Witness Protection: Hide and Seek Read Online Free Page A

snitch had all been worth it.
Sure, snitching had kept him from getting the gas chamber, and had given him
his freedom. But this was not the kind of freedom he wanted; he missed the
‘thug’ life and being Castillo’s number one man. Now he was living out in the
middle of nowhere, living a life that was far more distinct than anything he
could have imagined.
    "I should have kept my mouth shut." He shook his
head in regret.

 
 
 
 
 

Chapter Six

 
 
 
    When Castillo’s mother, Lucia, answered the telephone, her
face lit up. The voice on the other end was telling her that an inmate from the
Riverbend correctional facility was making a collect call. When the voice asked
if she would accept the charges, she said yes and nodded her head ardently.
    “Hola mamá.” She heard her son’s voice on the telephone.
    Lucia spoke with excitement to her son. When he asked her
why she was so excited, she told him that a package that she'd been waiting on
had finally arrived.
    Ricardo shared in his mother’s happiness. “Las cosas buenas
vienen a aquellos que esperan mamá!” He said with excitement before hanging up
the phone.
      He told her that
good things really do come to those who wait. Not only was he excited for his
mother, he was excited for himself. He looked around at his fellow inmates as a
cheesy smile spread across his face.
    Sayonara, mother
fuckers. In a couple of days, I'll be a free man.

 
 
    Lucia made the sign of the cross after she hung up the
phone. She wanted everything to go smoothly for her son. It took almost three
years in the making, but finally, standing beside her was Ricardo’s cousin,
Salvador Nunez. He’d just flown in from Bolivia. And was the spitting image of
her son, Ricardo Castillo.
    To Salvador, family was everything. So giving up his
freedom, in exchange for his cousin's, was of no importance to him. When
Castillo first thought of the idea three years ago, his family told him that
the idea, although a good one, would never work.
    They told him that he would not be able to outsmart the
prison guards, that without inside help and money, the idea was not feasible.
    But Castillo kept the idea in his head and each day he
picked and prodded at it. And although it would take some time, he told them,
three years to be exact. He knew that it could be done.
    Castillo’s offer to take care of Salvador’s ex-wife and the
rest of his family financially, only added to his cousin’s already steadfast
devotion to his extended family.
    For Salvador, life in Bolivia meant nothing. Days and nights
spent robbing tourists, or delivering a package or two for local crime lords
was getting to be tiring. It was no way to live, Castillo told him. He also
told his cousin that he’d be better suited to life inside Riverbend
Correctional. He told him that he would be treated like a king, that there was
even a group of thugs he’d be in charge of.
    “Every luxury that one tries to obtain on the outside, mi
querido primo, you will have at your fingertips on the inside. In prison, you
can be whatever you want to be.”
    After that, Salvador quickly began brushing up on his
English, and perfecting his cousin’s Americanized moves and expressions. It
took three years, but by the time he stepped off the plane, he was… Ricardo
Castillo.

 
    Having gone through year after year of bribery’s and
coercion’s, Ricardo knew that there was nothing that a large magnitude of
inside help and money couldn’t buy.
    “And that includes freedom,” he told Nurse Higgins one day
during a visit to the medical clinic.

 
    He thought it funny how the feds lied about freezing his
assets. He still had money hidden all over the world. But most of it
ironically, was hidden in the United States. Tennessee to be exact.
    Between money laundering, using aliases, and phony
documentation, he was able to put away large amounts of money. Money that he
knew would come in handy one day. He had so much money in fact,