Hole in the Heart

by Carolina Mac

  “How did the funeral go?”

  “Uh huh,” said Blaine. “Not worth a shit.”

  “How could a funeral be that bad?” asked the Chief.

  “A sniper wiped out Roberto Santos on the front steps of the funeral home.”

  The Chief screwed up his face. “Yep, that’s a bad funeral.”

  “Then Annie chased the shooter for two blocks and brought him down.”

  “Jesus in a handcart. Did she shoot him in the head?”

  “Nope. She thought I might want him, so she tapped his knee.”

  “On the dead run?”

  “On the dead run shooting between parked cars.” Blaine chuckled.

  A grin spread across the Chief’s face. “That woman has serious talent. We could use her.” The Chief chuckled. “I want her at my funeral.”

  Blaine grinned. “I’m going downstairs to brace Maldonado, and maybe you could call Jesse and invite him to come give Mrs. Santos—excuse me—Ms. Rivera, another spin.”

  “Good idea. Had to be one of those two,” said the Chief. “Or both of them together.”

  “Oh, and I need Ruskin to find a relative for the boy and tell her Fletcher’s waiting in the lunch room to go with her to pick him up.”

  “Lordy, I hope the kid has a relative left.”

  “LUCCO, how’s it going for you?” Blaine strode across the infirmary to Lucco Maldonado’s bed.

  “Get away from me, ganger cop. I’m sleeping.”

  “I’ll go as soon as you tell me the name of your buddy.”

  “Got no buddy.”

  “One of your friends just gunned down Roberto Santos. He’s a killer just like you, Lucco. Both of you killing for the same woman. Is Maria worth it? Is she worth taking the needle?”

  “Shut the fuck up.” Lucco rolled over in his bed and stared at Blaine.

  “I can see I’ve got your interest now. Maybe you didn’t know she was going to hit her ex-husband. She could have paid you to do it if you weren’t in here.”

  “I don’t know nothing about any of that. Nothing, and I ain’t listening to you.”

  “Don’t matter,” said Blaine. “Just bringing you up to date on what Maria’s got going down. Guess the next time you see her, y’all will be in court.”

  “I ain’t going to court, man. Never again. I want to talk to somebody.”

  “Somebody, like who?”

  “Get the guy I can make a deal with.”

  “Okay,” said Blaine. “Tell me what you got, and I’ll take it to the DA’s office and see if he’s interested.”

  “I ain’t talking to you. I need somebody higher up the food chain.”

  “Nobody higher than me, Lucco. I’m top dog.”

  “Fuckin hell you are.”

  Blaine turned and called over his shoulder, “Have the nurse call when you’re ready to talk to me.”

  “That will be never.”

  JESSE met Blaine in the hallway outside the interrogation room. “Hey, partner, heard you were in the infirmary talking to Maldonado. How did that go?”

  “He wants to make a deal, but he wants somebody higher up than me to unload on.”

  Jesse grinned. “Ain’t nobody.”

  “I know that, but maybe if I take the Chief down he’ll be impressed then say what he wants to say.”

  “Yeah, try it. Give it a shot.”

  Blaine pointed. “Good luck with Maria.”

  “Any hot tips?” asked Jesse with a grin.

  “Ask her why she wanted her son to have no parents.”

  “Good one.” Jesse pushed the door open and went inside. “Afternoon, Ms. Rivera, I’m Ranger Jesse Quantrall and I want to talk to you about your ex-husband, Roberto.” He cued up the recorder and placed it on the corner of the table.

  “What about him? He’s not my problem anymore.”

  Jesse raised an eyebrow. “How did you know that? Did you hire somebody to kill him?”

  She raised her hand to her mouth. “Roberto’s dead?”

  “He was shot down by an unknown assailant, Ms. Rivera. Perhaps you can shed some light on who killed him.”

  “How would I know?”

  “Who else would want to kill him?” asked Jesse. “You’re the one in the custody battle for your son. And now your son has no parents—no mother and now no father. Is that what you wanted? You wanted young Roberto to be an orphan?”

  “He has me,” she shouted and pulled against her shackles. He has his mother and that’s all he needs.”

  “But you’ll be in Huntsville sitting on death row. What kind of a mother will you be for your son?”

  “I have a lawyer. I’m not going to jail.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, ma’am, you’re already in jail and from here you’re going to Travis County lockup to wait for your trial. You won’t ever get out.”

  “Liar.” She screamed and jerked harder against the handcuffs.

  “My partner told me your boyfriend is making a deal with the DA. Mr. Maldonado is going to put the blame where it belongs and walk out of here.”

  “No, he can’t do that.” Her face was flushed, and tears of anger rolled down her cheeks. “I’ll kill him if he does that.”

  “Does what? Saves himself?”

  She almost shouted out something else but thought better of it and took a couple of calming breaths. “Where’s my son?”

  “Do you care? You killed his father and now he has no one. Looks like you don’t care one bit what happens to your son.”

  “I do care. I love him. Tell him I have a lawyer and I’ll be back home soon.”

  “I won’t lie to him, Ms. Rivera. You’ve told him enough lies already.” Jesse turned off the recorder and stood up. “You will never be home with your son.”

  CHIEF CALHOUN followed Blaine down the stairs to the infirmary. “Hope this works, son. I’ll put on my best top dog face for Mr. Maldonado.”

  Blaine smiled as he tapped on the door. The nurse on duty let them in and they crossed the room to Maldonado’s bed. “I brought the Chief to talk to you, Lucco. You can tell him what you’ve got to bring to the DA.”

  Maldonado rolled over and eyed Chief Calhoun’s uniform and the star on his chest. “Okay, the Chief is here. What kind of deal can I get?”

  The Chief sat down in the chair next to the bed and Blaine stood behind. “This is how it works. You tell me what would make a solid case against Ms. Rivera, I give the information to Mr. Leighton, the District Attorney, and he makes you an offer.” The Chief let out a breath while he was thinking. “You’re a two time loser, so he might offer you a sentence with possibility of parole. That’s something you would never get from the judge.”

  “I don’t want a trial. I want to know what the sentence is up front. See if I can do the time.”

  “Okay,” said the Chief. “I understand. What can you give me in return?”

  “The name of the guy Maria hired. I didn’t kill nobody, I swear it.”

  “What was the shooter’s name?”

  “She wouldn’t tell me, but it’s in her phone. I swear it is. She made lots of calls to him about the job and about the money—like how she was gonna pay him and shit like that.”

  “Okay, let me talk to the DA and we’ll set up a meeting.”

  “Thanks, Chief. I need to get out of this bed.”

  Upstairs in the Chief’s office Blaine said, “Sue should have both their phones. I’ll get a list of all the calls on Maria’s cell tomorrow.”

  “This isn’t much of a scoop,” said the Chief. “You would have checked the numbers anyway.”

  Blaine smiled. “But now we can tell Maria that her boyfriend rolled on her.”

  “That should make her crazy,” said Calhoun. “Crazier.”

  On the way out of DPS Blaine paused in the lobby to pick up Fletcher. Young Roberto’s aunt had arrived and was sitting next to him trying to console him. A family disaster no matter how you looked at it.

  Blaine motioned for F
letcher to come with and they left for home.

  The Blackmore Agency. Austin.

  AT THE AGENCY, the Governor’s SUV was parked in the drive and her security guys were standing at the door of the carriage house chatting with the two remaining Junkers.

  Fletcher picked up his truck and went home for the day and Blaine went inside. The front parlor was party central. All the girls were laughing and chatting and judging by the number of empty wine bottles, they had a huge head start on him.

  “Hey, I better chug a couple of Coronas to catch up to y’all.”

  Misty smiled and patted the seat next to her on the sofa.

  She was so goddam beautiful, she took his breath away.

  “Sad ending to the funeral,” said Cat. “I missed it.”

  “I was glad you missed it,” said Blaine. “I was grateful the press didn’t see you.”

  The dogs let out a howl and stormed the front foyer. The bloodhounds came rushing in and there was a moment of bedlam. Carm giggled and showed the dogs out the back door into the yard. All the girls rushed the foyer to greet Farrell and his new girl.

  FARRELL opened the front door for Avery and Red and Bluebelle rushed in and greeted Lexi and Hoodoo. With four huge dogs filling the foyer, Avey giggled and waited by the door. “Hey, doggies,” hollered Farrell. “I’m so happy to be home.”

  The girls spilled out of the parlor and Farrell introduced them to Avery. “This is my Mom, Annie Powell, my second Mom, Carmelita Flores, Lily Duke, Blacky’s assistant, and you know Misty already and this is Cat Campbell, Governor of Texas.”

  Avery stood open-mouthed and stared at Cat, all dressed in black and half wasted. “Pleased to meet everybody.”

  “Looks like these ladies have a head start on us, Avery,” said Farrell. “I’ll get us a beer and we’ll try to catch up.”

  Blaine ordered food so Carm wouldn’t have to cook in her good dress and after the guests left, Farrell brought Avery’s luggage in from the truck.

  “Happy to have you here, Avery,” said Blaine. “I want you and Farrell to be comfortable. If you don’t have enough space or privacy, I’ll redo the third floor and you can have it all to yourselves.”

  “Thank you, Blaine. You’re very kind.”

  “Not really, but I’d be unhappy if my brother left me. I need Farrell here.”

  “What’s he saying to you?” asked Farrell when he returned with the beer.

  “Your brother wants us to be comfortable.”

  “We will be. This is a good old house with tons of space. Come upstairs and I’ll show you our room.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Thursday, May 14th.

  The Blackmore Agency. Austin.

  BLAINE was slouched at the kitchen table working on his second mug of coffee when Farrell came downstairs with Avery. Looking more wide awake than Blaine felt, she was showered, dressed and ready to rock. Used to long days and hard work Blaine figured her for a go-getter.

  Farrell poured them both a coffee and carried the mugs to the table. “I told her she didn’t have to get up for another hour at least.”

  Avery smiled. “I’m always up early. I love the morning and I don’t want to waste the day.”

  Carm came into the kitchen and complained in Spanish. She didn’t like anyone getting up before she did. It was a thing.

  “Can I help you make breakfast, Carmelita?” asked Avery.

  Carm smiled and shook her head.

  “She doesn’t like anybody in her space,” said Blaine.

  “I don’t want to feel useless,” said Avery.

  Farrell turned and winked at her. “Hey, you’re not useless and you’ve only been here one millisecond. Give yourself a break.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Blaine, “when you get to the ranch, Annie will work your ass off. She’s no stranger to ball-busting work.”

  Avery giggled. “I like y’all’s mother. She’s smart and funny and what a gorgeous woman.”

  “Who’s talking about me?” Lil came in to start her day and breezed across to the coffee pot.

  “You’re beautiful too, Lily,” said Avery.

  “I’m an add-on?”

  Blaine pointed at the chair at the end of the table and she sat down. “See if Leighton can send a lackey to talk to Maldonado this morning. Ms. River’s boy toy is in the infirmary.”

  “Yep,” Lily wrote it down.

  “Call Sue and get a list of all the names on Maria’s cell, and Maldonado’s too. I want Farrell to run the names we don’t recognize by Kamps tonight and see if any lights come on.”

  Farrell nodded. “Good idea.”

  “No prints in the system for the guy Annie shot yesterday?” asked Lily.

  “Nope. And he hasn’t said a single word,” said Blaine. “Travis tried to prod him in the ambulance and at the hospital and got nothing.”

  “He’s a pro,” said Lily.

  “Uh huh.”

  “Next.” Lily wrote another number.

  “Now that Santos is dead, we can toss the house. We’ll send Fletch, Travis and Carlos over there for the day.”

  “Do you think his ex would have left something behind?” asked Farrell. “Doesn’t seem likely.”

  “Maybe not, but the asshole was giving off vibes,” said Blaine. “Like I’m the victim in this whole custody thing, but was he?”

  Lily shrugged. “You think he was hiding something?”

  “No idea, but I want to be sure.”

  Coulter-Ross Ranch. La Grange.

  FARRELL stopped at the gate at Coulter-Ross and waited for Jose to open it.

  “Wow, this is your mother’s ranch? It looks impressive.”

  “Since I was eighteen I lived on the ranch after Annie rescued me and my brother Neil from the gang I belonged to. He lives here with Mom when he’s not at school. Annie raised us, helped me graduate and sent Neil to college. He’s home for the summer.”

  “I have so much to learn about you, but I want to know every detail.”

  Farrell parked his truck and Neil came tearing out of the house. He ran across the long wooden porch and grabbed Farrell in a bear hug. “You were away so long, I almost went nuts.”

  Farrell patted Neil’s back and introduced Avery. “This is Avery Dennison, Neil. We’re a couple.”

  “Uh huh. Didn’t believe it for a minute when Mom told me, but here she is in the flesh.” Neil stuck out his hand. “Happy to meet you, Avery. My brother is as stubborn as a mule and he needs a damn good shit-kickin every now and then to keep him on the straight and narrow. I hope you’re up to it.”

  Avery giggled. “I hope so.”

  “Mom said you want to work in the barn,” said Neil. “I always help out when I’m home from school.”

  “I exercise horses and groom them. Clean out stalls too. I love my job.”

  “We better go in and get Mom,” said Neil. “She’ll want to go to the barn with y’all and show you her horses. Nothing makes her happier than showing off Desert Wind’s ribbons.”

  Robert Santos’ Residence. Austin.

  TRAVIS, Carlos and Fletcher were halfway through the search of the Santos’ residence when Carlos found a locked trunk in the basement.

  “Locked trunk down here, Travis. Might be something.”

  Travis and Fletcher descended the basement stairs and had a look at the trunk. “New padlock,” said Travis. “I’ll get the bolt cutters out of my truck.”

  He was back in minutes and the padlock was off.

  Carlos lifted the curved lid and the boys stared at a trunk full of handguns and bricks of cash.

  Downtown Austin.

  FARRELL left Avery with Annie and Neil at the ranch and went to work. Lil had been in touch with Sue in the lab and had the list of names ready for him when he got to the Agency. One list from Maria’s cell and another shorter one from Maldonado’s cell.

  He drove downtown to see if there was any sign of his most reliable snitch, Kamps. He had others and they were good on occ
asion, but he wouldn’t bet his life on anything they said.

  Kamps was a night person like most of them were, but the odd time—if he needed money bad enough—he’d be on the streets in the daytime selling his product. Farrell hoped this was one of those days.

  Farrell parked behind Grady’s, the Irish Pub that a lot of the street people frequented, went inside and ordered a pitcher of Shiner’s. The beer was about half gone when Kamps came in looking like someone had beat the crap out of him.

  He spied Farrell and slid into the bench seat across from him.

  “What the hell happened to you?”

  “Disagreement.”

  “Over money?”

  Kamps snarled at him. “What else would it be?”

  Farrell shrugged. “I can help you out.”

  “How much?”

  “Depends how good you are.”

  “Fuck, you. I’m always good. I’m the star in your parade.”

  Farrell gave the ugly ganger a half smile. “For sure.”

  “What are you after?”

  “Read some names for me and tell me if any of them ring the sniper bell.”

  “What if I don’t know any? Am I wasting my precious time?”

  “Twenty bucks if you wipe out.”

  “Okay, let me see the names.”

  Farrell poured Kamps a beer while he studied the two lists Lil had printed. Farrell watched Kamp’s eyes as he read the names up and down a couple of times.

  The big guy pursed his lips and tapped one name with a dirty nail. “I heard of this asshole. Punk. Not too bright, but a decent shooter.”

  Farrell leaned closer to see the name Kamps was pointing at. “Romeo Gaza?”

  “Nobody knows where he lives,” said Kamps. “I heard talk about his prices.”

  Farrell raised an eyebrow. “What kind of deal is he giving?”

  “This is his side hustle and he needs work. I heard he’d do it for half a K.”

  “He’s killing people for five hundred bucks?”

  Kamps shrugged. “Can’t say if it’s true. Just a rumor.”

  “What’s his main line of work if capping people is a sideline?”

  “I think he’s an expert on the ponies.”

  “Interesting.”