“When I got this—” he slapped his hip “—after you left us on the beach, Roy and I spent the night in the jungle. After that Filipino guy left us, we spoke of what had happened. It looked like we were set up. It looked like Corvin did it.”
I nodded. “It had to be him.”
“So we decided there was only one way to protect our group. I had to die. Pretend to die. But Roy would let Corvin know I wasn’t dead. And if he made another move against the group, I’d blow the whistle on him. I was the safety man.
“They got me to Manila, to a doctor friendly to the guerrillas. He took out the bullet and fixed me up as well as he could. I spent six weeks in his house. Then Roy came back. He had a passport I could use one time. I made it back to Santa Fe and called my father. We had a family council. They brought me back here. I’ve been here ever since.”
“Why didn’t he tell the rest of us?”
“You know Roy. There was no reason to tell you. Besides, you couldn’t talk about what you didn’t know. As long as I was alive, you were safe from Corvin.”
“And in return for providing us with this service, you were to get…what?”
“The payoff money. And one of Roy’s two shares.”
I thought that sounded generous for Roy. But of course he had the third delivery up his sleeve. He hadn’t shorted himself. He had come out ahead. That was Roy.
“Was it worth it?”
“I visited my own grave, man!” He grinned at me. “Not many men can say that!” But then he sobered. “Of course, there was a price.”
“You had to hide for the rest of your life.”
“Yes…” He closed his eyes for a moment. “It wasn’t so bad. Roy came through for me. I got all this.” He waved his hand around, vaguely including the house and the four thousand acres it sat on. “And there was Anna. My son, Juanito, over there. And my brother, my family. They helped.”
He looked at me directly. “It wasn’t such a bad bargain, my friend. When I die, my family will have something that will last for generations. How many men can say that? It was worth a leg, I think.”
“And a life in hiding?”
“I don’t have to hide all the time. The people in the village accept me as Mr. Romero. The ones who know, who have known my family for generations, they look out for me. There was only one danger.”
“Corvin.”
“Yes. I don’t think he ever stopped looking for me. If he could find me, he could go after the rest of you, one at a time. And then he would be safe. But he didn’t come for a long time. Sometimes, in the early years, I would go into the village, to the church or to a baile, a dance, you know? That was how I saw my Anna the first time.” He patted the hand she lay on his shoulder. “I was pretty safe for a long time.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. Last week I got two telephone calls. People were looking for me in Santa Fe. So I pulled in, holed up.”
“That was me,” I told him. “Me and someone else.”
“Max?”
I shrugged. “It seems likely.”
“What is all this about? Why is this happening?”
“People are dying.”
“Like who?”
“Toker was first.”
“He’s dead? Who killed him?”
“Not me. Not April. Did you?” I heard his son shift angrily behind me.
“Easy, Juan,” Sissy told him. “It is a question that he had to ask.” He turned to me. “I haven’t been out of New Mexico since I came home,” he said. “Even when I met Roy, I only went as far as Albuquerque. I had to be careful.”
“Why didn’t Roy come here?”
“He only knew about Santa Fe. He didn’t know where I ended up. We figured it would be better that way, back there in the jungle on Luzon. After that, he never asked and I never brought it up. When he needed to see me, he sent a post card to my cousin, Steve, in Santa Fe.”
“When did you learn about Miss Phoung?” I asked.
“Maybe ‘seventy-five? Just about the time of the fall of Saigon. We signed off on some property, and we were just sitting around, bullshitting about the old days. We were in a funny mood. Real…well…I can’t describe it. You know?”
I nodded. I’d been in a funny mood, too, the month of the fall of Saigon. I’d read every paper and magazine I could find and put my fist through a couple of walls, and then I hadn’t read a damned thing for maybe six months.
Sissy continued, “Anyway, I asked Roy how Phoung ended up. He’d always promised me he’d take care of her, you know? And then he said she was dead. Shot. He didn’t know who. Maybe the VC, he said. I asked him about it, and he let it drop that there was a baby. Man, I almost killed him! He promised me he’d take care of her. Promised me! All those years I thought she was doing good, married or something, and then he says she’s dead and, oh, by the way, there was a baby. I almost killed him.”
“‘Seventy-five. That’s a long time to go without asking.” I shouldn’t have said that. I had never asked either.
“I know.” He spun the cylinder of his revolver idly. “But there was Anna. And little Juan. And it was so far away. I guess I didn’t know how close it still was, until the fall.”
April cleared her throat. She was sitting stiffly, her eyes glued to Sissy. “You did care about my mother,” she said.
He looked at her and smiled weakly. “I loved her,” he said softly. “I would have gone back to Saigon for her. I might have married her, if I hadn’t died on Luzon. Yes, I loved her. But I’m not your father. I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t tell if the apology was to April or his wife, who was gazing across the room at nothing in particular. The son, perhaps.
“Did Roy say how it happened?” I asked.
“It was just the war.” He pulled himself together. “Anna, I want you to bring the whiskey bottle for my friend and me. Please. Juanito, Tonio, put away the weapons. These are my friends. Juan, you will go get the truck and Rainbow’s car and bring them to the yard. And Tony, if you could return to your watch, I would be very grateful.”
He had developed authority over the years. They all moved, Anna wiping her eyes and young Juan dragging his feet. “Pull your chair closer, Rainbow, and tell me the story of Toker’s death. It seems our problem is now bigger than just hiding from Max Corvin.”
I did as he asked and began the tale with April’s appearance on my doorstep. He listened carefully as I spoke and did not interrupt me with questions. Midway through the story, his wife returned with a bottle, two glasses, and a Coke. She stood quietly, out of Sissy’s sight, and listened as I finished describing the ambush on Luzon and what I’d learned about Corvin. Then she set the drinks on the table and went to stand behind her husband.
Sissy poured two bourbon and Cokes. I made a face at him and took a hit directly from the bottle. April took the second mixed drink, tasted it, and pushed it away from her.
“You haven’t changed,” I told him. “Good taste in women, terrible taste in booze.”
“I’ve changed,” he said. “The leg changed me. Anna changed me. Little Juan changed me. Twenty years on the ranch changed me. Don’t say I haven’t changed, Rainbow. Back in the old days, I couldn’t keep it in my pants. You remember.”
“I remember. That’s why I don’t know how you can be so sure. About April.”
He shot a glance at his wife that I didn’t understand. She had her hand back on his shoulder. She tightened it and her lips parted, but in the end she didn’t speak. I didn’t think it would do any good to pursue it. I decided to see if he could answer the big question. “Tell me about Toker, then. Why did you go to him?”
“I couldn’t go to Roy. After he lied to me about taking care of Phoung? And who else was there? Johnny Walker had a new wife. And there’d be too many other problems there because of the color thing. You? Roy told me about you. He said you were…” He stopped.
“What did he say?”
“He said you were outsid
e the perimeter. Out in the jungle somewhere. Not crazy, exactly, but not normal. I’m sorry, Rainbow. That’s what he said. So it had to be Toker. I arranged to meet him. He took a ski trip and we connected at Angel Fire. I told him about Phoung and he agreed to try to find the child. Take care of her.”
“Why not you?”
“I was dead. How does a dead man sign the papers to adopt a kid? Besides, there was Anna. And she wasn’t really mine. I got Toker to take her in, and I gave him the whole payoff for her.”
“You what?”
“Sure. The whole bag. All those pretty little rocks. What did I want with them? I had my fair share. I couldn’t take any trips around the world, you know.”
That explained one of the things that had bothered me. Toker’s house had been searched for the gems. But it still didn’t explain why the search took place after Toker was killed. “It wasn’t in Toker’s house, Sissy. And it wasn’t in his will. He cut April out completely.”
“Son of a bitch!” He stared at me angrily. “You think the bastard got it?”
“Looks like it,” I said. “Why don’t you give me a name. Who do you think the bastard is?”
“Corvin knows bombs,” he said thoughtfully. “And he has contacts in the Philippines. Your neighbor told you those guys looked like Filipinos.”
“The detective in El Paso?”
“Maybe Roy is holed up like me. Maybe Corvin wanted to get to him one jump ahead of you.”
“Corvin getting the jump on Roy,” I said. “Now, there’s a concept.”
“He did once. He got the jump on all of us.”
“Twice,” I said.
Sissy rubbed his leg. “Yeah. Twice.”
We looked at each other in silence. “We’re agreed, then?” I asked.
His chin rose and fell a reluctant quarter-inch. “We take him out, but where?”
“Here.”
“Why here?”
“You’ve got the privacy.”
He looked around the room. His wife sat, frozen. She didn’t seem to see any of us. His son fingered his rifle nervously. “What about Roy?” Sissy asked.
“I’ll go to Juarez. Talk to him. He has to be brought in. You know that. Besides, there are still some questions. He may have the answers.”
“What questions?”
“What started all this crap?” I said. “The status quo held for twenty years. What happened to it?”
“We may never know, compadre.”
“But we have to ask. I’ll leave in the morning. Can you put us up for the night?”
Anna rose and headed for the door. This was something she could do. “Of course. You come with me.”
I stood up. April didn’t move. “I have questions too,” she said. “About my mother. Please?”
Sissy nodded. “You help with the bags,” he told his son. “I will talk to the girl for a few minutes.”
I shrugged and followed the woman. The boy tagged along behind. When we reached the hall, Anna told him to go on to bed. “There will be things to do tomorrow,” she told him. “Tonight, you need your sleep.”
“But I want to help.”
“Tomorrow.” She said firmly. “The rest of this is not for you.”
He wanted to protest, but he obeyed her. She led me out to the car to get our bags. When we were back in the house, she turned to me. “We have only one guest room.”
“That’s okay.”
“I thought it might be.” She led me to the bedroom. It was comfortable, homey. Her furniture was in the heavy wooden style of northern New Mexico. A hand-carved crucifix stood on the dark dresser, next to a porcelain Madonna. I dropped the bags. Anna sat on the bed and patted the mattress beside her. “Sit,” she said. “There are things I have to say to you.” I sat.
She hesitated, looking for words. “You don’t understand why the girl can’t be Juan’s daughter.”
I waited.
“It is difficult for him to talk about. It would hurt his pride. But I think you need to know.” She hooked off into space. “You see, when I met Juan, I was pregnant.”
“The boy? Juanito?”
“Yes. It was a mistake. I was foolish, and I found I was going to have a baby. The boy wouldn’t marry me. The situation was very bad. But my sister knew Juan. They went to high school together in Santa Fe. She knew he was alone and didn’t have much opportunity to…to meet girls. So my mother talked to his mother, and they arranged for us to meet at a church dance. He liked me, and I liked him. It was a solution for both of us. So we married. He gave my baby his name. He treats him just as a son.”
I nodded. She transferred her gaze to my eyes. “He is a good man,” she said. “I came to love him very deeply. The other, the boy’s father, was nothing compared to Juan. And he came to love me, too.” Again, she hesitated. “We are Catholics,” she said. “You know that birth control is forbidden. For some, it is just a matter of going to confession every week, but not for us. We wanted to have children between us, so we never used the pill or anything. For eighteen years, we have never used anything. And nothing. No babies.”
“So you think it has to be Juan,” I said.
“I already had a baby,” she said quietly. “That is why he is so sure.”
“Okay,” I said. “But there is still another question. Why did he go to Toker? Why did he give Toker the jewels, if it wasn’t because April was his daughter?”
“It is really just as he said. Because of that woman in Saigon. April’s mother. I always sensed that there had been someone else. That is why I became so jealous the time he tried to tell me about her. Of course, I didn’t know she was dead then. But he didn’t know she was dead, either. She was between us in my mind, perhaps long after she was out of his mind. I think he felt that, and so he couldn’t tell me what he did with the jewels.”
“You knew about them?”
“I saw them once or twice, long ago. They were very impressive. Very beautiful. But I didn’t want anything to do with them. They were part of the other world, the other woman. I wouldn’t let him sell the stones. We didn’t need the money. And I wouldn’t have wanted it even if we did.”
I believed her. The man she described didn’t sound like the one I had known in Saigon, but as he said, he had changed. And maybe I hadn’t known him as well as I thought back then. Maybe I hadn’t understood Miss Phoung, either. When Sissy returned from his tour in the Philippines, she had gone back to him. It is possible she had never left him in her heart. Her relationship with Roy had puzzled me even then. But there was April. If she wasn’t Sissy’s, Miss Phoung had had a choice to make that I hadn’t been aware of.
“One other thing,” Anna said. “About this Max.”
“What about him?”
“He has kept my husband here on our land for a long time. Like a prisoner. I can see that Juan must deal with him to be free, but this is my home too. If there is any other way…any other place…?”
“You don’t want it to be here.” I asked.
“I’m afraid it would spoil my home.”
“I understand.”
Anna had said all she had to say. “I’m going to bed,” she told me. “Perhaps you should too. Let Sissy talk to the girl. It will be good for him.”
I agreed and turned in after she left. April didn’t join me for a long time. When she came, she was very quiet. I rested my hand on her hip and we lay together like that until we slept.
I went outside very early in the morning. The boy was saddling a horse. I joined him and he cut out a mare for me. We rode through the chill morning air. The shadow of the ridge behind the house fell over a mile across the Chama River valley to the west. The sky was pure turquoise and the air was clean, scented with sage and pine. Far to the northwest I could make out a piece of Heron Lake and, above it, the thin dark line of Tecolote Mesa.
Young Juan rode in silence, breaking away now and then to head some cattle down toward their pasture. I left him alone and enjoyed the morning. As I rode, I s
aw that April’s aunt had told the truth, assuming Phoung claimed Sissy for her baby’s father. He had been a cowboy after all. At least his family had come from cattle country.
We turned our horses back toward the house about eight o’clock. Anna was making breakfast. Chorizo and scrambled eggs. We ate and then Sissy led me outside. We walked to the corral and watched the horses while we talked ways and means. Then I went in and packed my bags. April came in and began packing hers.
“I want you to stay here,” I told her.
She shook her head firmly. “That isn’t our deal. Besides, now we know who is doing the killing. Roy isn’t the danger. It’s Corvin.” She continued packing.
I tried again. “We don’t know where Corvin is.”
“He’s trying to find Sissy. If you’re worried about me, I’ll be safer with you than here.”
“I’m just one man,” I told her. “Sissy has an army of family and friends here.”
“I’ll feel safer with you,” she said.
The real reason, of course, was that she now thought Roy was her father and wanted to see him. Without using force, there was no way I could keep her here. Well, force was an option, but she had a right, and it was her life.
Chapter 9
LAS COLONIAS
We drove down to El Paso because I wanted to keep the items in the trunk close to hand. The drive took nine hours, counting a stop for lunch at the Palace, just off the plaza in Santa Fe. It’s one of my favorite restaurants, and I wanted to eat there, just in case.
April said very little as we drove. She was working on some problem of her own. Halfway through lunch, she let me know what was on her mind. “Why do we have to do it this way?” she asked. “Why can’t we call the police or something?”
“Get the government involved?” I asked. “They don’t want to be involved. The Philippine operation is still too sensitive. You heard Pauley in Washington. He practically begged me to kill Corvin for him. They don’t want him involved in the legal system. They want him silenced, but they sure as hell don’t want him in jail, talking to lawyers, maybe even to the press.”
“But killing him is…don’t you think it’s wrong?”
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