“Okay, I’m here now.” Drew held his gun at shoulder-height, out of view of the window. “Open the door.”
“I just have to get the hammer.” Steps receded from the door.
Talia listened to the sound of nails screeching out of wood. “Can you put my gun in your pocket? It makes my scrub pants fall down.”
Drew put both weapons away as the door slowly opened. He shook his head at his three men standing back by the cane field. Anne, her hands smeared with blood, waved them in through the narrow opening and shut the door behind her. Drew set down a case of crime scene processing equipment.
“I didn’t want them to contaminate the scene,” Anne said. “I’m sorry, I had to try to save her, so you’ll have to eliminate me. You can have swabs, fingerprints, whatever you need. Angel’s they got when they brought him here.”
Drew handed Talia gloves and she put them on. She stood with her back against the front door and looked into a room across the way. Its door stood open and Eva lay on the floor in a pool of blood, a small, slender knife lying beside her. Talia clamped her mouth shut before any sound could come out. She gave herself a second and looked back. “Drew, you have work to do. I’m going to go in the kitchen and get started with Anne.”
Drew nodded, picked up the case, and skirted the bloody footprints on his way to Eva. Talia could hear a camera snapping pictures as she entered the kitchen and saw three guns on the table.
“Keith told us you were just protecting the evidence,” Talia said as she swabbed Anne’s hands and face and bagged and labeled the swabs.
“Yes! Yes!” Anne started to hug Talia but stopped, seeing the blood still on her hands. “I thought Drew would understand.”
“He wasn’t sure whether you’d gone crazy,” Talia said. “You made him take Keith out of the hospital when he just woke up from surgery. We’ve wasted time we could have used to contain this situation. You scared all of us half to death.”
“God,” Anne said. “It blindsided me like nothing else ever has. I wanted so badly to come back to Drew, but I had eight years of distrust to overcome. I thought I could handle this thing with Angel and keep him from being a distraction. I wanted to prove myself and do a big thing to help you people. Maybe I should have just said I thought Eva was holding something back. Maybe she knew something was going to happen.”
“Eva was holding back?” Talia swabbed the guns and put them in bags. “No. Wait. Just tell me what happened from the beginning.”
“This morning I relieved Aaron, the guy who had spent the night keeping an eye on Angel. We rotate responsibilities – somebody prowls the cane fields, somebody sleeps, somebody focuses on the outside of the house, and somebody watches Angel inside the house, each in six hour shifts. I came off the sleep shift at six. Eva always makes – made –” she choked but continued “– these fantastic breakfasts. So hot – so good! We sat around the kitchen table – Aaron, Eva, Angel, and I, chatting.
Aaron went out to crash in the hammock on the porch. Eva and I cleaned up, and that was when it hit me that Angel had gotten out of my line of sight. So I looked around and saw him in Eva’s room, standing in front of her computer.
“‘So your kid’s a geek?’ I joked.
“‘What?’ Eva turned her head and stared at him. ‘He told me he knows nothing about computers. He wrote me letters, on paper, to the post office box I used.’
“We both went to stand in the doorway of Eva’s room. ‘What are you doing, Angel?’ Eva asked him.
He turned around and smiled at us. ‘Just looking at the pretty pictures you have. What did you call it? The screensaver?’
“I swear, Talia, I swear, when I first looked into the bedroom, the screensaver was not up. He had his hands on the keyboard and he was typing or something. Eva was suspicious too.
“‘No, you were doing something on my computer,’ Eva said. ‘You told me you never used one before.’
“‘Well, I wanted to learn,’ Angel said. ‘Will you teach me?’
“‘Not on that computer,’ I said. ‘We’ll get you one that’s secure and that doesn’t go online.’
“‘That’s no good,’ Angel grumbled. ‘How can I learn things if I can’t – what did you say it was? To search for things? – Google?’
“‘We can get you books – anything you want, to help you learn,’ Eva said. ‘And soon, a computer of your own. But you must realize, Angel, that people can find you if you are online – The cartel might find you.’”
“‘But being stuck here in this house is boring!’ Angel said. ‘I want to meet kids my age and start being normal. I want to go to a real school. Can I go meet those kids who are coming to see Keith and Talia? Can I have school with them?’”
“‘How do you know about that, Angel?’ I asked.
“‘I don’t know. Mama must have told me,’ Angel said.
“‘I never told you any such thing,’ Eva said. ‘I only told you they were teachers. I never said anything about their students coming here. How did you know it?’”
Chapter Ninety-seven – “If You Ever Betray Her Trust…”
Anne continued. “‘Go out and sit in the living room, Angel,’ I said to him. I was about to call Drew and tell him what was happening, and get the techs checking Eva’s computer. Angel suddenly had that knife in his hand. He grabbed Eva and held it against her throat.
“‘Don’t scream, either one of you. Keep quiet,’ he said.
“‘Angel, calm down,’ I said. ‘We can talk about this – whatever’s going on here.’
“‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ Angel said. ‘Anybody else, your boss would believe. But they all say how you left him. You hid from him and you spied on him – for years! Nobody trusts you.
“‘They trusted me more than you. Even when I shot you, and you almost died, they believed it was an accident. This is perfect. I can tell them anything, and they’ll blame it all on you.’
“He dragged Eva over to the window and pushed it open. Then he – he spat out a string of curses in Spanish, and he just stabbed that knife down into her throat. It spurted everywhere! Angel was out the window so fast. He must have rigged it sometime earlier. He was gone before I could yell for help. I tried to stop Eva’s bleeding. I tried. She stared at me. She tried to say something to me – but there was nothing but a gurgle.” Anne lifted her hands to do something with them and saw the blood again.
“Wash your hands,” Talia said.
“First I need you to change your clothes and have Talia bag them. Are these your footprints, Anne?” Drew asked as he came back down the hall.
“They must be. Angel never came out of Eva’s room again, and no one else has been in here.” Anne stared at Drew. “You do believe me, don’t you?”
“So far your story fits the facts,” Drew answered woodenly. “The conversation, of course, is a he said, she said. Eva can’t exactly testify on your behalf. There’s an old saying – ‘It’s not what you believe, it’s what you can prove.”
“Yes. I know,” Anne said. “My suitcase is in the third bedroom there, Talia. I’ll go get my clothes off in the bathroom, if you don’t mind bringing my things to me.” Anne disappeared.
“I’ll be right there,” Talia said, before turning to Drew.
“One thing is missing from Anne’s story,” Drew said. There’s blood on the outside of the windowsill.”
“Angel should have been covered in Eva’s blood,” Talia said. “Anne was.”
“Remember Anne said we got Angel’s stats when we took him in? That’s not exactly true. Eva and Angel were so freaked out by the shooting we used Eva’s blood DNA record that Angel gave her when he first contacted her. I field-typed that blood on the windowsill. It isn’t Eva’s or Anne’s, and it isn’t what we had for Angel either.”
“So if that boy was not Eva’s son – is that evidence in Anne’s favor, or against her?”
“It’s evidence,” Drew said, “that I am being played for a sucker by somebody.”
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Talia followed Drew back into the bedroom, stepping carefully around the blood. “What does Eva have in her hand?”
Drew pried her fingers open. “A small paring knife,” he said, whistling. “Bloody.”
“Maybe Anne didn’t see Eva stab him – Maybe that’s why he stabbed her.”
“Yeah. It was just a trace of blood out there. What’s your take, Talia? Is Anne telling the truth?”
“There are still things that don’t make sense,” Talia said. “Why is that knife Angel used even here? If Angel was found out as a liar and had to improvise an escape, he’d grab a kitchen knife or something, like Eva did. Your people would be very careful with a suspected drug dealer here.”
“And what was the first thing Anne said to you? She thought Eva was holding something back?”
“Yes. Let me get her clothes, and we’ll find out what she meant.”
“I’m not sure,” Anne said when she joined them. “Last night, I had cane field duty. When I came out from doing a sweep, Eva, Angel, and Pete stood on the porch, talking. Pete said, ‘Must feel good, even under these circumstances, to get to spend time with your son.’
“Eva said, ‘I do wish the circumstances were different.’ But I saw something in her eyes – you know how we learn to read body language, to try to tell if someone’s lying to you – I swear she was keeping something back.”
“Maybe she already suspected something was wrong about Angel,” Talia said, “and that’s why she had the knife.”
“What knife?” Anne asked. “Eva had a knife?”
Drew explained. “You didn’t see it?”
“I tried to preserve everything, except for trying to stop the bleeding,” Anne said. “I didn’t do a search. I didn’t do anything that might contaminate the scene.”
“That,” Talia said. “Is the key evidence you need to consider, Drew.”
Drew and Anne both stared at her.
“Hardly anything Anne did makes sense,” Talia said. “She acted like a crazy person. She nailed the door shut! Why do that, unless Keith is right, and all she thought about was protecting the evidence of what happened. That, and the fact that she’s here, and Angel is gone. If he told them he was afraid of Anne, the other security team members would have at least kept them apart until they could figure this out. But he ran. Anne stayed. He ran hard and fast and determined enough to get away from three guys whose jobs depended on catching him.”
“Yes,” Anne said, the word escaping from her in a long breath.
“I’m going to get somebody I trust to evaluate all this, and let the other guys come in here to go over the scene – if that’s okay with you,” Drew said to Anne as he packed up the bags of evidence.
She nodded. “Yes. I don’t care what they think of me. I wanted you to see everything first. You’re the only one I have something to prove to.”
Talia saw the conflict in Drew’s eyes, and how he had to make himself shift gears. “We have to assume there’s a threat against the kids coming down here, and cancel the trip.”
“No!” Talia exploded. “That cannot happen. We have run out on these kids twice. We have disappointed them and left them to try to understand and deal with terrifying things alone. This time we are going to protect them. It will work out. You’ll see.”
“I suppose you’ll protect those school administrators if those women try to make them disappear at the awards banquet?” Drew asked.
“Yes,” Talia said, not even hesitating.
Anne burst out laughing.
Drew glared at her. “Be careful about laughing at that woman. She and her husband are the reason you’re not lying on the floor in handcuffs. And I’m betting, if you ever betray her trust, she can take you down herself, baby on board and all.”
Anne opened her mouth, then shut it. “I’m sorry,” she finally said.
“Apology accepted,” Talia replied. She turned to Drew. “Can I get back to that husband you mentioned now? Wherever you stashed him this time?”
Talia sat by Keith’s bedside and watched him sleep. She looked across at Drew, standing and watching her watch him. Anne stood beside him, doing the same thing. Both of them had their hands rigidly by their sides.
“You two look like you’re seeking inspiration,” Talia said. “Marriage is a triangle. God is on top and you two are side by side. It has three walls to keep you together. Anything else is outside. The past is out there. Money is out there. Jealousy, distrust, other people – any trouble you can think of – it’s all out there. It doesn’t get inside the walls unless you let it. You face it together. Only you can tear those walls apart. God never will.”
“What did I miss?”
Talia looked down at Keith and saw the groggy, bewildered look on his face as he spoke. “I heard you missed the whole trip to our new house,” she said. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Drew and Anne slip away.
“Good drugs, once they got to working,” he said with a smile, and looked around. “Wait … this is …?”
Talia followed his gaze around the small, lantern-lit brick room.
“We’re under the ball court? Is that the waterfall I hear?”
“Yes. Are you okay with being down here? Everything is re-enforced. It’s very safe. It’s warm enough, right? I can get you another blanket.”
“It’s fine, as long as you don’t disappear on me again. I wasn’t that far out of it. Where did you go? And what happened with Anne?”
“I went with Drew. You were right,” Talia said. “Of course. Anne wanted Drew to look at the evidence before anything else went wrong.”
“Eva … I’m so sorry. I know she was special to you guys.”
“Yes. Zanamu could not stop crying. I think Eva suspected something was wrong. I just think she waited too long to be sure.”
“So Anne and Drew are still watching each other like hawks – like that ‘Hurt Hawk’ poem – proud, and in a ton of pain, and can’t get better, either one of them?”
“Yes. That’s a pretty good description. You are so wise.”
“It’s easy to see what other people need to do. Not so easy to figure out what I ought to be doing.”
“You ought to be resting, and getting some food into you, and getting stronger. That’s all you ought to be doing.” Talia kissed him.
“Angel – he’s in the wind, right?”
“They haven’t found him yet. And they think he was especially interested in finding out about the class trip – so we need to be extra careful and keep the kids close.”
“Ain’t like I can beat him off if he comes around. Man, how am I gonna get back to my therapy? Don’t guess they can put a black hood on Raul and pull him down here?”
“You have a whole therapy team, now. We have some people with lots of experience in physical and mental conditioning who have volunteered to help you get back in shape.”
“I have a feeling this is going to be pretty unconventional therapy.”
“Sounds like the story of our lives together. Unconventional from the get-go.”
Chapter Ninety-eight – Supply Chain
“Congratulations! You are the first commercial driver to use this road,” Talia called out as Mike pulled his truck up alongside the ball court. He swung out of the cab and Mary climbed down as well. People poured out of the ball court and waved Mike away as he started to undo the strapping and tarps. The couple joined Talia as workers began to unload the Tesla and other cargo from the flatbed trailer.
“Be easier if you had a dock,” Mike observed.
“I’m sure that’s true, but we had an emergency,” Taila replied. “It’s still a work in progress. Thank you for coming down here.”
“I swore I’d never bring a truck into Mexico,” Mike said. “Even when I had a lot junkier trucks than this one. But the bottom’s pretty much fallen out of freight. I was thankful for your business. I’m always thankful for your business, of course, but especially nowadays when the economy is so bad.”
&
nbsp; “I’m afraid it’s not going to get better,” Talia said. “Oh! I didn’t think the generator would be that big. We were praying for one with more capacity but were going to settle for the one we ordered until something bigger came available.”
“Somebody must have been praying hard for it,” Mary said. “Since we run under our own authority these days, I had to become a collections agent. The shipper you bought your generator from is coincidentally also a customer who owed us quite a bit. When we arrived and he said was staring bankruptcy in the face. But he told us he had this generator sitting on his property from an order that was half-paid for but canceled. He hadn’t been able to get anybody else to buy it and he was desperate for some way to get back what he’d put into it.”
“He offered to give us the trailer and the generator instead of the one you bought and see if you’d be willing to pay the difference owed to him,” Mike said. “It might help keep him in business. We were pretty satisfied just getting the flatbed – it’s top of the line – much better than anything we could afford. But if you wanted to pay an upcharge on the generator, maybe we could help out the shipper as well.”
“Absolutely,” Talia said. “This is an answer to prayer for many people, I think.”
“That’s the way things are going these days,” Mary said. “We’re all getting by on a wing and a prayer.”
“So this may turn out to be Precious Treasure II?” Mike asked. “Just when I had all the routes worked out to sneak in and out of Number One.”
“We still have people who are staying there, and they’ll need supplies,” Talia said. “I think I remember you saying you liked long runs.”
“Between here and there? That would be a long run,” Mary admitted. “But we’re at your service, since we spend more time down than running these days. Can’t afford to turn on the truck for what some people want to pay.”
“So where’s your hubby? You two are usually inseparable,” Mike asked. “And when you’re apart, you’re usually in trouble.”
The Great Thirst Boxed Set Page 60
