Carving Knife

by Christian, Claudia Hall

  “I saw a photo of you and some sweet young thing in England.” Rick gave a slow whistle. “CNN said she was your wife. Is she as crazy as the other one?”

  “No, with your help, I completed my crazy-woman phase with Emily,” Seth said.

  “That’s a good thing, Pancho,” Rick said.

  Seth fell silent and ate his tamale. The tamale was one part beef and one part heaven.

  “You going to ask?”

  “You going to tell me?” Seth asked.

  “Not here,” Rick said. “Car’s in front. I’ll meet you outside.”

  Seth dropped a twenty-dollar bill on the table in appreciation for greatness and left the restaurant. An ancient black Buick with dark-tinted windows was idling at the curb. Seth opened the passenger door.

  “Pricks in back.” Rick’s wife Soledad grinned at him from the driver’s seat.

  Seth gave her a curt nod and got into the back seat. He slid over when Rick came out of the restaurant. Rick got in the back seat. Soledad drove them through Alamosa and out into the San Luis valley. They drove for a while before pulling off the highway onto a dusty, unpaved road. It was another two miles before a small house appeared.

  Soledad pulled up to the locked gate. She gave Seth the key, and he got out to open the gate. She waited for him on the other side. They drove another mile to the house. She went around the back and helped Rick out of the back seat.

  “Can you get his other arm?” Soledad asked.

  Seth took Rick’s other side, and they helped him into the house. Once in the house, a yellow Labrador wearing a leather guide-dog harness trotted up to them. Rick grabbed the harness. The dog led Rick to a comfortable chair next to a fire ring on the enclosed patio. Rick dropped into the chair with clear relief. Soledad let two German Shepherds out of a kennel. They sniffed at Seth and wandered into the property. Seth sat down on the bench next to Rick’s chair.

  “Can I bring you something, Seth?” Soledad asked.

  “Coffee,” Seth said.

  “I made some before we left,” Soledad smiled.

  “Nice of you to remember,” Seth said.

  “You and Mitch . . . Mitch was so sick, and he still came to the funeral,” Soledad said. “I felt bad about . . .”

  Soledad gestured to Rick.

  “You know Mitch,” Seth said. “He would have thought the whole thing was funny.”

  Soledad nodded and went into the kitchen. She returned with two cups of coffee.

  “Black, right?” she asked.

  Seth nodded.

  “The kids?” Seth asked.

  “College,” Soledad said. “I was pregnant when . . .”

  Soledad took a quick breath in, and Seth nodded.

  “He’s asleep in the back,” Soledad said.

  Seth smiled. Rick hadn’t moved since he sat down.

  “I made some cookies,” Rick said.

  “I’ll get them,” Soledad said.

  Seth took a long drink of his coffee. Soledad returned with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and the coffee pot. Rick reached out his hand for her. She took his hand and he kissed hers.

  “Stay,” Rick said. “Please.”

  Soledad gave a quick nod and sat in a chair next to Seth.

  “Would you mind lighting the fire?” Soledad asked. “It’s too much for Ricky, and I . . . well, you know.”

  Seth got up and went to the fire ring. He heard them whisper back and forth while he made the fire. When he stood, the fire was going, and they looked like they had reached a decision.

  “Will you tell me?” Seth asked.

  “There isn’t a lot to tell,” Rick said. “I was working this weird mutilation case.”

  Rick shrugged.

  “I mean it was weird, but it wasn’t weirder than anything else,” Rick said. “Someone went out into the desert and preyed on illegals. It wasn’t all that different from the pedophiles snatching immigrant kids or the pimps finding illegal pre-teens to sell or . . . It was just another ‘illegals for your sick pleasure’ case. I didn’t think anything of it. It was just a case.”

  “Until the guy started fucking with you,” Seth said.

  “Right,” Rick said. “But I’m not as bright as you, O’Malley. I didn’t get what was going on until . . .”

  Rick fell silent. Seth waited.

  “I kept it to myself,” Rick said. “Looking back, I don’t really know why. I should have called you and Mitch or let my friends know. I didn’t even let Soledad know what was going on.”

  As if he were looking back on his own history, Rick nodded.

  “I thought it was just another case,” Rick said. “God, I’d been a cop almost all my life. My dad was a cop. His dad . . . I thought . . .”

  Rick fell silent, and Seth waited. Rick looked at him and then at Soledad.

  “He was attacked in the police parking lot,” Soledad said. “The guy hit him with some kind of stun gun and then . . .”

  Soledad looked at her husband.

  “Show him,” she said to Rick.

  He took off his glasses. His right eye socket was empty. He had a deep scar that ran along the side of his face. He pushed his hair back to show a star-shaped scar on his forehead.

  “The rest I can’t show you,” Rick said. “I don’t want to give you a thrill.”

  Rick grinned, and Seth chuckled. Seth let Rick settle in before he asked a question.

  “Can you tell me the whole story?” Seth asked.

  “Attacked me in the police-department garage,” Rick said. “I saw him . . . He walked right up to me with a smile on his face. So handsome. He asked me a question, I don’t remember what, and bam! I was down on the ground.”

  Rick pointed to the scar on his forehead.

  “Incredible, unbelievable, soul-shocking pain,” Rick whispered. He touched his head with the memory. “Then he set to work . . .”

  “It was one of those things, Seth,” Soledad said. “Ricky drove his police sedan every single day that year. But our daughter was having her quinceañera.”

  “That weekend,” Seth nodded. “I remember.”

  “I knew the only way to get him to the tailor was to make sure he didn’t have a car,” Soledad said. “I was waiting for him in his parking space. He thought I wasn’t there yet. I’d already started the car when he came out. I got to him only minutes after . . . They were hacking my husband, and that animal had just started up . . .”

  Soledad gestured to her behind.

  “What did you do?” Seth asked.

  “I shot them,” Soledad nodded. “One in the hip. The other, I don’t know. He was just standing there. I shot that . . . thing.”

  Soledad made a pistol with her fingers and gestured three shots.

  “That one—the handsome one—he said, something like, ‘There’s no point, we will find him,’” Soledad said.

  “‘Look at where you are. You think it’s an accident we can do this in a police garage?’” Rick’s voice held an eerie tone.

  Soledad nodded. Seth scowled.

  “I shot at them again,” Soledad said. “They grabbed their animal and ran. Just then, I heard a door close and looked up. The chief was standing at the door to the stairwell,” Soledad said. “He looks at me and says, ‘Go.’ That’s it. ‘Go.’”

  TWENTY-THREE

  “I grabbed Rick and drove,” Soledad said. “I knew those monsters probably had people at the hospital, so I left Rick at the free clinic in the barrio where I did my internship. I was driving to the kids’ school when I heard the lie on the radio. The police chief told the world Rick had shot himself. ‘Pressure from the job, blah, blah.’ I knew he was giving us our only chance. I got the kids from school. We picked up Rick and headed across the border to my grandmother’s place.”

  “Outside of Ejido el Cinco?” Seth asked.

  Soledad nodded.

  “I needed surgery,” Rick said. “Soledad’s uncle came with a team. They worked on me for hours.”

  �
�The assault couldn’t have lasted more than three minutes,” Soledad said. “Five maybe. Ricky’s had thirty surgeries, takes handfuls of pills, and . . .”

  “So fast,” Rick nodded. “They clearly had lots and lots of practice. Well, of course, all those illegals.”

  “You stayed at your grandmother’s house?”

  Rick and Soledad nodded.

  “We came back a year ago because Rick needed a different antibacterial,” Soledad said. “That money you gave me?”

  Seth nodded.

  “I used some of it to buy this place.”

  “In your own name?” Seth’s eyebrows furrowed with concern.

  “Not a chance,” Soledad said. “My brother is a lawyer. You know the money people gave me after Ricky died?”

  “Mostly you,” Rick said. Soledad nodded.

  “My brother, he cleaned the money through some businesses. There’s no trace back to me or Ricky,” Soledad said. “He set up an anonymous trust. The trust bought this land. He cashed out Rick’s pension and donated it to the little clinic that saved Rick’s life. We couldn’t have done that without your help. That’s why Ricky came to visit you.”

  “That and the fact that you’re dealing with the same guy,” Rick said.

  “We would have been lost without your help, Seth,” Soledad said and Rick nodded.

  “Glad it’s of some use,” Seth said.

  “Soledad writes children’s books in Spanish,” Rick said. “That’s how we live.”

  “There aren’t a lot of children’s books for Spanish-reading kids,” Soledad said.

  “Fabulous,” Seth said.

  “She has a whole team now,” Rick said. “A couple of publishers.”

  Rick smiled at Soledad, and she grinned at him.

  “You know what happened to that chief?” Soledad asked.

  “I never keep track of brass.” Seth shook his head.

  “Shot dead,” Rick said. “Stepped out of his house and blam. Less than a month later. No suspects.”

  “Everybody focused on the death of the chief and forgot about Rick,” Soledad said.

  “Served us fine,” Rick said.

  “Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” Seth asked.

  “No,” Rick said. “We knew you would. Go ahead.”

  “The handsome guy, he hit you with an electric cattle bolt?” Seth asked.

  “Enough electricity to incapacitate him, but not put him to sleep like a stun gun,” Soledad nodded.

  “By the handsome man?”

  “Oh,” Soledad shook her head. “I don’t know. Ricky was already down when I got there.”

  “The animal?” Seth asked.

  “It was one of those rat creatures,” Soledad said.

  “We think it was a weasel of some kind,” Rick said.

  “Did it smell?” Seth asked.

  “No idea,” Rick said. “I was a little . . .”

  “It smelled like . . . skunk, but more oily,” Soledad said.

  “Brown?” Seth asked.

  Rick looked at Soledad, and she nodded.

  “You know what it is?” Soledad asked.

  “Sounds like a mink,” Seth said. “He was using it to . . .”

  Seth let the question linger.

  “Clean him out,” Soledad said. “From the inside.”

  “While he was alive?” Seth’s stomach turned over.

  Soledad nodded.

  “Got rid of my hemorrhoids.” Rick snorted, and Soledad shook her head at him.

  The image was too real and visceral for Seth. He took a few minutes to settle his stomach.

  “Have a cookie,” Soledad said. “They help.”

  Seth reached for a cookie. Holding one in his hand, he asked, “Marijuana?”

  “Just sugar and butter,” Rick said.

  “And lots of love,” Soledad said. “He bakes a lot now. It’s really nice.”

  Seth took a bite and another cookie from the plate. He focused on the fire and the food for a few minutes to get his bearings.

  “It’s hard,” Soledad said. “To know there is so much evil in this world and yet . . .”

  “I see a lot of love,” Rick said. “The kids . . . I mean they were teenagers. We ripped them from their lives. My daughter was four days from her big party. You’d think she would freak out.”

  He shook his head.

  “She took one look at her father and never said another word,” Soledad said. “I asked her about it last year before she left for college. You know what she said?”

  Seth shook his head.

  “I’d rather have a dad than a party,” Rick said. “Just another thing I took for granted before all of this. I don’t do that anymore.”

  “And the infection?” Seth asked.

  “I need another operation,” Rick nodded. “Know any place I can have the operation without them finding out?”

  “I don’t know who ‘them’ is.” Seth shook his head.

  “Didn’t think so,” Rick said.

  “You will solve this,” Soledad said. “And when you do, we can come out of hiding.”

  “Is there anything you need?” Seth asked. “Anything I can do?”

  “Solve this thing,” Rick said. “Get these guys.”

  “Will you testify?” Seth asked.

  Soledad looked at Rick. For a few moments, they looked at each other, before Rick turned to look at Seth.

  “I will,” Rick said.

  “I will, too,” Soledad said.

  “If I had a police artist call you, Soledad, could you come up with a sketch of the guys who attacked Rick?”

  Rick and Soledad looked at each other again. Rick turned to Seth.

  “Someone you trust?” Rick asked.

  “Someone who works for my wife, Amelie,” Seth said. “They’re working right now. I can call.”

  “Can they trace your phone?” Soledad asked.

  Seth shook his head.

  “Okay,” Soledad said. “I’ll tell them what I remember.”

  “Thank you,” Seth said. “You’re very brave.”

  “We promised each other that we would do whatever you asked to help you get these guys,” Rick said.

  Seth smiled.

  “I knew Cavetti,” Rick nodded. “She came to our house for dinner every year when she vacationed in Tucson.”

  Seth nodded and placed a call on his cell phone to Ava’s lab. Ava answered.

  “Hi,” Seth said.

  “Hi,” Ava said. “Schmidty’s looking for you. Are you out boozing and floozing?”

  “Floozing?” Seth smiled.

  “That’s a Nelson word for cavorting with floozies.”

  “I’m talking to an old friend,” Seth said. “Would you mind if Leslie did me a favor?”

  “For the case?” Ava asked.

  “I found an eyewitness,” Seth said. “She’s pretty skittish, so . . .”

  “Leslie’s a good choice,” Ava said. “Hey, Leslie . . .”

  “What are they doing working so late?” Soledad asked.

  Seth covered the phone with his hand.

  “They just got a grant to review about a thousand physical remains and a couple thousand coroner’s case files from remains found in the Arizona desert,” Seth said. “Seems like someone’s been carving them up.”

  Rick smiled.

  “She’ll be careful?” Soledad asked.

  “They’re in a locked facility,” Seth said. “No one can get in without passing through detailed security.”

  “What about the State Attorney?” Rick asked.

  “He’s been locked out of the facility by the chief,” Seth said.

  “That’s right,” Rick said. “Denver got that new chief.”

  Seth nodded.

  “Is he on the take?” Soledad asked.

  “I’d like to see someone try,” Seth said, with more confidence than he felt. This entire case was eroding his sense of safety. The horror of what Rick and his wife had gone through wa
s icing on the cake.

  “I’m supposed to tell you that you need your rest,” Ava said.

  “But?” Seth turned his attention back to the phone.

  “It sounds like you’re making progress,” Ava said. “And progress means you’ll be home to cavort with me. I’m selfish like that.”

  Seth chuckled.

  “Anyway, here’s Leslie,” Ava said and got off the phone.

  “Seth?” Leslie asked.

  “How’s your Spanish?” Seth asked.

  “Good,” Leslie said. “She must be really scared.”

  “Yes,” Seth said.

  “I’ll be nice,” Leslie said. “What do you want me to do with the images?”

  “Send them to me, and ask Nelson to hide them,” Seth said.

  “Will do,” Leslie said.

  Seth gave the phone to Soledad. She looked at Seth and nodded.

  “Hello?” Soledad asked, as she moved into the house.

  Seth returned to the fireside. He and Rick sat and watched the fire until Soledad came out again. The strain of the conversation showed in the tight smile she wore over her tear-stained face. Rick stood and held her.

  “I know the cost of doing this is enormous,” Seth said. “I want you to know that I appreciate it.”

  Without letting go of each other, they looked at Seth.

  “It’s good,” Soledad said. “We will be done with this forever. I want that.”

  “So do I,” Seth said.

  “I’ll take you back to town,” Soledad said.

  “Why don’t you take me to the edge of town?” Seth asked. “I can walk or find a ride from there.”

  “You sure?” Soledad asked.

  “I’m sure,” Seth said. “Rick?”

  Rick gave Seth a hug.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you made it,” Seth said.

  “I’ll remember that when I have my next surgery,” Rick laughed.

  Seth smiled. He raised a hand in goodbye and followed Soledad out. She got in a rusted Datsun sedan. He took the passenger seat.

  “We don’t ever take the same car into town,” Soledad said.

  “Probably smart,” Seth said.

  They drove to the gate, and Seth got out to open it. She waited for him on the other side. They drove in silence to the highway.

  “Are you going to ask?” Soledad asked.

  “Not my business,” Seth said.