by Mark Dawson
Caterina’s apartment was just a few doors down the street. Milton felt eyes on his back and turned; two of the SUVs were parked alongside one another, their headlights burrowing a golden trough through the snarling, swirling dust. He turned back to the house, walking slowly so that he could squint through the sand at the third floor. There was light in one of the windows; a shadow passed across it. A quick, fleeting silhouette, barely visible through the darkness and the grit in the air.
Her window?
He wasn’t sure.
A narrow alleyway cut through the terrace between one address and its neighbour and Milton turned into it, gambling that there was another way inside around the back. The roiling abated as he passed inside the passageway but it wasn’t lit, the darkness deepening until he could barely see the way ahead. He reached around for the Springfield and pulled it out, aiming it down low, his finger resting gently on the trigger.
The passageway opened into a narrow garden, fenced on both sides, most of the wooden panels missing, the ones that were left creaking on rotting staves as the wind piled against them. The ground was scrub, knee high weeds and grasses, scorched clear in places from where a dog had pissed. There was a back extension attached to the ground floor property, no lights visible anywhere. He looked up: there was a narrow Juliet balcony on the third floor. There was his way inside. Milton climbed onto a water butt and then boosted himself onto the flat roof, scraping his palms against the rough bitumen. He stuffed the Springfield back into his trousers and shinned up the drainpipe until he was high enough to reach out for the bottom of the balcony, shimmied along a little and then hauled himself up so that he could wedge his feet between the railings.
He leaned across and risked a look inside.
There was no light now.
He took the gun and pushed the barrel gently against the doors. They were unlocked, and they parted with a dry groan. He hauled his legs over the railings and, aware that even in the dim light of the storm he would still be offering an easy target to anyone inside, he crouched low and shuffled forwards.
He heard movement in the adjacent room: feet shuffling across linoleum.
Milton rose and made towards the sound. He edged carefully through the dark room, avoiding the faint outlines of the furniture.
He reached the door. It was open, showing into the kitchen. The digital clock set into the cooker gave out enough dim light to illuminate the room: it was small, with the cooker, a fridge, a narrow work surface on two sides and cupboards above. A man was working his way through the cupboards, opening them one by one and going through them. Looking for something.
Milton took a step towards him, clipping his foot on the waste bin.
The man swivelled, a kitchen knife in his hand. He slashed out with it.
Milton blocked the man’s swipe with his right forearm, taking the impact just above his wrist and turning his hand over so that he could grip the edge of the man’s jacket. The man grunted, trying to free himself, but Milton plunged in with his left hand, digging the fingers into the fleshy pressure point behind the thumb, pinching so hard that the knife dropped out of his hand. It had taken less than three seconds to disarm him; maintaining his grip, Milton dragged the man’s arm around behind his back and yanked it up towards his shoulders, pushing down at the same time. The man’s head slammed against the work surface.
“Who do you work for?” he said.
“Fuck you, gringo.”
Milton raised his head a little and slammed it back against the work surface.
“Who do you work for?”
“Fuck you.”
Milton reached across and twisted the dial on the hob, the gas hissing out of the burner. He pushed the button to ignite it, the light from the blue flame guttering around the dark kitchen. He guided the man towards the hob, scraping his forehead across the work surface and then the unused burners, raising him a little over the lit one so that he could feel the heat.
His voice remained steady and even, implacable, as if holding a man’s face above a lit flame was the most normal thing in the world. “Let’s try again. Who do you work for?”
The man whimpered. There was a quiet, yet insistent, crackle as his whiskers started to singe. “I can’t––”
“Who?”
“They’ll––they’ll kill me.”
Milton pushed him a little closer to the flame. His eyebrows began to crisp. “You need to prioritise,” he suggested. “They’re not here. I am. And I will kill you if you don’t tell me.”
He pushed him nearer to the flame.
“El Patrón,” the man said in a panicked garble. “It’s El Patrón. Please. My face.”
“What are you looking for?”
“The girl––the girl.”
“But she’s not here. What else?”
“Contacts.”
“Why?”
“They’ve been writing about La Frontera. El Patrón––he wants to make an example of them.”
Milton turned the man’s head a little so he could see him better. “Where can I find him?”
The man laughed hysterically. “I don’t know! Just look around. He’s everywhere.” He squinted at him. “Why would you even wanna know that?”
“I need to speak to him. He needs to leave the girl alone.”
“And you think he’ll listen?”
“I think he will.”
“Who are you, man?”
“Just a cook.”
The man laughed again, a desperate sound. “No, I tell you what you are––you’re fucked. What you gonna do now? Call the federales? How you think that’s going to go down, eh? You stupid gringo–– El Patrón, he owns the cops.”
“I won’t need the cops.”
Milton snaked his right arm around the man’s throat and started to squeeze. The man struggled, got his legs up and kicked off the wall; Milton stumbled backwards and they went to the floor. The man was trying to get his hands inside Milton’s arm but he could not. Milton squeezed, the man’s throat constricted in the nook of his arm. He braced his left arm vertically against his right, his right hand clasped around his left bicep, and he pulled back with that, too, tightening his grip all the time, his face turned away. The man was flailing wildly, his arms windmilling, and he scrabbled sideways over the floor, kicking over the waste bin, treading dusty prints up the kitchen cupboards. His sneakers squeaked against the linoleum floor. He was gurgling, a line of blood trickling from the mouth. He was choking on his own blood. Milton squeezed harder. The man’s legs slowed and then stopped. Milton relaxed his grip. The man lay jerking. Then he stopped moving altogether.
Milton got up and flexed his aching arm. He poured himself a glass of water and drank it, studying the dead man gaping up from the floor. Early twenties, a cruel face, even in death. His eyes bulged and his tongue lolled out of blue-tinged lips. He crouched down next to the body, frisking it quickly: a mobile phone, a wallet with three hundred dollars, a small transparent bag of cocaine. Milton took the money and the phone, discarding the wallet and the cocaine, and then took a dishcloth and a bottle of disinfectant he found under the sink and cleaned down anything that he might have touched. He wiped the glass and put it back in the cupboard. He wiped the tap. He wiped the hob.
Milton took the man’s torch and went into the bedroom. The laptop, covered in stickers and decals––Wikileaks, DuckDuckGo, Megaupload––was under the mattress, where Caterina said it would be. He slipped it into a black rucksack he found in the closet and dropped the Springfield and the ammunition in after it. He climbed down from the balcony and followed the passageway back to the front of the house. The storm had still not passed. Visibility was poor. Milton walked back in the same direction from which he had arrived. He passed the parked SUVs, ignoring the man smoking a cigarette in the open door, his eyes fixed straight ahead. He found the taxi again and got in.
“La Playa Consulado,” he said.
He bought cheeseburgers, fries and Big Gulps from the ta
ke-out next to the hotel. He could hear the sound of the television as he approached the door to Caterina’s room. The curtains were drawn but light flickered against the edges. Milton stopped in his room first, taking out the revolver and ammunition and the things that he had taken from the dead man, hiding them under the sheet. He locked the door behind him and knocked for Caterina.
“Who is it?”
“It’s John.”
He heard the bedsprings as she got to her feet and then her footsteps as she crossed the room. The lock turned and the door opened. Milton went inside.
“You were hours.”
“I’m sorry. It took longer than I thought. Was everything alright?”
“The cleaner tried to come in but I sent her away.”
“Nothing else?”
“No. I’ve been watching TV all day.”
She looked tired and, despite the permanent glare of defiance, her red-rimmed eyes said that she had been weeping.
“Here.” Milton put the wrapped meals on the bed. Caterina was hungry and so was he; he realised that he hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast this morning. The meat in the cheeseburgers was poor, but they both finished quickly, moving onto the little cardboard sheath of greasy fries. Milton watched the TV as he put the food away; Caterina had tuned it to a channel from El Paso, news about local Little League sports, a fun run to raise money for cancer research, the pieces linked by glossy presenters with white teeth and bright eyes. It was a different world north of the river, he thought. They had no idea what it was like down here.
Milton put the rucksack on the bed and took out the laptop. “Is this what you wanted?”
“Perfect, thank you,” she said. “Did you––did you have any trouble getting it?”
“No trouble at all.”
* * *
29.
THREE MORE DAYS.
Jesus Plato reminded himself, again and again, as he stared up at the bridge.
It was Wednesday today.
Just three more days and then an end to all this.
It was a fresh morning, a cool wind blowing after the fury of the storm last night. Plato was at the concrete overpass known as Switchback Bridge. The bodies had been called in as dawn broke over the endless desert, ropes knotted beneath their armpits, tied to the guard rail and the dead tossed over the side. They both dangled there, the rope creaking as they swung back and forth in the light breeze, twenty feet above the busy rush of traffic at the intersection. A small crowd of people had gathered to watch as a fire truck was manoeuvred around so that the ladder could get up to them. Former school busses from across the border, now ferrying workers to and from the sweatshops, jammed up against one another and, behind them, a queue of irate drivers leant on their horns. Just another day in Ciudad Juárez. Another morning, another murder. No-one was surprised, or shocked. It was an inconvenience. This was just how it was and that, Plato thought, was the worst of it.
He could see that the bodies had both been decapitated. Hands had been tied behind their backs and their feet flapped in the wind. He hadn’t had a proper breakfast yet, just a Pop Tart as he left the house, and he was glad. The bodies revolved clockwise and then counter-clockwise, bumping up against each other, a grotesque and hideous display. They were suspended between advertising hoardings for Frutti Sauce and Comida Express fast food and the sicarios had left their own message alongside their prey. A bed sheet was tied to the guard rail and, painted on it, was a warning: “FREEDOM OF THE PRESS” and then “ATENCION – LA FRONTERA.” A fireman scaled the ladder and, with help from colleagues on the bridge, the carcasses were untied, lowered to the ground and wrapped in canvas sacks to be taken to the morgue.
Plato was about to head back to the station when he saw John Milton and Caterina Moreno. The girl was crouched down, leaning her back against the side of his Dodge, hugging her knees tight against her chest. Her face was pale and, on the ground next to her, there was a puddle of drying vomit. Milton was leaning against the bonnet, his face impassive and his arms folded across his chest.
“What are you doing here?” Plato asked him.
“She knows who they are.”
“Who?”
“Up there.” He pointed. “She knows them.”
“Even without their––you know––without their heads?”
“They used to write for her blog.”
“Shit.”
“I know.” Milton pushed himself away from the car and led Plato out of the girl’s earshot. “She wanted to see them before I get her over the border. Warn them that they should get out, too. We went to their address but––well, we were too late, obviously. The place had been turned over. We saw the bodies from the taxi as we were driving back to the hotel. Went right underneath them. They were husband and wife. Daniel and Susanna Ortega.”
“This is what happens if you get on the wrong side of the cartels. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
He pointed to the bridge. “That wasn’t a five minute job. There must have been witnesses––passing traffic?”
“They don’t care. No-one’s going to say anything.” Plato nodded to Caterina. “And it’ll happen to her, too––they won’t stop. When are you taking her across?”
“I’m working on that.”
The white morgue van backed away and drove away. The fire truck was lowering its ladder.
“Work faster.”
* * *
30.
FELIPE WATCHED from the car as the Cessna 210 touched down on the rough gravel runway that had been constructed right down the middle of the arid field. It had big tyres and metal strips under the nose to protect the engine from stones. It was one of several that Felipe owned. He had sent it north this morning, touching down in a similar field in New Mexico to collect its passengers and refuel, and then to deliver them to him here. He stepped out of the Jeep. Adolfo had already disembarked and was leaning against the bonnet, watching as the plane taxi’d across the field, dust kicking up from the oversized tyres. Felipe shielded his eyes against the sun and waited for the plane to come to a halt.
“Wait here,” he said to his son.
“Padre?”
“Stay here.”
He stared at him sourly. “Yes, Padre.”
“Pablo.”
Felipe and Pablo crossed the desert to the plane. He was not particularly concerned about his guests. They would have been frisked before they got onto the plane and he knew very well that the fear of his reputation was the most effective guarantee of his own security. That said, you couldn’t be too careful and, with that in mind, Adolfo and the men in the second Jeep were all equipped with automatic rifles.
The ramp was lowered and the three passengers inside descended. Felipe was wearing a Stetson; he removed it, wiped inside the rim with his handkerchief, wiped his forehead, and put the hat back on. He paused and allowed the gringos to come to him.
“El Patrón?” said the man who had stepped to the front.
“That’s right.” He smiled at them. “Welcome to Mexico. How was your flight?”
“Was good––thanks for arranging it.” He was a thick-limbed Texan, tall, a little colour in his face.
“You are Isaac?”
“I sure am.”
“And your friends?”
“Kevin and Alejandro.”
“Your business partners?”
“That’s right.”
Felipe smiled at the other two. His first impression: they were not particularly impressive. Isaac was the owner of the business that they were going to use and was, not surprisingly, the most interesting.
Felipe turned and indicated in the direction of the two Jeeps. Adolfo and the other two men were lounging against the vehicles, the brims of their hats pulled down to shield their eyes from the glare of the sun. “We’ll drive back to Juárez and discuss our business.”
“Forgive me, El Patrón,” Isaac said. “Before we do, there’s something I’d like to clear up.”
“Listen, I hope you can forgive me––I don’t mean to be blunt, but there’s no point in pussyfooting around it so I’m gonna come right out and get to the point. I’m sure you know all about this, but there’s a whole lot of coverage about the girls that are going missing over here. Someone’s been writing about it and now the TV channels and newspapers and such like over the border have got hold of it.”
“How is this relevant?”
“It’s extra heat, right? More attention? Makes things more––what would you say––more precarious.”
“I would say you shouldn’t worry. And that you should trust me.”
“I’d like to be able to say that I can, El Patrón, truly I would. I’m sure, in time, we’ll come to trust each other like brothers. But now, well, we don’t even know each other.”
His tone suddenly lost the avuncular tone he had been working hard to maintain. “What does that have to do with us?”
“The word over the border is that your men are behind it. They say they’re doing it for sport. Now, I’m sure that ain’t true, El Patrón, because if it was, well, yessir, if someone was allowing them to get away with hijinks like that then we’d have to question whether that someone was the sort of someone we’d want to get into business with. Not morally––I don’t care about none of that. It’s business––a person who’d allow someone to bring so much attention to his operation, well then, that wouldn’t make no sense.”
Besa mi culo, puto! Felipe breathed in and out: the sun in his eyes, the huevos on this man, coming over to Mexico as his guest and insulting his hospitality like this! It would have taken a moment for him to signal to Adolfo and his goons to bring up their rifles and perforate them, blow them away. All he would have to do would be to click his fingers. It was tempting, but he could not. Since he had ended his business relationship with the Luciano family––and ended it in such a way that a reconciliation was impossible––he needed Isaac and his pajero friends to distribute his product in the south-west. He had tonnes to move. Without them he would have to split the product between small-time operators and that would mean less leverage for him, less profit and much greater risk. It was impossible.