"All the rivers run into the sea,yet the sea is not full..."
- Ecclesiastes, 1, 7
By RICARDO KLEMENT
The Paz Files
BROWNSVILLE, Texas - In his falling neighborhood of Las Prietas here, where even the smallest dreams are stillborn, people who knew police Det. Chili Perez don't just mourn his apparent loss; hundreds of them are turning to weird, money-grubbing Mexican curanderos and palm readers in an effort to rid themselves of the nerve-wrecking mystery that is his unexplained disappearance.
"It's a Valley thing," said Panfilo "Fungus" Lozano, a local thug. "Until Chili surfaces, it's one of those damned drags, man. We need an answer. We need to be told what the Hell happened, you know."
Across the aging wooden picnic table nestled between a rusting, Sears BBQ grill and a goofy-looking banana tree, Lozano's wife, Tencha, plays with rosary beads and, between utterances of prayer and hope, says, "That's how are people handle these things. We know the Perez family from back when we all picked cotton and it's weird to see him gone."
Overhead, a moving gray sky shakes itself of a few tons of rain. Fungus and Tencha Lozano feel the raindrops, but do not move for shelter. That, too, is part of the Mexican border - this ability to take the bad over and over and over without comment.
Chili Perez has been missing for 10 days, ever since the chief of police here put him on the Louise Herrera murder case. A gregarious cop, Perez is known for his unorthodox manner, yet is forever seen about town. Police have said nothing about the development, and some theorize that Perez is merely working undercover. They note that, yes, Chili was last seen with a woman by the name of Lina Von Osten, a German in the employ of Paz Files writer Rudolf Von Bulow. It is Von Bulow who was initially charged with raping the 23-year-old Ms. Herrera, a junior college student here.
Emotional cops were the first to announce her mysterious death. They say a boxer out on a training jog found her dead at the base of a craggy mesquite tree along an isolated ravine frequented by coyotes. No autopsy report has as yet been released.
The mystery has thickened after police released a photo they say may be the last photo taken of Detective Perez (see photo above). It shows what appears to be a man's upright body seemingly evaporating. According to local anthropologist Dr. Pancho Zavalatte, such is the way of the crazy Nazis of the 1930s.
"They experimented with drugs that created spontaneous combustion in the human body," Zavalatte said during a chit-chat at Starbucks, where he downed a caramel latte while opining on the bizarre case. "This could very well be part of that. Chili could be a fajita by now..."
At his mother's two-story, frame home, 94-year-old Marcelina Perez said this in between a stream of sobs: "All I want is my mijito to come back to be with us, the living..."
- 30 -
8 comments:
The mystery deepens; notice the white smoke at first resembles the form of a human body, with a head, upper chest and shoulders aglow. Now, look again. Close inspection reveals the depiction of the State of Texas roughly rendered in the vapors below the head. Has Chili left us a secret message?
The U.S. State Department representative in Houston states that a person presented a U.S. passport in the name of Chili Perez for identification when boarding a flight to Germany nine days ago. Did Chili leave the country to check out Von Bulow’s alibi and activities in Germany; or has Von Bulow bought off Perez with a luxurious European vacation including visits to beer gardens, brothels, bratwurst festivals and bobsled races?
Brownsville loves you Chili. Please, if you are alive and reading this call home and let your family and friends know you are OK.
Chili Perez, as far as I know, has never flown on a jetliner, so your theory is wrong. His mother Marcelina may hold the key.
Klement...cut the crap out, enough b/s. Shilie Perez is living with a prostitute in Harlingen, near La Placita District.
The editor of the Paz files is covering up for Shilie, question him and make him confess. I hear, he lives on West Monroe and wants nothing to do with the people from the awful neighborhood of Las Prietas, including his mother.
the rumor is that Chili is in hiding because he took a payoff from Von Bulow. Something like $50 grand. Heard it downtown.
Hey, why aren't the cops talking? One of their own missing and they zip up? Why hasn't this been on TV? It smells. But that's Brownsville police for you. Free Chili Perez!
Look above the smoky image of Texas and you find an image of Indiana - that is where you will find him. He is with the one known as Esmeralda “The Beguiler.”
Mother Tarnu-seer, this is the last time I am going to repeat this, Shilie Perezz, esta con un mujer, known as Ninfa for ninphomaniac, she lives on west Monroe. Shilie is living off...of her, Shilie is no COP, he is a stool pigion.
He better stay in hiding, I hear his next step is the river, with cement blocks.
Junior Bonner, I knew he was back in Harlingen, we were not aware, the Paz-files had hired him again. Here we go with weemin, edikation, you'se all know, no, not again, a losing cowboy, with dead eyes.
Mr. Alacatraz, fire the lousy good for nothing cowpoke. No one knows, why the owner of the blog keeps him on the pay-roll. (MAYBE HE IS SKEERED OF JUNIOR BONNER)
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