by Kelly Irvin
Jensen turned to Dr. McGee. He cocked his head. Together, they moved away from Teeter’s girlfriend and Gabby and into the autopsy suite.
“I did a cursory exam at the scene. I’d just begun the prelim when Agent Jensen and Ms. Lockhart arrived.” Snapping on gloves, she moved to the table where Teeter’s body lay. His eyes were closed and his mouth slack, those solid muscles now flaccid. She pointed to numerous bullet holes in his chest and abdomen. “He was hit fourteen times in the right bicep, chest, and abdomen. Three more times in the right outer thigh, once in the calf just below his right knee.”
“Overkill.”
“Two shots penetrated the heart. He would’ve been dead within seconds.” Her gloved hand touched the dead man’s shoulder as if to apologize for her blunt explanation. “They dropped him in his tracks.”
“What kind of weapon?”
“I haven’t extracted the bullets yet. I understand that witnesses described semiautomatic or automatic gunfire.”
Eli turned to Jensen. “No one else was hit?”
“No. Ms. Lockhart was less than a foot away. She hit the asphalt and he fell on top of her, whether to protect her or because he was dying, we can’t really know.”
“Nothing from the witnesses?”
“People are scared silent.” Jensen’s gaze hardened as he stared at Teeter’s body. “The movie just let out. Forty or fifty people streaming out, mixing with Sunday afternoon shoppers. No place else to go in Laredo. The PD is doing interviews, but everyone says the same thing. It happened so fast. Black four-door sedan. Dark tinted windows. Window comes down, Hispanic man. A few seconds, boom, boom, boom, pandemonium. Everyone scatters, hides, hits the deck. Car speeds away. Same story over and over again. Slight variations. Dark-blue or black car. Black guy. Hispanic guy. Black bandana over his mouth. Sunglasses, no sunglasses.”
“Typical witness statements. Who’s handling the investigation for LPD?”
“Detective Rincon.”
“Doesn’t that guy ever take a night off?”
“I know. They called him in, rightly assuming this is related to Operation Talon.”
Operation Talon. The operation had a name. “How much do you know about him?”
Jensen glanced at Dr. McGee. She smiled. “I’m ready to get started. Are you gentlemen planning to assist or observe?”
“I’d rather not watch you cut up a friend.” Jensen headed for the door. “I know you don’t work for me, Doctor, but I’d appreciate a courtesy copy of your report as soon as possible.”
“Happy to oblige.”
Back in the hallway, Jensen motioned toward the door. “I need a cigarette.”
“The reporters are out there.”
“They probably know more than I do, but I can’t share with them.”
“Is there a back door?”
Jensen led the way through a long hallway and out to a back area dotted with a few mesquite trees and nopales. He lit his cigarette and took a long drag. His hands shook. He offered the pack to Eli. With a silent apology to Gabby, Eli took it.
“This is so far off the record you’d have to travel around the world before I’d repeat it. I’ll deny saying it.”
“I just want to find Jake.” Eli caressed the cigarette, took the light Jensen offered, and inhaled. The first lungful burned all the way down. “I’m not interested in horning in on your investigation.”
“Jake insisted Rincon was in on the gun-smuggling operation.”
If Jake was right, the cop was pretending to hunt Jake down to charge him with murder, when in fact he’d known all along where Jake was. Or that Jake was dead.
“But he couldn’t prove it?”
“He said he was getting close. He said we’d be able to drop the hammer on the whole thing within a few days. Then his CI was murdered. He disappeared and Alberto Garza was killed in San Antonio. Rincon is part of the interagency task force created to stop the flow of guns over the border.”
“What made him think Rincon was the mole?”
“Something Andy Mendez told him. He didn’t go into specifics, but he said the old guy had hinted that we should be careful with Rincon. Garza was scared out of his mind. He said he knew too much. They would never let him live if they found out he was a CI.”
“Who is they?”
“Jake said he’d have all the pieces as soon as he brought Garza in. Garza refused to talk about it on the phone. He wanted protection in exchange for whatever he had. Same as the other CI.”
“Chuy Figueroa said Garza came by the store Thursday afternoon. He was running an errand for his uncle. That night he shows up in San Antonio and gets shot near Gabby’s restaurant. He dies.” Eli ran the timeline through its paces for the millionth time. “Have you tried to reconstruct where he was in between? Rincon claims he’s trying to get security videos from the sporting goods store. Has he told you anything?”
“We just got warrants for the cameras at the adjoining pawn shop. My guys are looking at the video now.”
A time-consuming chore. Time they didn’t have. “Rincon’s determination to find Jake and charge him with murder is all show. If he’s in on it, he knows where Jake is. If Jake is alive, he’s going through hell.”
“He’s a tough son of gun.” Jensen rubbed his clean-shaven face. “Even if Rincon pretends to bring him in, he’ll end up on a slab in McGee’s morgue before he gets to the courthouse.”
“We’ll find him before that happens.”
“I’ll find him. He’s my agent. You have no jurisdiction here.”
Eli took one more puff and ground the cigarette under his sneaker. “That woman sitting in there with Tiffany Lockhart is all the jurisdiction I need.”
“And I’m telling you both to stand down. I don’t need any more people getting in my way. If Rincon sees you with me, he’ll know something is up. The ATF won’t buddy up to a homicide detective from another jurisdiction on something like this. It’s a huge red flag.”
“Understood. We’ll do our own thing.”
“You’ll get yourself killed.”
“Not your problem.”
Jensen used the end of his lit cigarette to light another one. He puffed and coughed. “Tiffany said they saw some Marvel Comics flick. They could’ve used a super hero. I’d like to be one today.”
“I know that feeling.”
* * *
Seconds so agonizing they hurt crept by. Gabriella offered Tiffany another tissue. She crushed it to her face and dropped it on a growing pile on the bench. The sound of an electric saw escaped from the room behind them. Tiffany bowed her head and sobbed. “It’s my fault. All my fault.”
“There’s no way this is your fault.” The woman was in shock. “Larry was an ATF special agent. This had to do with his job.”
“I insisted he spend some time with me after Megan and Jeff’s gender reveal.” Her voice broke. “They’re having a boy. Larry wanted to go back to work. I put my foot down. Spend just a couple of hours with me or forget the whole thing.”
“I’m sure he wanted to spend time with you. He was caught between his job and the people he loved.”
“And I made it worse. I made him choose. If we hadn’t gone to the movies, he wouldn’t have been in that parking lot—”
“It didn’t matter where he was. It’s likely they were following him.”
More heart-wrenching sobs.
“You shouldn’t be here.” Gabriella rubbed Tiffany’s back. “Do you have family who can come get you?”
“My brother is on his way. He was in surgery. He’s a trauma surgeon.” She took a long, shuddering breath. “I don’t want to leave Larry. I can’t leave him here.”
“It’s horrible. I know.” It could be Jake in there, but it wasn’t. To be thankful was bizarre and selfish, but human. “It will take time, a lot of time, to begin to process this. You can’t do it here, in this place.”
“I’ll never process this. Never.” Tiffany’s voice broke. “We were planning t
o get married. Do you get that? You can’t imagine what it’s like. Did your boyfriend get gunned down after seeing a movie?”
Gabriella could imagine. Her boyfriend had survived. Their relationship hadn’t. Both were at fault. Her inability to cope with the thought that it could happen again. His impenetrable hard shell around his thoughts and feelings. His inability to be faithful and to be truthful. PTSD or his true nature? She’d been too scared to find out. “I’ve seen enough to know that learning to put one foot in front of the other takes time and prayer and more time.”
“I’m too angry to pray.” She crumpled up another tissue and threw it at the wall. “What’s the point? Will God raise him from the dead?”
Anger, pure and powerful, and a corrosive acid that could destroy everything good in its path. “Can I try?”
“Please.” She sobbed and buried her head in her hands. “Please.”
Gabriella hugged Tiffany and bowed her head. Give me words, God. I know I’ve been selfish and unforgiving. I’m sorry. This isn’t about me.
“God, we don’t understand. We can’t. We’re humans.” She whispered the words close to Tiffany’s ear. The woman shuddered. “I lift Tiffany up to You. Let her know You are here. That this has meaning. That our lives have meaning. Somehow, help her to see a bigger picture. Don’t let anger and hate in our hearts rule her. Get her through the next few minutes, hours, and days.”
Tiffany’s sobs grew. “Jesus. Jesus.” Her cries for relief reverberated in the hall. “Sweet Jesus!” She stopped rocking. The sobs subsided.
Gabriella opened her eyes.
“Thank you.” Tiffany straightened. “I’m not sure I can believe in a God who lets this happen.”
“I know.” Gabriella wiped her own nose. “But I can’t imagine going through this stuff without Him, either.”
“Why, I don’t understand why.”
“Me neither.”
“Your brother is missing.”
“Two days now.”
“Larry talked about him some.” She shredded a tissue, then another. “Which is surprising. He didn’t talk about work much.”
“What did he say?”
“That your brother took chances and broke rules.” Her gaze shifted from the tissue to Gabriella. Her bloodshot eyes held a universe filled with pain. “Larry was new at this and he was a straight shooter. A planner. A guy who liked to follow the playbook.”
“He didn’t like Jake, then?”
“No, he did. That’s what was surprising. He said he was a good guy who wanted to stop the bad guys, no matter what it took. He was willing to sacrifice everything. Larry respected that.”
“What about after Jake’s disappearance? Did he say anything about it?”
“He was worried. He didn’t say much, but it was obvious.” She ran her hand through umber-dyed hair in the latest Beyoncé style. “He was tense all the time. He couldn’t sleep. He doubled his runs.”
Just this morning, he’d run like the devil chased him. “What did he say?”
“That he was afraid Jake had gotten in over his head. That he might have trusted the wrong person and that he was probably dead.”
“The wrong person? Nothing specific?”
“He said in more than one way. He seemed really concerned about your brother’s girlfriend. Sunny something. I thought that was weird. I mean, why did he care about Jake’s personal life? He said he thought they were moving too fast. We’ve only known each other eight months, and we were planning to get married in September. He said that was different. I agreed.” Tiffany gave a halfhearted chuckle. “Because I knew what I wanted, and I wanted him. I wanted to have babies. We would’ve made beautiful babies. I told him my biological clock was ticking. He laughed at me and said we had plenty of time for that.”
Plenty of time. Until time ran out. Gabriella’s biological clock banged louder than Big Ben these days.
Jake was younger. Sunny, even younger. No biological clock banging there. What was the rush? Jake was in over his head with Andy Mendez’s daughter. Why couldn’t he see that? Or could he? Was he using Sunny, or did he really care about her as much as she seemed to care about him?
Tiffany didn’t seem to notice Gabriella’s turmoil. “Larry told me to be sure to turn my security system on every night and not to open my door to anyone. Not even local police. To call him if anyone showed up at my door wanting to question me.”
She touched the spatter of dried blood on her shorts. “He said if anything happened to him, to leave town and not come back.”
“That sounds like good advice.”
“I have a job here. I’m a nurse. I have family here.”
“What did you see today?”
“I saw the man I love gunned down.” Tiffany’s anger crackled like lightning and consumed the oxygen in the air between them. “He was laughing about how much popcorn I’d eaten and then he was dead.”
“We want to find my brother, but we also want to find the men who did this and make them pay. You can help.”
She closed her eyes. Her long fingers with polished, blunt-cut nails went to her temples. She rubbed. “It’s a blur. My heart stopped beating. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe. My legs gave out. I was falling. The car was black with tinted windows. The window rolled down on the front passenger side. A Hispanic man leaned out. I saw spurts of fire and heard bang, bang, bang over and over again. People were screaming. Then I was on the ground and Larry was on top of me. His blood was everywhere. His eyes were open. But he didn’t see me.”
“What kind of car?”
“I don’t know cars. I don’t know guns either. Like a machine gun. Big and ugly.”
“Thank you.” Tiffany would relive this scene over and over again for months and years to come. “Every little bit helps.”
The double doors banged open. A burly black man in surgical scrubs raced toward them. “Tif, are you okay?”
She rose and fell into his arms.
“Sis, Sis, are you hurt?” He held her out. “Is that your blood?”
“It’s Larry’s.”
“You poor baby. Let’s get you home. Mama’s waiting.” He looked over his sister’s shoulder at Gabriella. “I’m taking her home.”
Home was where Tiffany needed to be. With time, she might become a whole person again. Eventually. The two leaned in to each other as they stumbled down the hall, big brother’s arm around little sister. The beginning of a long road toward healing.
Gabriella’s aching throat closed. Jake, where are you?
Eli strode in from the opposite direction. “It’s about Rincon.”
She cleared her throat and swallowed. “It’s about Sunny Mendez.”
He shrugged. “Both. Powwow back at the house.”
She stood. Her legs wobbled like wet noodles. “You and Deacon and Chris.”
“Yep.”
Gabriella sniffed. “Why do you smell like smoke?”
Eli didn’t answer. His phone chirped like a cricket. He held the door for her and then let it slam behind him. He tugged the phone from his pocket. His face turned stony. “Looks like we have lunch plans tomorrow.”
“What? We have no lunch plans until we find—”
“My mom says Tía Naomi saw us downtown and told Pops.”
“Ah. Is he spitting fire?”
Eli held the door of the Charger for her. “It just says don’t be late.”
“We were headed to see him anyway.”
“Yeah, but now he’s mad. That doesn’t help.”
“I didn’t know your mother could text.” She slid in and gazed up at him. Dread creased his face. At thirty-four he still looked like a recalcitrant child. “Does she tweet?”
“She even does FaceTime with her grandchildren.” He punctuated the statement by shutting the door in her face.
A person could see symbolism everywhere if she tried.
Chapter 26
It was about who you knew. Gabriella’s father used to say that. Maybe
he still did. Gabriella squeezed onto the couch next to Eli. Watching him collaborate with his sworn enemies—the media—only served to heighten her sense of a world turned on its side.
George saved a spot on the love seat for Piper. Natalie planted her chair next to him. Chris took the overstuffed chair. A cup of coffee in one hand, Deacon stood. The ragtag team kept growing. Sniffing shoes and nuzzling ankles, Artemis made the rounds. Cullen and Ava’s chatter in the next room where they watched a Disney movie provided background music.
“I had coffee with the chamber of commerce president and the director of the economic development foundation.” His forehead wrinkled, George pursed generous lips. “They both waxed eloquent on the state of affairs in this city. Law enforcement has done wonders in bringing peace to the streets of our fair city and bringing an end to the bloodshed of the nineties. What’s more, citizens like Andy Mendez and Luke Donovan have bolstered the city’s reputation as a place where it’s lucrative and safe to do business. They wish we had a dozen more of each.”
“Not to mention, what both men give to charity.” Piper made the rounds with a platter of brownies. The smell made Gabriella’s mouth water. She grabbed one and handed another to Eli. Piper smiled and placed the platter on the glass-top coffee table. She sank onto the love seat next to her husband. “They set a great example in that regard. And Luke’s adult sons and daughters—all four of them—returned to town after college to continue in the family business. One of them is on the city council.”
“I simply don’t believe Luke Donovan or Andy Mendez is involved in anything illegal.” George hurled his two cents’ worth into a fray that had lasted twenty minutes thus far. “We’ve socialized with Donovan for years. We’re in the same business. We attend the same church, for crying out loud.”
“Were in the same business.” Deacon looked like he wanted to pace, but the room didn’t allow for that. “You’re retired.”
“For a year. That doesn’t mean I’m dead. I keep my finger on the pulse of my business. I keep my eye on your cousins to make sure they don’t run the business into the ground.”