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Neves did so

“Shit, shit,” he said

“You in the shit, all right, Toed it back loudly against the floor of the hot tub “You heard of quicksand? Well, you just stepped in quickshit”

“He’s in Mexico, OK? He was here in LA We set up soone now I swear to God Perrine went back to Mexico early this ot him over the border”

“To where?!” I said “Where did he go?!”

“I don’t know You think he’d tell me? I don’t know”

“Wrong answer,” Diaz said, squealing open the tub’s tap full blast

“No! It’s true! It’s true!” Neves yelled out over the water splattering loudly off the side of his face

We stood there as Neves screa flat on his back, and the water rose In thirty seconds, it was up to his earlobes After a minute, the water had reached his cheeks He strained his neck, trying to raise hiht vests, he looked like an overturned turtle trying to pull himself unsuccessfully out of his shell

“He went to his su, the water now at his lips “I’ll tell you exactly where on the map Just turn it off! Turn it —”

Diaz put a hand to rab the cri water

“Give him a second, Mike,” Diaz said “He needs to see how serious we are”

“Exactly,” Bassuy soak his weary bones for a minute in peace, Mike Can’t you see he’s had a hard day?”

CHAPTER 88

THOUGH HE HADN’T BEEN to it in over a year, the estate in the Sierra de Pachuca, fifteen miles outside the central-eastern Mexican town of Real del Monte, was by far Perrine’s favorite