This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha (22 page)

B
renda 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.

H
ormones 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.

W
ith 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 while 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.

Denis’s planning process lasted for a number of days and occupied the better part of at least half a dozen phone calls with Boxer, Filosofo, and Brenda. Once Denis settled on his escape plan, he told Brenda he needed more information and wanted to call Greg. Brenda thought it was a stupid idea, but she gave him the number anyway. Boys will be boys, she thought. Anyway, Greg would talk some sense into him.

Denis told Filosofo to anonymously call Greg on a three-way call so he could listen on the other line. Denis instructed Filosofo to get information out of Greg by asking random questions about prison breakouts, what the cops would do, and what happens in escape investigations and prosecutions.

When he called Greg, Filosofo didn’t tell Greg who he was, but Greg
correctly assumed it was Denis’s clique member and one of his main connections from prison to the real world. He was curious about why this kid would be calling him and decided to play along.

As Brenda suspected, Greg thought any idea for a breakout was stupid. There was a thick glass pane in all prison cell windows, and even if someone managed to rope down three stories from the window, he wouldn’t get far from the prison before all the cops in northern Virginia would be out looking for him. It was absurd.

Denis didn’t care. “Fuck it,” he said in one of his last phone conversations with Brenda. “Yeah, fuck it,” she replied, but it was the gangster in her talking. Despite her words, she grew worried. Brenda knew if he tried to escape, his chances were slim, and after he was captured, it would be impossible for her to see him. She couldn’t let Denis try to escape. Greg could fix it. She called him from her hotel room and told him she had talked to Denis and that he was planning on breaking out. Greg immediately linked her confession with the phone call he had received from Filosofo. He was stupefied. Denis was the last person Brenda should be calling. But Greg kept calm. She may be back in touch with her MS friends, he thought, but at least she was still in Minnesota, a far distance from Virginia.

When he ran into Detective Rodriguez at court soon after his phone call with Brenda, Greg told him he had credible information on a possible breakout organized by a guy named Joker. Greg didn’t want to mention Denis’s name because he knew it would implicate Brenda. If he simply alerted Rodriguez to an escape plan, then the prison deputies would turn over every cell in the building to figure out who was behind the caper. That was good enough for Greg.

Any escape plan normally involved knocking out or otherwise harming a policeman. Rodriguez wanted to prevent anyone from being hurt and immediately notified the deputies at the prison that he had information on an escape plan. Rodriguez didn’t think it could be Joker. The only Joker he knew was an MS member who had been released just two days before Rodriguez learned of the escape plan from Greg. He suspected it might have something to do with Brenda, and knew Greg wouldn’t do or say anything to implicate her, so he took Greg’s warning at face value and didn’t press for the truth.

Rodriguez asked the deputies to look into another inmate named Joker. The deputies asked around and quickly found themselves in Denis’s cell. They searched it and found the map he had drawn indicat
ing his plans for escape. His chances of breaking out were over. Denis was furious. When he got on the phone with Filosofo in mid-May, he was determined to find out if Brenda had tipped the cops to his plans.

Denis called Filosofo and immediately asked him to call Brenda so he could listen to their conversation without Brenda knowing he was on the line.

“I will cover the phone now, and you call her now, talk to her for seven minutes,” Denis told Filosofo. He was very specific with Filosofo. There were high stakes here. The woman he had protected for so long might have betrayed him. He didn’t know how much longer Brenda would be at the hotel or room number she had given them, so it was likely a one-time shot to confirm if she ratted on him.

“Okay,” Filosofo responded, obedient as ever.

“Seven, eight minutes, but try to get all the information that you can, about the lawyer, everything,” Denis said. He wanted to know if she had spoken with Greg.

“Okay,” Filosofo responded, taking orders.

“And chatter with her, throw her some chatter,” Denis suggested. He knew Brenda was talkative. If Filosofo could get her to relax and talk, maybe she would slip and say something wrong.

Denis instructed Filosofo to relay the message that he was going to break out in two months, since his earlier plans had been foiled. When he broke out, he would come looking for Brenda first.

Filosofo started dialing Brenda’s number in Minnesota. Denis pressed the palm of his hand against the microphone on his end of the line and listened.

When the Marriot hotel clerk answered, Filosofo asked for room 111. He hoped Brenda was still in the same room where she had told them she was staying.

“Hello,” Brenda answered.

“Hello,” Filosofo began.

“Wait,” Brenda interrupted.

When she came back on the line, Filosofo started the chatter.

“Let’s see, so are you going to send me the money then?” he asked. Brenda had previously agreed to send him money to share with Denis. It was part of the money the marshals had given her as allowance.

“Yes,” Brenda said.

“But through Western Union?” Filosofo asked.

“I don’t know. I will send it somehow,” she responded.

“So what’s up?” Filosofo asked. His time was running out. And Denis was listening. He needed to get her to say something.

“Nothing, you say something or put on that song.”

“Which one?”

“The one that goes…” And Brenda began singing a love song.

“I don’t have that one,” Filosofo said, laughing as Brenda continued to sing.

“Does it remind you of Denis?” he asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said flippantly

“And you love him? Do you miss him?” Filosofo pried

“We hardly even talk,” Brenda lamented.

“Who, you and him?” Filosofo asked.

“Yeah. But we used to speak all the time. I miss him,” Brenda admitted.

“He will be out soon, like in two months,” Filosofo said, delivering Denis’s message.

“As long as they don’t kill him,” Brenda corrected. She was worried any escape plan might lead to ruin.

“No, they will not kill him. Who told you that? Did he tell you?” Filosofo asked. Denis was surely interested to know the answer.

“No, his lawyer and mine,” Brenda stated.

“They told you he was going to get that? Who knows. But he’s going to get out. He’s going to be looking for you, eh?” Filosofo said, dutifully delivering his boss’s message.

“Yeah, right.” Brenda wasn’t so sure. “I asked my lawyer a lot of questions, but I didn’t tell him it is for Denis but that it was for another homeboy. And he tells me that others have tried, but they could not [get out]. So, just for trying they give them one year. From Alexandria they have tried and almost got out, but they did not, because the federals are there in the building. In Fairfax when they are there it is a little bit easier because they have docks, where clothes are brought in. Over there [it] is easier, but you have to plan and know the building,” Brenda explained.

“What a problem. Do you think he will do it now?” Filosofo wanted more information.

“The thing is that the homeboy…he can do it from anywhere, but that’s because I have a lot of faith. You know what I mean?” Brenda did believe Denis was crazy enough to try an escape. “My lawyer told me, he said: ‘Tell your friend that if he is planning to go back
to his country, he better not do it, because when he escapes, then it will be federal, it will be all the police,’” she concluded.

Hearing all he needed to know, Filosofo told Brenda he had another call and hung up. Back on the line with Denis, Filosofo went over his conversation.

“Well, she told me all I wanted to know, yeah?” he asked Denis, seeking approval.

“More or less, homes, but she is a big, super,” Denis said, using gang slang to describe Brenda as a big traitor, finally beginning to believe that Brenda had betrayed him. “Yeah, homes, she is a big, and I’m a stupid fuck for trusting, homes.” He was seething and felt like Brenda had played him for a fool.

“Do you think it was her? I think it was her,” Filosofo responded. He believed Brenda ratted out Denis’s plans to Greg.

“Because, why on earth did she have to tell the lawyer, homes?” Denis asked, clearly frustrated with Brenda.

“She messed up there,” Filosofo agreed.

“Stupid fucking bitch, homes.” Denis began cursing and didn’t stop for minutes.

Denis was convinced Brenda had ruined his best chance to escape. He had other ideas, but the plans he’d been working on for weeks were ruined by the very girl he protected, the girl who he thought loved him and would never betray him. Brenda was now dead to him. She was no longer someone special, and if he could, Denis would kill her.