JOURNAL ENTRY
Michael Daniel Hale
April 14^th 2007, 6:00pm

I went to see Emlio Sanchez in lockup today. There is something fishy about the FBI’s take on this investigation that I do not like. There are too many questions that they think are being answered by Mr. Delgado.

Sanchez fed me a cock-and-bull story about his innocence in the shooting murders, jawing on about he was railroaded by the system – telling him about his daughter shut him up fast. I’ve seen some tough characters in my time, and with his scars and tattoos, Sanchez ranks up there with many of them – it made the fear that sunk into his eyes all the more genuine.

Like a real tough-guy he told me it was taken care of. So I let on how the FBI caught up with Marino Delgado but Catalina wasn’t with the man.

After a little hemming and hawing and more posturing Sanchez finally broke down and told me that he’d been threatened in his prison cell (and conveniently did not tell any of the guards.) He had received the death threat in the form of a broken rosary with thirteen beads, dipped in blood, and wrapped around a photograph of his daughter. This meant, he said, that she had thirteen days to live. I wrote down the name and address of the place he had asked his brother-in-law to take Catalina in case the FBI might use it, but I don’t think she’s there.

Sanchez would not reveal to me who would have given him such a threat, but he surmised that he had many enemies who could reach into the prison to deliver it. He suggested a rival gang, the Dos Toros, but I suspect he’s hiding something. He probably knows about his gang brothers being murdered. Chances are he believes he’s next.

Then something weird happened after I returned to the station.

After taking a long shower, in the lockers I discovered this written on the fogged mirror:

Find Salvador Vega.
Save the little girl.

I can say without a doubt that I was alone in the locker room. George at the front desk said nobody entered or exited while I was in there. The words were drawn with a finger so that when the mirror fogged they would appear. The writing appears to be by the same person who left the message with the eye liner pencil. (The lab has matched the sample from that mirror to the pencil taken from Mrs. Boughtwood’s house. How is she involved in this?)

As I cannot tell anyone about this message left for me in the locker room. I am keeping my mouth shut.

Perhaps it’s time that I talked to Salvador Vega.