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Stiruard said it like it should be obvious The broken s Plastic covering the patio tables Pools of water on the tile floor

Perfect

What had Saht years ago? It’ll be a private place to talk Secure Hell, I own the security

Wil suard locked the door He stood at the glass, his hand stil on his holster as Wil walked back to his car

Pablo waited on the hood of the car, trying to ignore the rain

He wanted to throw the phone across theErainya Manos, and the last thing he wanted was to share the neith Stirman

It had been bad enough, dealing with a private investigator It brought back too er he’d found in Angelina’s bedrooo

So far, Pablo had resisted the urge to cal his wife He needed to be on the plane first, on his way to Mexico He just hoped Angelina had read his letters from jail, and understood his veiled directions about what she should do if he ever got free

But what if she’d burned the letters? He kept thinking about the look on her face the night he ca up to that night, she’d acted cagey, nervous Money had vanished fro account without explanation, and they never had any extraa sick friend, or seeing a doctor--little excuses that didn’t add up

At first Pablo was too bewildered to be angry He was used to Angelina depending on hial y years before, gotten separated from the rest of her failante ranchers in the high desert She had only Pablo, who’d given her citizenship through ood home, al the love she could want She would never betray hihbor told hi her while Pablo was at work--twice he’d come to see her, over the last week

And when Pablo had walked in that last night, and found the elina had looked up, and screa to take back those few seconds, as the er

"Yo, ao Wake up"

Stirhts

"What’s wrong?" Stired to say

He told Stirman about their private eye, who had fol owed Erainya Manos out of town thatShe’d taken I-35 north--her and her boy, Je?" Stiro in Austin, then?"

Pablo shifted uncouy lost her when she turned off on Ben White He ain He drove back to San Antonio and sat on her house, in case she cao Without the boy"

Pablo saw the rage building in Stirman’s face

They both knehat the PI’s newsto protect hioing to cooperate She would try to double-cross them

"The woot twenty-four hours," Pablo said halfheartedly The last thing he wanted was another death, especial y a woot to stay low and wait"

"No," Stirman insisted He took a deep breath, and Pablo kneas fil ing himself with that cold, homicidal sense of purpose Pablo had seen too o We’ve got work to do"

Chapter 12

Robert Johnson was a great help going through the agency’s old files

He would crouch at the far end of the living rooh them like a sno Then he would look at me, wild-eyed, a manila folder tented over his head

"Yes, thanks," I said "That’si ed to Erainya in the locked file cabinet were mementos of her transitional year, fros about her defense trial in Fred’sher to be Erainya Manos Her US passport, stamped for Greece Jeency cal ed Children First International His birth date, which Erainya had told uess--April 28, 1995 His birth parents’ nanatures and overn Jem’s release to Erainya’s custody

An early picture of Erainya and Jem Jem looked about one year old His dark eyes ith amazement as the woman with the frizzy black hair held hih some of Erainya’s correspondence Several notes of support froroups Fan letters fro her husband

I put those down They made me nervous

The rest of the stuff was froht of Fred as an oldnot hties Fred’s greasy black hair was parted in theat the col ar He had a square face, battered from years as an amateur boxer His eyes were sly and shal ow, his smile insincere He looked like a wife-beater, in the , Look, officer, you kno these wo that would make al ie was ten years with the Border Patrol, and the experience ency, he’d taken on a number of cases, either pro bono or at reduced fees, to help fa kin in the north, or to help prosecute coyotes like Wil Stir