. Essentially, they’re unsolved.

Five hundred a day plus expenses. If any shooting or a stakeout, then double it. I obey the hobby law.

Meaning, this is not a hobby with you. I agree! May I make a suggestion?

Yes.

Charge a thousand a day, and triple it, if anybody starts shooting.

You can’t scare me, Sandra. I used to do this for a lot less.

Okay, here’s a copy of the records on our client. His attorneys were Roberto Allen and Anthony Parigello. Mr. Parigello will assist me at the trial. Sandra smiled as she handed him a brown folder with Big Sam’s records.

Dirk let out a long low whistle. They found Roberto out by the tracks with a hole in his head yesterday, and he was defending Big Sam Deagio. It was in today’s paper and on TV last night.

That’s right. All we have to do is get Sam acquitted, but to do that, we’ll have to solve the murders of Lola Whitely and Roberto Allen and try not to become victims in the process.

Sandra opened her purse, took out ten new one hundred dollar bills, and passed them to him.

I’m about to catch a plane to New Orleans. Will be back on Sunday evening. I’ll be tied up with a case in Coldspring next week, but I’ll be home every night, so call me Monday night at the latest.

CHAPTER 5

Dirk had several other less pressing investigations, but decided with a thousand buck advance, he might as well start Sandra’s. He drove directly to the WEST HOUSTON PATROL station house on the corner of Post Oak Road and West Bellfort in Willow Bend addition, and asked an aging desk sergeant for copies of the records on Lola Whitely and Roberto Allen. He was informed that they had only the originals on file, their copy machine was broken, and if he wanted copies he had to get them from homicide department at central headquarters, downtown. However, the sergeant went to the file, glanced at the patrol report, and offered a verbal summary.

Roberto Allen was a fifty year old white lawyer, found face down on Holmes Road two miles east of US 90A at 7 AM on October fourteen. He shared office with lawyer Anthony Parigello located in the El Cyuga Shopping Center at corner of US 90A and West Mean. The body was discovered by Raymond English, field engineer for Stanlind Oil, and investigated by patrolman Reginald Dewberry, who thought he had been dead several hours and dumped.

Dewberry was on vacation, but there were several active wells and drilling going on in the old Stanlind field, and he might be able to catch English on the job.

Lola Sonnier Whitely, thirty year old light skinned negro wife of Dr. Donald Whitely, had been found dead at the scene of accident on US 610 West at 11 PM on August 21. Patrol officer thought she had been dead several days and suffocated in the closed trunk of a 1988 Chevrolet Caprice driven by Samuel Deagio Jr. She was dressed in nurse’s uniform, and her purse contained driver’s license as well as crack, cocaine, and Valium. Lola worked as receptionist in the El Cyuga Behavior Clinic located in the El Cyuga Shopping Mall on West Mean and US 90A (Old Spanish Trail).

Armed with the information and Sam’s file he headed back to Atascocita and home, hoping to enjoy a cool Miller and watch Wall Street Week before Jerry showed up to claim her toothbrush.

***

Jerry came in late and got up early. She decided to leave her toothbrush another week, and left Dirk to fix his own breakfast of dry cereal, skimmed milk, Sweet-and-Low, and black coffee. Since bypass, he had taken one aspirin a day and shaved with an electric razor to avoid excessive bleeding.

He drove out to old Stanlind oil field, where, arriving at 8 AM, he found Ray English in hard hat watching a workover crew and smoking a pipe which smelled delicious, since he had given up tobacco too. He had noted a big NO TRESPASSING AND NO SMOKING sign by the opened gate when he crossed the cattle guard on to the shell road that led into the field.

He introduced himself, and briefly discussed the finding of Roberto’s body with Ray who had immediately called 911 on his cell phone and, on arrival of the police, went about his business. No, he had never seen Mr. Allen before, and, living in Katy, had little reason to visit the El Cyuga Shopping Center. He introduced him to Claibert Fontenot, his gang foreman, and drove off in direction of a