Just The Two Of Us...The Golden Years: Joe Ruff's Exceptional Life, #3

Prologue

AFTER THE KANGAROO trial in Jackson, even though Joe and Lisa had won the lawsuit, Ted Noore had made sure that he had destroyed Dr. Joe’s good reputation by his unethical and illegal tactics on television. If you show a mug shot of the accused on local TV and you go over your case against him, is it possible for him to get a fair trial?  The answer to that question is obviously NO.  You, Ted Noore, poisoned the jury pool! And you, Ted Noore, knew that. And that my friends is called prosecutorial misconduct.

And Joe’s lawyer, Jim Spaghetti, knew it too, as he was in collusion with the Attorney General against his own client. And that my friend is called malpractice!  

There’s little wonder that most graduates from the University of Mississippi Medical School go to another state to practice. And with that thought, Joe and Lisa decided they would be much better served to move their practices to Montana where they could get a fresh start.

Chapter 1

The Aftermath

BY THIS TIME LISA HAD finished law school in Mississippi and their 3 younger children were finishing their college educations and would soon be out pursuing their life goals. The older two, having finished their training in nursing and dentistry, went their separate ways. The oldest daughter moved to Florida where she was a nurse practitioner and the eldest son opened his practice in the Jackson, Mississippi area. Since economic opportunity is limited in Mississippi, the younger three had moved to the Atlanta, San Diego and Alabama areas to pursue their separate professions.

Joe and Lisa moved to Montana where he would pursue his chosen speciality in child and adolescent psychiatry and Lisa would accept a position in her father’s law firm as a junior partner, thus making her father very happy.

Joe and Lisa had lunch together every day and loved the time they had after work to spend together. Nothing had changed for them. They reminisced over all the fun times they had spent together, frequented the same places as before and talked about the wonderful times they had spent on their honeymoon. They talked often about the time they took a picture near Key Largo where they could see both oceans in one picture, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

THEY ALSO TALKED FREQUENTLY about the great author Ernest Hemingway and the unusual talent he had to be able to describe scenes in his books simply and concisely and in short sentences; not the way many writers do today using long and complex sentences. Politicians also do that and when you finish reading what they’ve written, you wonder what he or she said. And they still always fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Joe’s practice took off immediately and he was as busy as he wanted to be. And Lisa’s law practice was everything she had wanted. She started on the bottom end of a huge law practice but she was thrilled to be a part of the management and not a paralegal any more. Frequently she would be asked by her friends why the children didn’t follow them to Montana, to which she always replied, Well, life is a little simpler where they are and the general atmosphere seemed a little more homey, plus they don’t like cold weather. The people in Mississippi in general were more friendly and concerned about their neighbors. But the politics there was just as rotten to the core as anywhere else. So ‘buyer beware’.

Joe and Lisa saw Cody frequently.  Cody had never married and he and his father ran a huge ranch a few miles from Great Falls, but he found time to spend plenty of time with Joe and Lisa. They ate at the same restaurants and frequented the same piano bar where Joe and Lisa had first met. Life was going very well for all of them, they were all happy.

Life was great indeed until one day on the way home from the office Joe received a phone number on his beeper. As soon as he arrived home he called. It was the hospital ER doctor who told Dr. Joe that he needed to come to the emergency room at the hospital immediately. Lisa had been involved in an auto accident.

WHEN JOE ARRIVED AT the hospital nurses and doctors were rushing in and out of the trauma room at breakneck speed and one of the ER physicians grabbed Joe by the arm and took him into the trauma room where it was obvious that Lisa had severe head and chest injuries. They had done a tracheotomy and had her on the respirator and were doing chest compressions but so far she had started into ventricular tachycardia and she was in and out of ventricular fibrillation, and numerous attempts at electrocardioversion were attempted, but failed to restore a normal sinus rhythm. Her prognosis was very poor. Her pupils were also dilated and fixed.

THE ER PHYSICIAN WAS doing all anyone could but it was obvious to Joe that the only love of his lifetime was dead. The ER crew did an heroic job but they could not resuscitate her. She was gone. Joe broke down and wept right there in the emergency room. The only person that he had ever truly loved... was gone.

A HISTORY OF THE ACCIDENT would reveal that a drunken illegal had lost control and swerved across the centerline and hit Lisa head-on at a high rate of speed. She didn’t have a chance. Her Dad and Cody arrived shortly thereafter and they all wept together.

Joe didn’t remember much about the funeral but people from all over the Montana area and all their children were there and Cody was by Joe’s side every day and every night. He even stayed at Joe’s home. Joe and Cody had been together through all those years of combat together and if there was one real friend Joe had through thick and thin, it was Cody Redwine. With Lisa gone there was no world left that Joe wanted to be a part of.

JOE HAD LOST THE ONE thing that was more precious than life itself. He closed his office for two weeks thinking that surely there must be light somewhere. He didn’t find it. He spent most of his time with Cody and Lisa’s father. The three of them tried to console one another, but they were all in the same bad way. After two weeks off, Dr. Joe returned to his work of treating the mentally ill but he scarcely heard a word his patients uttered. He could hardly keep up with what was happening with his patients and even his Girl Friday, Sharon, tried but could not help with the feeling of loss that Joe had experienced. After three months of this pain he was at his wits’ end, when Cody came into the office at noon one day and said, I have just received a call from the DEA and they need us for a high priority mission. By now Joe had quit eating and had lost 15 pounds. Cody said, You and I both need to get away from Great Falls right now anyway. Joe looked Cody straight in the eye and said, You’re on.  Joe spent the rest of the afternoon and two more days closing out his practice, referring all of his patients to other psychiatrists and resigning from the hospital staff.

That evening Joe and Cody had dinner with Lisa’s Dad and Joe told him that he needed to get away from Great Falls for awhile, so he and Cody had agreed to do another mission for the DEA. Joe said the mission might last 3 to 6 months. Lisa’s Dad said he understood that he probably needed some time away from Great Falls.

Chapter 2

DEA Mission To The Border

CODY WAS BACK IN TOUCH with the DEA and they were to meet with their briefer at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth, Texas in one week. That left little time to do more than close out any personal business they had and schedule their flight into DFW airport. This they did and on a tight schedule they flew into DFW airport a week later where they rented a car and went immediately to Carswell AFB.

Joe and Cody had checked into the visiting officers’ quarters and Joe had finished his shower and had taken a seat in the lobby waiting for Cody. As he sat there his mind began to wander and it was already back on Lisa. He just could not understand how fate could take her away from him this way. He had other women already making passes at him but he had no use for them. He had lost the only thing that had ever mattered to him. They did everything together and the fierce love and loyalty they had for each other was unmatched. It wasn’t right or fair for her to be taken away from him. He even hated God, if there was one. What God would take away from him the only irreplaceable person that he had ever had? Joe made a commitment to himself that there would be no more women in his life.

Just then Cody walked into the foyer and they left for their meeting with the briefer.  That didn’t take much time at all.  They were advised that the DEA felt it necessary to have a team go to the Texas/Mexican border to surveil the drug activity coming across the Texas border. They would be provided with all equipment needed.  But it was a dangerous mission and that’s why Joe and Cody were approached.  They had the best reputation around for this type of operation.

After the briefing the pair were off and walking to the officers’ club, which was just across the street from the visiting officers’ quarters. As they entered the club, both Joe and Cody were impressed with the tidiness of the place. They went through the reception area and decided they would have a drink or two at the bar before they entered the dining room. There were a number of active duty B-1 bomber jocks hanging around the bar since this was one of the primary bases for the B-1 bomber that had just rolled off the assembly line. One of the pilots asked them what they were doing at Carswell and Joe said they were there for a special classified mission. The pilot, who was a major, said, And what kind of a mission might that be? To which Joe answered, Think I said it was classified, so as you know we can’t talk about it. With that the subject was dropped and they continued to talk about other things like how do you like flying the B-1 bomber. The major answered that it was a good handling aircraft and it had some features that were much upgraded from the old B-52 which was now getting a lot of age on it. But it was very much in need of a stealth feature which was still in the developmental stages. With that Joe and Cody adjourned to the dinning room.

Once seated the waiter brought the menus. Joe was in a steak mood so he ordered a filet mignon and Cody ordered a T-bone steak. The waiter was a small, thin guy with a pencil mustache and short black hair which he combed straight back. He was very polite and talked with a British accent. He asked if they wanted a salad and both answered yes, tossed, and both ordered French dressing.

While waiting, Joe and Cody went straight to the mission. Joe said, I think we should start near McAllen, Texas on the Gulf of Mexico and work our way back towards the west. We need to talk to as many ranchers as possible whose properties join the border with Mexico. They may be able to share a lot of useful information. We have, of course, found that some of the ranchers are intimidated by the presence of the drug cartel guys, but we do have a real advantage in being able to move long distances quickly with the helicopter. And also when we need to get closer we can use 4-wheelers.

The waiter brought their steaks and the rest of the main course and as expected the steaks were cooked to perfection. The Air Force never disappointed when it came to food. After they finished their meal they tipped the waiter, paid the check and headed across the street to the officers’ quarters. They had adjoining rooms on the first floor so they sat in Joe’s room and chatted a little more about the mission. They decided they would try for a 0700 departure so they could be in the McAllen, Texas area well before dark so they could over fly the area and do more preliminary planning tomorrow. With that they retired for a night’s rest. As instructed the front desk attendant woke them at 0600 sharp.

They were up and out of the officers’ quarters by 0630 hours and headed for the flight line and DEA hanger where they found the copter loaded with all the items they had requested. They both had been through helicopter school, but Cody had more experience with helicopters, so he was the first designated pilot. The trip to McAllen would take about 5 hours, plus or minus, which would give them the whole afternoon to scout out the area before bedding down for the night.

The Carswell tower cleared the copter for takeoff and soon they were flying and due to the nature of their mission they had no flight clearance. They were just to avoid all other traffic. Once they left the Dallas area, they notified the DEA on a secret frequency that they were airborne and gave no other details. It was a nice clear day to fly and their flight to their target area was uneventful.

As they approached the Rio Grande River they decided to fly parallel to the river at 1500 feet and look for trails and ranchers who might be tending their cattle. They had flown about 50 miles heading west along the river when they saw a rancher out on his 4-wheeler amongst his cattle. They decided to land and have a chat with the gentleman. They landed about 100 yards away and shut the engine down. The rancher rode up to them on his 4-wheeler.  Joe and Cody introduced themselves as workers for the Drug Enforcement Administration and they were wanting to know if he had any knowledge of drug runners coming through his property or did he know of any neighbors who were reporting problems with drug runners. To this the rancher responded that he was not aware of any crossing his property but a neighbor rancher about 15 miles further up the river had told him that there were drug runners coming across his property and that the neighbor had actually seen them loading the drugs onto 4-wheelers. With that bit of information Joe and Cody departed to see if they could locate that rancher up the river.

As they approached the area in question they saw the rancher’s house sitting about a mile north of the river. The rancher was noted to be sitting on the back porch of his home apparently enjoying the cool breeze out of the west. Cody put the copter down about 100 yards from the rancher’s house and shut down the engine. Joe and Cody walked toward the house and the rancher met them.  They introduced themselves and the rancher invited them to come and sit down. The rancher asked, What is the nature of your being here?  To which Cody replied that they were agents of the DEA who were working for the government in trying to stop illegal drug trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border. Joe said, Your neighbor just down the river said that you had told him that the cartels were trafficking drugs across your property. The rancher said, That’s true. It certainly looks like a drug deal. They come across my property about every other week with 4-wheelers loaded with boxes. Then when they get to the two lane road that runs in front of my house they head down the road and then out of sight. I have asked them not to come across my property but they just ignore me and do it anyway. I don’t know what’s in those boxes but I think it may be drugs. Cody asked about their last time there. The rancher responded, About 2 weeks ago. They have been coming through about every two weeks, so any day now they may cross the river with a load of boxes. There are usually five or six 4-wheelers piled high with boxes front and rear.  With that Joe asked the rancher if he objected to Joe and Cody staying in close proximity until the next load came through. The rancher, whose name was Bill, said, Sure, any way I can help, just let me know. They asked the rancher what time of day the drug runners usually came through and he responded, Usually late in the afternoon just before dark. Joe and Cody told the rancher that they would be hanging out close by for the next few days if it was alright with him.

It would be necessary for them to develop a plan of action. They assumed that the drug runners were coming through just before sunset to use the cover of darkness to make a transfer to a larger vehicle under darkness, which would then transport the goods by way of an interstate highway to some large city destination.

Joe and Cody visited with the rancher at length and told him they would be checking around the local area to see what they could find and asked that if he heard anything else that might help them to just let them know. They then headed back to the copter. Once there, they had a lengthy discussion about their plan now that they had information that led them to think that this area was a significant crossing area for the drug traffickers. They decided that the next morning they would follow the river for about 12-15 miles in each direction and then fly the Mexican side out from the Rio Grande far enough to find a blacktop or gravel road. They thought the drugs and 4-wheelers would be unloading some distance back from the river. Then they would travel the last several miles with the loaded 4-wheelers to the river bed, cross it, and then go through the rancher’s property bound for a truck waiting on the road on the U.S. side of the river. So their plan would be to fly at an altitude high enough and far enough away that they could see the drug traffickers through their binoculars. They doubted that the drug guys would be looking up or using binoculars. 

According to plan they flew their route up and down the river for two days without results. Finally on the third day, they saw the drug dealers load their 4-wheelers about 4 miles back on the Mexican side of the border. There were several trucks and one of them was carrying the boxes. Joe and Cody watched them as they loaded the boxes on the front and rear of the 4-wheelers and tied