by PAUL BENNETT
‘My wife is taking this badly, which is only to be expected. You saw how much she loves Maria. She fears that we will never see her again. I have faith in Agent Toomey, and if he has chosen you for this mission then that is enough for me.’
‘How did you come in contact with Agent Toomey?’ I asked.
‘I have friends in high places,’ he said. ‘When I received Rojo’s demand I went to the embassy — he had said not to involve the police and that was all I could think of. I am an unofficial ambassador for Mexico. I do a lot to promote this fine country that I love to the very bottom of my heart. The embassy contacted their counterparts in the American embassy. They contacted the CIA, who passed it on to the DEA. Toomey was the agent chosen. He was understanding of my plight.’
‘I have two concerns,’ I said.
Bull raised his eyebrow as if to say ‘Only two?’
‘This will inevitably get bloody. I need you to get your contacts to sanction this mission so that we don’t fall foul of the authorities — police, federales, whatever goes for law and order in this country. We don’t want to spend the rest of our lives in a Mexican jail.’
‘What you have to realise,’ Estevez said, ‘is that crime — and that includes murder — is a major problem in Mexico. It is endemic throughout the country. Most crimes are drugs-related. The United Nations estimate that 90% of cocaine, heroin and marijuana that are sold in the United States originated in South America and are channelled through Mexico. We’re talking big business here and that leads to maybe 15,000 drugs-related murders a year. The police — or at least those that haven’t been bribed by the drugs cartels — have their hands full. You would be unlucky if the police came here to investigate. Nevertheless, I will pull in all my favours to get you immunity.’
‘Good. I am reassured. My second concern is an exit strategy. Rojo is part of a very powerful family. I don’t want them chasing us to kingdom come. We must remain anonymous and then we need to get out of here and back to the States as soon as we rescue your daughter.’
‘I have a private helicopter that I use for visiting my suppliers — Mexico is a big place and I can’t afford to spend all my time driving here and there across the country. I will put it at your disposal. It can be on standby whenever you want.’
‘Better get it here now in case our plans have to be accelerated.’ Estevez nodded.
‘One more thing,’ I said.
‘Yes?’
‘I would like to see her room. I want to be able to describe it to Maria so that she knows that we have been here and that she will be safe with us.’
He nodded, understanding the sense of my request. He went to his desk and pressed a buzzer sitting on the desktop. Moments later, the maid arrived. Estevez spoke in Spanish and she gestured that we should go with her. She led us up the stairs and along a corridor to a room at the end it. She ushered us inside and retreated back downstairs. The room was large with a capacious dressing room and an en-suite bathroom that was as big as the house we were staying in — OK, some exaggeration, but it was truly immense. The room was square and had windows on two sides with views over the garden. It was a good outlook, peaceful and alive with colour; which was what the room needed since it had little atmosphere of its own. There were no posters or pictures on the magnolia walls, no bottles or make-up on the dressing table, no mess anywhere.
Maybe all her personality was away at her university, for this was a sterile environment in which to live.
‘Could be the New York Hilton,’ Bull said, taking everything — or close to nothing — in. ‘Or any one of the chain hotels in big cities round the world. It’s like she’s just passing through.’
I walked into the dressing room and opened some of the wardrobes. There were shoes aplenty — at least that was normal for an eighteen-year-old — but mostly conservative styles, and a range of clothes in neutral colours as if she didn’t want to stand out from the crowd. Everything about her seemed muted. This was a girl trying to hide, coating herself in a layer of camouflage. We looked at each other, shrugged and went back downstairs to the study.
‘Satisfied?’ Estevez said.
‘Yes, thank you. Most enlightening.’
‘Anything else I can do for you?’
‘How about another pot of that coffee?’
* * *
The coffee was the best part of the day. After that, things started to fall apart.
When we got back to the house, Red, with Chico’s help, was unloading the supplies that they had bought.
‘We’ve hit a snag,’ he said. ‘Fallen at the first hurdle. And the second, I suppose.’
‘Give, pilgrim,’ I said.
‘Firstly, when we got back, there was a message for Rosa. Apparently, Rojo has some important guests arriving today. Rosa is needed to help with waitressing. She says she can’t turn it down for us. I see her point. In a week or so we’ll be gone and our money with us. She needs the income from Rojo. She’ll do what we she can for us today, but we’re on our own tonight.’
‘A disappointment,’ I said, ‘but not a problem. We’ve looked after ourselves many times before, we can do it again.’
‘And it was never about cooking and cleaning for us, was it?’
‘Be careful. Next thing I know you’ll be accusing me of being soft hearted.’
‘Huh!’
‘What else?’ I asked.
‘We had to drive thirty miles to the nearest store — if you can call it that. Plenty of vegetables, not that that would please Pieter the carnivore, but the cuisine is pretty much chicken based. Meals are going to get a little boring. Maybe Rosa can make more of the chicken than we could, but there’s not going to be much variety.’
‘Again, not a problem. We can exercise our choices when we get back. It’s only for a week. Might do us some good. We’ve been getting a bit soft. Anything else?’
‘You can’t go inside at the moment. Rosa is doing a deep clean. Stan and Pieter have gone to what is classed as a bar out here. Said we should meet them there. You go ahead and I’ll join you when I’ve finished unloading.’
‘Bring Chico along — he gets commission. Shame to deny him that. And you never know, he might prove useful.’
Bull and I headed off to the bar. Stan and Pieter had pulled two tables together and placed six chairs around them. We sat down and waited for the underemployed barman to shuffle over. He was probably going on seventy, so we made allowance for that, but he didn’t seem to be bubbling over with enthusiasm for our trade. Maybe he sensed trouble, now or some other time, and didn’t want any of it to stick to him.
Stan and Pieter were drinking beers, which seemed a good idea. Although it was nearly noon, it was too early to start drinking shots of tequila, especially when you have a mission to plan. We ordered — with Red’s knowledge from the Mexicans in Texas we’d just about managed to learn that cerveza was Spanish for beer — and Red and Chico walked in. We added their drinks to our order and waited for them to arrive at the barman’s leisurely pace. He brought them over and generously placed a dish of peanuts on the table. I wondered, given how many customers he got each day, just how long the peanuts had been hanging around. It was too much for Chico to bear. He picked up the dish, walked over to the barman and talked rapidly to him in a loud voice. He came back with two unopened bags, a fresh dish and a big smile.
‘Let’s have a report, Stan. How did your surveillance go?’
‘Like you said, a fortress. We parked up a little ways back and walked around the perimeter. The four watchtowers are the biggest problem. Going in during the day is very risky. Bound to be spotted, I reckon. At night is the best chance. The towers have searchlights, but I don’t think they cross over. Potential blind spot right in the middle. But, of course, you have to dodge the searchlights to get to that point. Once there, it’s still not easy — you have to get over the wall. Nothing to anchor a rope to, so we’d need to lift one of us up and over. Once one of us is in, whoever it is can open t
he gates.’
Pieter was the lightest. Standing on Bull’s back should provide him with sufficient height to scale the wall. ‘I’ll do it,’ he said, knowing that it would be assigned to him anyway. A willing volunteer is worth ten conscripted men.
‘Gaining entry over the perimeter only gets us so far. We need to have some idea of what we are going to find inside the house. Any ideas?’
Stan was just about to speak when Chico butted in.
‘I could do that,’ he said. ‘For hardly any money, too,’ he added.
‘How are you going to get inside the house?’ I asked.
‘Simple,’ he said. ‘I go there and ring the bell.’
‘That certainly is simple,’ Bull said.
‘I say my mother has forgotten what time she needs to be there tonight. Then I ask for a glass of water or maybe to use the toilet or maybe both and then have a sneak around.’
‘The boy’s a genius,’ said Red.
‘We cannot expose the boy to any danger,’ I said. ‘I forbid it.’
‘Si, senor,’ said Chico, giving me a wink. ‘I understand.’
‘You understand what?’ I asked.
‘My friend sometimes tells me not to do things. He says I would mess things up because I am . . . pollo?’
‘Chicken,’ said Red. ‘My vocabulary is improving with each shopping trip.’
‘Si, chicken,’ said Chico. ‘So then I do them to show I am not chicken.’
‘That’s not what I meant,’ I said. ‘I forbid it. That’s what I said and that’s what I mean.’
‘Si, senor. I will do it straightaway,’ he said, getting up from his chair and leaving the bar.
‘Hell!’ I said. ‘Red, go after him. Drag him back here if necessary.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Bull. ‘The kid’s smart. Resourceful, too. He could pull this off. Give us an edge. And, boy, do we need an edge.’
There was nothing for it but order more beers and eat some peanuts. They had dried chillies mixed in. I suspected everything would have chillies in from now on. Life was going to get hot.
When we were alone I debriefed Stan and Pieter on our meeting with Estevez. How he seemed to be coping well, but his wife was close to breaking point. ‘Be good to get this over as quick as possible,’ I said.
‘Even quicker than that,’ Bull replied. ‘I came here for action, not to sit in some seedy bar and eat peanuts. I could have done that at home. No offence, Johnny.’
‘None taken,’ I said. ‘I’ll just remember it when you come back from your boat gasping for an ice-cold beer.’
‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘Why don’t we go out in the desert and shoot something, even if it’s only a cactus.’
‘We’ve only been away from home three days and you are already stir crazy.’
‘I’m getting older, Johnny. My patience is thinner. Hell, I haven’t even seen who we’re up against yet. Maybe I’ll feel better when I can look the enemy in the eye.’
‘Give me a little time,’ I said. ‘Time to think of an excuse to call on Rojo. But I agree with you that we should get rid of the tension by shooting something. We’ll go as soon as Red gets back.’
That was another half an hour. He came in holding Chico by the hand. Tightly, as if Chico might escape.
‘Boy, can this kid run,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t catch him before he got to Rojo’s place. All I could do was hide out of sight while the kid went through the main gate.’
‘So, Chico,’ I said, ‘what did you learn?’
‘I am sorry, senor, but we haven’t agreed a fee yet. I was thinking ten dollars would be good value for my information.’
I took a ten-dollar bill from the bundle in my pocket and placed it on the table. I made a gesture to Pieter who understood immediately. He took a knife from the sheath strapped to his leg and plunged it through the ten-dollar bill, anchoring it to the table.
‘Do I get to keep the knife, too?’ Chico asked.
‘No, you don’t,’ said Pieter. ‘Get on with it, Chico. Bull’s on a short fuse and there’s no telling what will happen if that gets lit.’
Bull emitted a deep, low growl. Chico looked at him warily and started to speak. ‘They let me through the gate, no problem,’ he said. ‘One of the men on the watch tower to the right of the gate spoke into a machine. A man came out of the house and let me in. He took me to the house and he went inside to check what time my mother was needed, leaving me outside. I opened the door a little and peeked through the crack. There is a long corridor with rooms going off it on both sides. Three doors on both sides and one at the end. There is a staircase on the left leading up.’
This sounded like Chico had taken the task seriously. The boy had an eye for detail. ‘The man came back and told me seven o’clock for Momma. I asked for a drink of water and he took me to the room at the end of the corridor. It was a very large kitchen. Five men were sitting around a table eating tortillas and chili and drinking beer.’ Preparation for the changing of the guard, it sounded like to me. ‘A large woman was chopping up chickens. She wiped her hands on her apron like Momma says you shouldn’t do without washing them first and got me a drink of water. She ruffled my hair like I was cute. Uh, chicken fingers! Well, I fooled her. Chico is not cute, he is smart.’
‘That I can believe,’ said Bull.
Chico eyed him warily. ‘There are big glass doors from the kitchen leading outside. There is a table and eight chairs there, two umbrellas too, like they like to sit in the shade and eat. There is a garden, but small. Nothing growing there. It would be good for vegetables and maybe some chickens for their eggs. But this garden is just for sitting in. These are lazy people.’
I nodded. ‘We like lazy people,’ I said. ‘They make bad guards and good targets.’
‘I cross my legs and tell the woman that I need the toilet. She takes me into the corridor and leads me to a toilet — it had a basin with gold taps. Fluffy white towels. Soap in a bottle. I have never seen anything like it in my life. It was bigger than my bedroom.’ He shook his head as if to say that such luxury shouldn’t be allowed. ‘Then she looked at me, shook her head and led me to a room on the left by the door. It was a mess. A lot of chairs all over the place. Ashtrays full of cigarette butts. Dirty cups on a wooden table.’
‘The guards’ room,’ said Stan. ‘Has to be. These are ill-disciplined men.’
‘Getting better by the minute,’ Pieter said. ‘With men of this calibre it hardly feels fair to take them on.’
‘Comanche say,’ said Red, ‘that any scalp is good. One less white man to take away our land. No offence guys,’ he added.
‘None taken,’ Pieter, Stan and I said in unison. Bull looked smug.
‘This room had a separate toilet. No gold taps, no fluffy white towels, no soap in a bottle. She left me there and told me to come back to the kitchen when I had finished for a slice of pie. I sneak out of the toilet when she has gone. One room on the right is huge — lots of sofas and low tables, windows and doors leading out to the garden. The first room on the left is a dining room, table and chairs for twelve people. They must have big parties here. No wonder they need my mother and the other ladies from the village to help. The other room on the right is an office — big desk, one big chair behind it, three smaller chairs in front, wooden filing cabinets. I tried to go up the stairs, but there was the shadow of a guard on the wall, so I went back to the kitchen.’
‘You’ve done well,’ I said, drawing the knife out of the ten-dollar bill.
‘Thank you, senor,’ he said, pocketing the money. ‘Any more questions, senor?’
‘How was the pie?’
‘Terrible. They should have my mother cook for them, not waiting on tables like a slave.’
‘No one should be treated like a slave,’ said Bull. ‘That’s another score to be settled.’
‘What was the other one?’ I asked.
‘Baking bad pie. Capital offence.’
Chapter Nine
&n
bsp; We’d spent the afternoon in mindless violence on cacti. We’d found a deserted shack on the edge of the desert and, using it as cover, approached our enemy and reduced it to green pulp. That will teach them! Now, dinner over and guns cleaned, we were settled for the night. Pieter and I were on first watch. He was out back in the yard and I was outside the front door. We didn’t expect any trouble this early in our time at the village — we hadn’t upset anybody yet, there was plenty of time for that — but experience told us not to take anything for granted. In our line of business it pays to be careful.
I had dragged a chair from the living room and sat there scanning the street for any sign of movement. There was none. It was one in the morning and the village was fast asleep. Only a mad man or someone on a mission would be awake at this time of night. The occasional rasp of someone snoring broke the peaceful silence.
The temperature had dropped enough for me to have to wear a jacket, which conveniently hid the Browning in my shoulder holster: it was fully loaded with one in the chamber and the safety was off. Johnny Silver — ready for anything. The sky was clear and I could see the full moon and a myriad of stars twinkling. Would have been romantic, given the right company. I thought of Anna and wondered if she was staring up at the St Jude sky and thinking of me. It made me feel good to think so.
I heard the sound of footsteps and of a door shutting somewhere out of sight to my left. Rosa getting back from Rojo’s ranch after a long spell of waitressing, I assumed. Poor woman. Her life was one of existing rather than living. We could shoot the wings off a fly at fifty paces, but it was the likes of Rosa who were the heroes of this world.
There were more footsteps and the sound of a door opening and then closing again. I took out my gun and held it at my side. Something wasn’t right. Too many footsteps. I got up from the chair and started to walk in the direction of the sound. Then there was the cry. It was a word I couldn’t translate, but knew full well by the tone what it meant. It was Chico’s voice and he needed help badly. I ran towards his house. Behind me, Pieter, the same thought processes going through his head, came out on to the street and ran after me.