The conversation was broken by a high-pitched scream.
“KAYLA,” Candace screamed and jumped up from the sofa.
Ted and the others followed Candace as she dashed up the stairs towards Kayla’s room.
“Oh, Honey, are you all right?” she asked, as she ran through the doorway.
Kayla screamed again and Candace flew to her, sat on the bed and took the girl in her arms.
“It’s all right, baby. You’re all right.”
“I had that dream again. Dad ran Mom down with a big car then he killed Harry.”
Candace pulled her tighter. “It’s okay. It was only a dream. None of it’s true.”
Kayla sniffled and tears rolled down her cheeks. “But it . . . it is true. First Mom’s gone, now Harry. Am I going to lose everybody I love?” She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her Husky sweat shirt.
Candace held her tight and turned to her three friends. “She’s been sleeping almost non-stop since we lost Harry. She has this recurring dream. At least two or three times a day she wakes up screaming.”
Maria sat on the bed on the other side of Kayla and put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Kayla. Don’t let the dreams frighten you. They’re just imaginary nightmares. They’ll go away.”
****
Delores Olivera loved the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood on the west side of Mexico City. It was a refuge for the rich. The wide tree-lined boulevards that twisted up the hill were home to what she was sure were some of the most outrageously expensive homes in the world.
Concrete or stone fences topped with razor wire or broken glass bottles separated those homes from the rest of humanity. Armed security guards roamed the premises. Uniformed maids, cooks and gardeners stepped down from the autobus every morning to service her home and those of her neighbors.
Delores’s Mexico City home was two houses down from Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world. She was a prisoner in her own home. When she ventured out, she rode in an armored Mercedes G3 AMG limousine with at least two security guards in the vehicle. Since her son’s kidnapping, she never left home without monster pickups with two armed guards leading and trailing her.
Alpine Armoring built the Mercedes limo to her specifications. It was armored with top and bottom protection, it had bullet proof glass that could withstand high-powered rifles and tires with steel disks in them that kept going, even if punctured. The vehicle set her back over a million dollars.
The pickups were huge, lifted Ford F-350’s with giant tires, Cummins turbo-charged diesel engines and cattle-guard bumpers front and back. The four-wheel-drive vehicles could literally drive over a small car.
Delores loved to ride her bicycle. When she left her fortress home, she was escorted by four guards on bikes, led and followed by the big pickups. When the family flew to La Paz to spend time on their huge yacht, the motorcade took them to the airport where they boarded their private jet inside a secure hanger. At the La Paz airport, another motorcade waited to take them to Marina Palmira.
In the early morning hours, Delores preferred to sit in bed, sip Chocolate Mejicana and read the newspapers. Her cell phone and lap top computer were by her side. Much business was transacted from her bed.
The huge, ornately-carved mahogany bed was covered in a foam-topped mattress, layers of down comforters and eight hundred thread count Egyptian cotton sheets.
Delores sipped on her chocolate then reached for a bolillo from the plate on her night stand.
“AIEEEEEEE. . .”
The scream tapered off to a wail and sobs.
Delores jumped from her bed and grabbed the .38 caliber Smith and Wesson Police Special from her night stand. She was met at her bedroom door by Francisco with an M-16 automatic rifle in his hands.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Downstairs. A maid just discovered two boxes with blood dripping from them.”
“Ay Dios mío!” She slumped against the wall. “Is it . . . is It . . . “
“We don’t know yet. You stay in the house. Let us take care of it.”
Delores took a deep breath. “No. I will go. I have to see for myself.”
She hurried down the stairs with her guard in tow. She flung open the doors and stepped onto the path to the front gate.
A ten-foot-tall rock wall surrounded her estate, with razor wire on top to discourage anyone climbing over. The gate was a pair of steel-reinforced swinging oak doors. It would take a tank to breach the premises.
Her maid stood sobbing with the gardener comforting her. Two guards stood by the big cardboard boxes on the street. As Francisco said, blood leaked from the boxes.
“Are they . . . ?” Delores asked one of the guards.
“We have not opened them yet, Señora. We have called the policía.”
Delores took a deep breath and stooped to open the first box.
She froze.
She looked down at the head of her only son.
“Someone will pay for this.”
Chapter 5
Since Ted planned this evening long before Harry’s unfortunate death, he decided to go through with it.
Being a hacker extraordinaire, he knew everything there was to know about Maria. But how would it work? She came from a privileged background, living most of the year in Mexico and spending the summers at her family’s estate in San Juan Capistrano.
Ted was a poor boy, raised in the barrios of East LA. His father was a cook in a Mexican restaurant and his mother a maid for some rich Hollywood producer. Then it all changed.
Ted won a football scholarship to the University of Washington. He was the first one in his family to attend college. He graduated summa cum laude next to his anglo friend who was at the top of the class.
His degree in computer science and certification as a computer security analyst landed him his first job. After almost getting killed in Canada, seeing Chris shot and Meagan killed, he settled down to normal life. But it didn’t stay normal for very long.
He was jumped by a pack of Neo-Nazis and rescued by a beautiful PI, Catrina Flaherty. It didn’t take long for him to join her firm and start his crusade against injustice.
His father won the California Lottery and bought the restaurant where he worked for twenty-five years. He insisted Ted return to LA to help him in his new business.
Ted reunited with Cat and became a partner in her firm after her previous partner was killed in their battle with the drug lords in Mexico.
And now here he was. He’d made it in the Anglo world. He constantly questioned himself. Was he good enough to compete in this strange world? Did people doubt him because of his heritage, his color?
One thing he was sure about was Maria. She would never be prejudiced against him because he was Mexican. Although she looked like an Irish lass, she was Mejicana through and through.
This was a special dinner. He usually made American food for her when he cooked because she grew up with good Mexican food. Tonight was an exception.
He put the pork down to marinade yesterday. This morning he started a pot of frijoles cooking. He cooked the pinto beans with onions, garlic, chipotle chiles and a ham bone for flavoring.
“Whatcha think, mijo,” Ted said to the small, black Burmese cat sitting on the counter. “Smell pretty good to you?”
Oscar, the cat, meowed in reply. He looked like he’d been through the wars. His right ear was torn and he walked with a pronounced limp in his right rear leg more and more.
What would Meagan think? Ted wondered.
Meagan O’Connor, Chris’s almost fiancée, had been Oscar’s original owner, as much as anyone could own a cat. When both Ted and Oscar survived the terrorist attack in Canada, Meagan was killed and Chris badly wounded, Ted brought Oscar to his house, just until he could find a good home for him.
That was, what, nearly eight years ago? Although Ted hated cats, Oscar had grown on him. Oscar was getting a little long in the tooth now. How would Ted feel when he eventually
lost him?
Earlier in the day, Ted made a trip to the Pike Place market for fresh tortillas, cilantro and red onions. He picked up the avocados at the grocery store three days ago so they would be ripe tonight.
It took a couple of hours to cook the pork for tacos al pastor, so Ted fired up his grill and put them on the rotisserie before straightening out the apartment.
He lived in a turn of the Twentieth Century apartment building on Capitol Hill with a magnificent view of Seattle and Elliot Bay beyond it.
Now that he had a little money, the college-boy furniture was replaced with some nice pieces.
He straightened the brass-framed mirror just inside the front door. It must be all the trucks and traffic that kept vibrating the mirror askew. A fresh bouquet of multi-color tulips sat on the table under the mirror.
Picking up a Sports Illustrated and a couple of computer magazines, he made sure his baseball stadium coffee-table book and a gorgeously-decorated Mexican cookbook were within easy reach.
Ted opened the bottle of Chateau San Michel Cab to let it breathe.
Show time! He was ready. Glancing up at the wall clock, he thought about how Maria was always punctual. Despite her upbringing in Mexico, seven o’clock meant seven o’clock. It must have something to do with her American mother.
As the second hand hit the twelve, the door bell rang. Ted smiled to himself and opened the door.
Every time he saw her, she took his breath away. She was a vision, a fantasy princess. She wore thigh-high black boots with four inch stiletto heels, accentuating her long, long legs. Above the boots black jeans melted onto to her legs and slim hips. A cream-colored cardigan sweater covered a cream-colored silk shell.
At her side was Popo, her ever-faithful harlequin Great Dane. Before Ted could step close to give his novia a kiss, Popo leapt forward, rose on his hind legs and put his paws on Ted’s shoulders.
“Ha ha. You scamp,” Ted said as the giant dog licked his face. “Just you wait; I have a job for you tonight.”
Oscar took off like a moon rocket. He charged through the room and flew to the top of a book case. He was having no part of the enormous mutt.
“Popo, down.” Maria looked a little embarrassed by her dog’s unfettered affection for Ted. “I hope he didn’t mess up your shirt.”
Ted looked in the mirror at his pink pin-striped John Nordstrom button-down shirt. “Nah, it looks good. First time I’ve worn it.”
“Well, it looks marvelous on you.” Maria reached for Ted’s collar and pulled him into an embrace.
With her four-inch heels, Ted felt like he was hugging the Statue of Liberty. He’d never had a tall girlfriend before.
“C’mon in. Dinner’s almost ready.” Ted broke away from the hug and led Maria by the hand into the living room. “We’re doing something a little different tonight. Mexican.”
Maria brushed a kiss on Ted’s forehead. “It’s about time. For months you’ve been telling me how you were this great Mexican chef, but you’ve never prepared so much as a single frijol for me.”
“I figured that living in Mexico City and all, you had access to the greatest chefs in the world. You probably wouldn’t think much of my poor offerings.” Ted stepped to the sliding door to his deck. “Take a look at this. Perfection on the spit.”
He opened the lid of his grill to reveal a large piece of pork in a red adobado sauce rotating on the rotisserie. As the steam rose from the grill, the unmistakable aroma of al pastor meat filled the air.
“Oh, Ted,” Maria took a deep breath. “That makes me homesick.”
Maria lived on her own in Mexico City where she was a curator of the pre-Columbian exhibits at the National Museum of Anthropology, but this was her first time living out of the country by herself.
“Reminds me of Sunday afternoons watching football with Papa,” Ted said. “Every fall we had this tradition. He’d invite the whole neighborhood over. The men would all watch football and the women work in the kitchen. Except for Papa. He was in charge of the grill. We’d have tacos al pastor or carne asada or sometimes we’d go fishing on the pier and grill up the day’s catch.
“It sounds lovely. I wish I could have met him.”
Ted felt a lump in his throat. “He was a great guy. Can I get you a glass of wine?”
“Sí, por favor.”
Ted decanted his bottle of cabernet sauvignon and poured two glasses. “Here,” he handed her a glass. “Today we drink to a very special day.” He held up his glass for her to clink.
“I’ll drink to that. What’s so special about today?” Maria asked, as she walked back into the living room.
“I have a surprise for you, but you’ll just have to wait.” Ted turned to rub Popo between the ears as the big dog nudged up to him. “Popo, come with me. I have a job for you.”
“What?” Maria asked. “What on earth are you talking about? A job for Popo?”
Ted turned and led the dog to his bedroom. “You’ll just have to wait and see,” he said over his shoulder.
“Popo, sit,” Ted said, as they entered the bedroom. He turned and closed the door.
“Now this has to be a big secret. Can you keep a secret, boy?”
Popo emitted a low bark.
“Good boy.”
Ted reached into his dresser and pulled a small, velvet box from his sock drawer. “Okay, now, you have to keep this hidden until I call you. Understand?”
Popo barked again.
Ted tied a red ribbon with a diamond ring on it around Popo’s neck.
“Okay, you wait here until I call you.”
“You boys sure are being secretive,” Maria said, as Ted reentered the room. “What’s the big deal?”
“Oh, I just wanted to get the big brute out of the way while I talked to you.”
Maria sipped from her wine glass. “Talk to me, what’s going on?”
“Here, sit down.” Ted steered her toward the brown leather recliner. “Maria Gonzales, I’ve been head over heels for you since I first saw you. When I first met you in Mexico City, I thought you were an angel from heaven, but in the months since then, I’ve discovered that you’re the smartest and wisest woman in the world.”
Ted sniffled, then kept going “When you came up here to teach at the University of Washington, I thought God answered all my prayers. Now I want you to answer a prayer.”
Ted dropped down to one knee and took both of her hands in his.
“Popo, come!” Ted commanded
The huge dog came loping from the bedroom.
“Maria Gonzales, will you marry me?”
Popo poked his nose between Ted and Maria.
“Oh!” Maria saw the ring on Popo’s collar.
“Go ahead, try it on.”
Maria’s shaking hands reached for the ribbon. “Oh, Ted, it’s beautiful.” She slid a ring with a giant diamond surrounded by sapphires down the ribbon. She wiped at the tears in her eyes. “Ted, Teddy, I don’t know . . .” her voice trailed off.
“Will you make me the happiest man on earth?”
Maria grabbed Ted and pulled him to her chest, then raised his head and planted a long, slow kiss on his lips.
“Well, what do you say?” Ted asked when they came up for air.
“I’m so surprised. I didn’t expect this.” Maria wiped tears away from her eyes. “I’m so happy. . . Ted, I . . . I . . . can’t answer you now. There’s so much to consider. May I think about it for a couple of days?”
Ted felt like the Road Runner just dropped an anvil on his head. He got to his feet. The world was spinning. “Ah. . . okay I guess. I mean . . . there’s no hurry.”
“Teddy,” Maria rose and took Ted in her arms. “I love you so much. There’s just so much. . . I mean, let me think about it for a few days. I don’t want to ruin what we have together.”
Chapter 6
Chris’s smart phone vibrated and gave a little burbling noise. He looked down and saw Sarah’s text.
“Waiting in bagg
age claim area.”
“She’s here,” he said to Candace in the passenger seat.
He started up Candace’s Mercedes GL550 SUV and pulled out of the cell phone lot at Sea-Tac airport. It took nearly ten minutes to negotiate the tsunami of traffic to the Alaska Airlines pickup area.
Sarah stood beside a porter with her stack of bags, dressed in a long black wool coat with a fur collar and tall black stiletto heeled boots.
“There she is.” Candace pointed at her stepdaughter.
Chris pulled the SUV to the curb and jumped out of the door. Sarah came running around the back of the car to embrace him.
He put his arms around her and swept her off her feet, twirling her around in a full circle. When he deposited her back on the ground, she stretched on her tiptoes and pulled Chris’s head down to her level. She planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Oh, Chris, I’m so glad to see you. You don’t know what it’s been like, being all by myself, since I heard the news about Dad.”
Chris looked down at his little sister. She was almost a foot shorter than him. “I’ve really needed you here. At times like this you need family.” He looked up to see Candace rapidly approaching. “Ah . . . Candace, I’m sorry . . . I didn’t mean . . .”
“That’s okay, Chris.” Candace took Sarah in her arms. “I know what you meant.”
She and Sarah exchanged air kisses.
“Sarah, you look terrific,” the taller woman said. “I love your pixie cut. You look absolutely like a fairy.” Sarah had dyed her hair black again.
“C’mon. We better get going before we get a ticket.” Chris opened the tailgate for the porter to load Sarah’s baggage and handed him a five-dollar bill. “Thank you.”
Sarah came around to the passenger seat and Candace got in back.
As they pulled onto I-5, Candace said, “We planned a welcome home dinner for you. All the things you like, grilled salmon, wild rice, broccoli and a lovely white burgundy.”
“You planned it? As in you and Chris?
“Of course.” Candace took off her gloves and unbuttoned her coat.
The Cartel Strikes Back: The Ted Higuera Series, Book 5 Page 4
