“You can bring my babies to me,” Krystal replied with a shake of her yellow hair. “They have never been away from me.”
Alex smiled.
“Matthew, can you bring us some iced tea and some cookies?” Alex asked.
Matthew nodded his head and left the room. They’d agreed that Krystal might feel more comfortable speaking with a woman, but Matthew refused to let Alex work alone. Matthew left to let Alex get started.
“Please sit down,” Alex said. She indicated a chair at a small square oak table. Krystal took the chair nearest her and Alex sat across from her.
“I’m not sure what to call you. Do you go by Krystal? Krystal Jo? My bunkmate at basic was from Texas. She said people’s second name was very important to Texans.”
Shaking her head, Krystal furrowed her brow.
“Is this a joke? I’m arrested, my babies are God knows where and you want...”
Raising her eyebrows, Alex smiled at Krystal.
“I’m sorry,” Krystal said. “I’m too exhausted and worried to remember polite conversation. What was your bunkmate’s name?”
“Catherine Susan Lesser. Cathy Sue for short. She would squint her eyes at anyone would called her ‘Cathy’ and not ‘Cathy Sue.’”
“What happened to her?” Krystal asked.
“She met,” Alex’s voice changed to imitate Cathy’s accent, “the sweetest boy.”
Krystal smiled at Alex’s imitation.
“Somehow, Cathy Sue happened to get pregnant after we received orders to go to Bosnia. She got out on a medical discharge. They live in San Antonio. He works for Whole Foods Corporate office.”
“Everyone calls me Krystal,” she said. “Joiner is my father’s name. Not Cee Cee’s name. Our grandfather’s were cousins. You probably know this but I’m an insurance agent. That’s how I met Cee Cee. I manage the insurance plans for Pecos Oil.”
“And?”
“And what?” Krystal’s blue eyes raked Alex’s face. “You’re the girl who beat up that guy in the parking lot. I wondered if you were injured. That’s some cast.”
“I had surgery yesterday.” Alex raised her aluminum and gauze arm in her blue sling. “I’m hoping to get a real cast tomorrow.”
“Looks uncomfortable,” Krystal said.
“Yeah,” Alex shrugged. “Shall we?”
Krystal nodded.
“What’s your relationship with Cee Cee Joiner?”
“He’s the father of my children,” she said.
The door opened and Matthew came in with glasses, a pitcher of ice tea and a plate of lemon drop cookies.
“You have to try these.” Alex picked up a cookie. “My brother-in-law is a baker. He made these last night. Matthew, Krystal wants to know why she’s here.”
“Cee Cee Joiner’s male children have been kidnapped.”
Matthew gauged his voice for maximum impact. They had to know if she was involved.
“What?” Panicked, Krystal jumped to her feet.
“You didn’t know?” Alex asked.
“Some man called on Friday to ask about the boys… when they were born… where they went to school… stuff like that. He said he was from Homeland Security. I called the police to make sure he was legitimate before I answered even one question. Did he kidnap my babies?”
“Please sit down,” Alex said.
“My boys… Are they safe?” she asked.
“Your boys are safe,” Alex said. “They are with Cathy Sue. Last time I checked, they were playing Guitar Hero with Cathy’s boys. Cathy lives in a gated community but to be safe, there is a Texas Ranger with the boys. It’s my understanding that he sucks at Guitar Hero. But you didn’t hear it from me.”
Krystal looked from Alex to Matthew then sat down again.
“Why am I here?” Krystal asked.
“Cee Cee Joiner’s male children have been kidnapped,” Matthew repeated. “All of them except your boys and his current wife, who is pregnant with a male child. They didn’t get him either.”
Krystal’s lips dropped in a pensive frown.
“When?” Krystal asked.
“Tristan is the only one we have good data on because a missing person’s report was filed.”
“By Bobby Lopez?”
“How…?” Alex started.
“I manage their health insurance. I know all the dirt,” Krystal said. “Tristan’s lived with them since Cee Cee fired Bobby from Pecos Oil.”
Alex blinked.
“Didn’t know Bobby worked for Pecos Oil?” Krystal asked. “He worked for them since he was fifteen years old. Started in the oil fields. Tristan went missing? When?”
“Around Christmas,” Alex said. “We rescued Tristan, Cory, Cody, and Kyle last night.”
“Cee Cee has a few more boys. Let’s see... There’s Daniel and David…and Marvin, of course. What?”
“Ma’am, Daniel, Marvin and David are dead,” Matthew said. “And…”
Krystal gasped in horror. Her hands flew to her face. With her nose and mouth covered by her French manicured fingertips, only her eyes showed her shock.
“We aren’t sure Cory will make it. Cody and Tristan have been poisoned with mercury,” Alex said.
“Tristan is older, bigger. The doctors expect him to shake the mercury. However he’s been beaten. He’s in reconstructive surgery now and...”
Matthew stopped speaking in response to Krystal’s increasing distress. They had planned on pounding her with the facts to break the truth from her. That wasn’t going to be necessary. His voice softened.
“But Cody is very ill and Cory is only two years old.”
“Cory was always sickly. He has bad allergies and asthma. Oh God...”
Krystal wept in earnest. There was no mistaking her reaction. Krystal Joiner had no idea the children were kidnapped.
“I know I’m not helping,” Krystal said. She swiped at her tears with her hands. Matthew held a box of tissues out for her. “I loved those boys. My boys will be heart broken. Poor Sue Ann. Daniel and David were her life.”
Krystal squinted her eyes with determination then squared her shoulders.
“You want my help figuring out what happened,” Krystal said. “Let’s get the bastard who did this. If you can beat up that big guy, I bet you’ll find out who did this. Ok, what can I do?”
Krystal reached for a cookie. She bit into the cookie as if she was biting into this problem.
“What do you know?” Matthew asked.
“Nothing,” Krystal replied. “I had no idea the boys were… well… wait a minute.”
Krystal tapped her upper lip with an index finger.
“We usually get together with all of Cee Cee’s kids, and their Moms, for the holidays. We Moms hate Cee Cee so much that we are actually pretty good friends. Well… the wives are very tight. A couple of the other mothers work for Buffy. She’s Cee Cee’s first wife and acts like the Queen of the Joiner harem. I’m not a part of the inner circle. After all, I have a job. But they usually include us in their holidays. We saw everyone at Thanksgiving but at Christmas... Huh.”
Krystal lapsed into silence while she finished her cookie.
“What?” Alex asked.
“We were supposed to get together before Christmas. Tristan was going to be home. My boys worship Tristan. We usually meet at Buffy’s house. This year, she canceled at the last minute. I figured she was mad that Tristan was living with Beth Ann. But… Why wouldn’t she tell everyone?”
“We don’t know,” Alex said. “The Texas Rangers are interrogating the mothers. We spoke with all of the mothers on Friday. They denied their children were missing.”
“Every single one,” Matthew said.
“That is… odd.” Krystal lapsed into silence again. “I was relieved we didn’t have to go to Buffy’s house. She can be impossible. We had such a nice Christmas this year… just me and my boys.”
“How are you and your boys different from the other children and mothers?” Matthew asked.
&
nbsp; “I’m financially independent. That’s probably the biggest difference. I don’t get money from Cee Cee. My father was in insurance. I joined his practice after college and I took the practice over when he died. I owned my own house when I met Cee Cee.”
“How… I mean…”
Alex started then stopped. She wasn’t quite sure how to ask Krystal why she had a relationship with the awful Cee Cee Joiner. Krystal laughed at the look on Alex’s face.
“Cee Cee can be fun. After my Dad died, I felt very alone in the world. I took over insurance at Pecos Oil and I met Cee Cee. It happened like one, two, three, four: Daddy falls over dead; take over his large insurance practice with this huge oil contract; meet Cee Cee Joiner; get pregnant. I think everything happened in less than six months.”
Krystal shook her head then took a drink of iced tea.
“You aren’t from Texas.”
“We are not. Why?” Alex asked.
“This tea is not sweetened,” Krystal smiled.
“Would you like some sugar?” Matthew asked.
“No, thank you,” Krystal said. “Ok, why Cee Cee? Cee Cee isn’t the kind of man like I bet you are Matthew. No, he’s not kind or thoughtful. He could care less about anyone but himself. But he made me laugh. He took me out on the town. He’s fun in bed.”
“I knew he was married... It’s not my proudest moment.” Krystal shrugged. “I got pregnant with Lance and Cee Cee started bossing me around. I needed to do this and that and whatever else for his child. That was it for me.”
“How…?”
“Sperm bank,” Krystal said. “I didn’t want Lance to grow up alone and I wanted them to have the same father so we would look like a family. Stupid huh? Cee Cee banked sperm so I used it to have Jason. I’m not sure Cee Cee even knows.”
“How did you arrange it?”
“He signs a lot of insurance papers for me. I slipped the permission form in with the papers. He spends about two minutes signing thirty pages of insurance forms. We have no relationship. Here. Sign these papers. Thank you. That kind of thing.”
“Do they have much interaction with their father?” Matthew asked.
“No. They see him once a year at the most. Cee Cee says he loves my boys but I think that’s because they don’t cost him any money. Cee Cee loves himself and money. That’s all.”
Not sure where to go next, Alex was about to terminate the interview when Krystal began talking again.
“Cee Cee has life insurance policies on all of these boys. Not the girls, only the boys. Could he have...?”
“Anything is possible, ma’am,” Matthew replied.
“I’m sorry. I want to be helpful but I’m kind of grasping at straws,” Krystal continued. “You know, Cee Cee had mercury poisoning once. We had to petition the insurance company to cover it. He picked it up in some South American country… Peru, I think. Shale oil. At least that’s what he said. With Cee Cee, you never know. We were seeing each other at the time. He stayed with us. My housekeeper and I nursed him back to health. Oh… I probably shouldn’t have mentioned her. She’s not legal.”
“We’re only interested in finding out what happened to these boys,” Matthew said.
“What can you tell us about your housekeeper?” For the first time, Alex’s pulse quickened. Something about the housekeeper was important. Alex had to work to keep the excitement from her voice.
“I don’t know what there is to tell. Her name is Luana Melo. She’s from a small village in the Brazilian jungle. I met her… oh… about a year, maybe two, before Daddy died. She was twelve and I was twenty years old. I was in Rio for Marti Gras. I found her on the street. She was selling… well... She was selling herself. I… bought her.”
“So you and she...” Matthew started.
“Oh no,” Krystal said. “We aren’t lovers, if that’s what you were going to ask. We were standing on the same street corner. I felt a strong connection with her. People talk about soul mates or whatever. I felt like I’d known her all my life. I paid her pimp for the weekend then brought her back to Texas. She’s stayed ever since. Her sister, Yaritza, came to help when Lance was born. Yaritza lived with us until Jason was five or six. She married a guy from Columbia. We had the reception at our house.”
Alex nodded her head. The wheels in her head began to spin. People can get mercury poisoning from burning shale oil… but that’s only done to create electricity… which they do in Brazil. Mercury is released when they extract oil from shale. It’s almost impossible to extract fuel from shale oil with out creating an environmental disaster. Brazil also has enormous shale oil reservoirs.
“I don’t like the look on your face, Lieutenant Colonel Drayson. Luana is a saint. She would never hurt a fly, let alone a child.”
“She wouldn’t happen to be from the Amazonas Basin? Near the center of South America?” Alex asked. The first time they rescued Cee Cee Joiner, he had run a foul of the people of the Amazonas Basin.
“How did you know?” Krystal asked. “Her family still lives near the border of Brazil and Peru.”
“Lucky guess,” Alex said.
“Are we done?” Krystal asked.
“For now,” Alex replied.
“Alex?” Krystal called. “Isn’t there more that I can do?”
“We’d like you to stay in Denver for now. We’ll take care of the arrangements. We may need to speak with Luana and maybe Yaritza. But not right this minute. Thank you for your assistance.”
“Luana won’t speak to you. We have a plan so she won’t be deported. She went into hiding when the police came to the house. If my boys are playing Guitar Hero, they won’t miss me for days. Why don’t I get her and bring her here?” Krystal asked.
“That won’t be necessary,” Alex said. “I apologize for keeping you.”
Krystal Jo Joiner hugged Alex then whispered, “I know you’ll sort this out.”
Alex nodded then followed Matthew out of the room. She gave the Texas Rangers instruction to take Krystal to a hotel downtown. At least she would be comfortable while she waited.
“What do you think?” Alex asked.
“What you see is what you get,” Matthew said. “I think she’s on the up and up.”
“Me too,” Alex said.
“And that means?”
“Fuck if I know,” Alex said.
A loud cheer came from the front room.
“Bobby Lopez?”
“Probably,” Matthew said.
Shaking her head, Alex followed Matthew to the front room.
F
CHAPTER THIRTY-Two
Four hours later
Monday afternoon
March 31 – 2:09 P.M MDT
Denver, CO
Alone, Alex sat alone at the table in the small bedroom where they had interrogated Krystal. With the table covered with maps, she had effectively taken over the room. Her laptop was open on a chair facing her while she wrote on a pad of paper with her yellow pencil. Alex’s mind vibrated with thoughts, memories and ideas. She scratched the lead across the paper as fast as her hand could write. For once, she wasn’t even humming.
Alex sighed and looked up from her writing. She couldn’t get a sense of the big picture. Bobby Lopez was… interesting… and confusing.
Bobby Lopez spent most of his teens and twenties on the Pecos Oil Fields. One day, an old man named Bud pulled up in a battered pickup truck. Bud wanted to talk oil. Having finished his shift, Bobby showed the man around the oil field. The old guy said he used to work the fields but was too broken down to do it anymore. Over bar-be-que and beer, they talked about life, family and oil. About a month later, Bud drove by the field again. For the next couple years, Bud and Bobby laughed, ate bar-be-que and analyzed life on an oil field.
Bobby had no idea the old man was Cecil Joiner Sr., the man who had signed his pay check for almost twenty years. One day he received a notice to visit the corporate office. Certain he was going to be fired, Bobby dressed in his best suit and dr
ove to Dallas. The visit was one shock after another. Not only was Bud actually Cecil Joiner Sr. but Bud appointed Bobby Lopez as the head of field oil acquisition. Bud needed someone he could trust, and Bobby fit the bill.
The first few years were hell. Bobby was out of his league and surrounded by people who caused him nothing but grief. His weekly meetings with Joiner Sr. were a nightmare. Joiner Sr. wanted the facts and Bobby was struggling to tie his shoes.
But Bobby Lopez was no quitter.
Growing up in the Texas oil fields, Bobby knew what oil could do to a man. His father was killed in an oil derrick accident when Bobby was only ten years old. The doctors never did figure out what killed his uncle. Bobby’s childhood friends broke their backs on the fields and spent their earnings in bars and brothels.
Bobby’s new job was his family’s way off the oil fields. His sons and daughter were not going to break themselves on oil fields. His children were going to college. With the love and support of his wife, Estefanie, Bobby Lopez was going to make this job work.
Slowly, Bobby built a network of people he could trust. Just as slowly, he became one of the most respected people in oil acquisition. He was even called to the United States Senate for expert testimony. The Board of Directors at Pecos Oil found a reliable source of field information through Bobby.
Bobby believed oil was the devil’s own blood. A necessary evil.
And shale oil? Bits of the devil’s skin. Pure unredeemable evil.
No one could convince him otherwise. Shale enticed rational men to believing they had riches when what they had was toxic waste. Maybe someday, somewhere, someone would come up with a way to get the oil and leave the contamination. Until that day, Pecos Oil was not involved in oil production from shale.
Period.
Alex leaned back in her chair.
Five years ago, Bobby Lopez uncovered Cee Cee’s interest in shale oil. He brought Cee Cee’s activities to the Board of Directors, who voted unanimously to shut down shale oil production. Within days, Cecil Joiner Sr. retired and the company transformed. In the transformation, Joiner Sr. procured a place for Bobby on the Board of Directors of Pecos Oil.
Cee Cee came after Bobby in every way possible. He threatened him in meetings. He accosted him at back to school nights. Then he disappeared. Bobby heard something about Cee Cee being held hostage in the Amazon, but he was so relieved to have Cee Cee out of his hair that he pretended Cee Cee retired.
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