Lex talionis
Chapter 05. Chasing shadows
The professional had found out that his target had been in a car accident, and was snooping around the hospital.
It did not take him long, however, to find out that Valentine was no longer there. He found it peculiar that someone who, he had learned, had suffered some injuries, had been discharged so soon.
But in reality, he considered it a stroke of luck. This job could not be done remotely; he had to abduct his target and hold him for hours. He wouldn't have been able to do it if Valentine was hospitalized. Now he wouldn't have to wait so long to carry it out.
He discreetly posted himself in front of the apartment building where his target lived, looking for the best opportunity to catch him.
But the guy... didn't even show up.
·~·~·
The next day, after breakfast, Isobel and Darío decided to investigate the missing driver. They already suspected as much, but they confirmed without difficulty in the GN files that José Ramón Ambrós was part of the Durango cartel. Of course, Vargas would not have entrusted his wife and son to someone he did not trust.
They decided to find out more about him, so they visited his last known residence, a rented apartment in a residential area of Acuña.
The landlord, a middle-aged man with a mustache who scratched himself a lot, received them cordially and didn't seem surprised. He even offered them to see the apartment, as it was not occupied at the time.
"[Do you remember the last time you saw Mr. Ambrós," Darío began with the usual question.
"[Of course. The day the fucking bastard left without paying what he owed me.]"
Isobel and Dario looked at each other taken aback.
"[What?]" they both said practically at the same time.
"[Órale pues. One day he showed up acojonadito, picked up four pieces of his garbage and left, leaving me owing rent. Hijo de la chingada. He mumbled something about being blamed for these deaths. Now that I thought to myself: 'I just got lucky. The farther away the better'. I had already realized that he was malhora and that he hung out with criminals. They came looking for him soon after that, by the way. Dangerous people. I let them search the things he left behind, of course. Do you want to see them? I should have them in the storage room somewhere...]"
Darío and Isobel blinked at this unexpected and fluid verbiage.
"[But you didn't inform the police,]" said Darío, puzzled.
"[¡Órale pues!]" exclaimed the landlord. "[When los Federales were here a year ago, I told them the same thing I'm telling you right now. Just like the guys who came here the day before yesterday asking questions too.]" Isobel was startled. It was the second time they were aware that someone else was investigating. "[I don't play dumb with anyone,]" he added. [No, no. Don't think they have to beat me to sacarme la sopa.]"
"[Why isn't any of this in the case file," wondered Darío as he and Isobel returned to their car, "I was convinced that the driver had been killed, and his body would be rotting somewhere hard to find...]"
Isobel wondered the same thing, but at that moment she was more concerned with the question of the others who were also inquiring. Who were they? The landlord had said they were certainly not policemen. They were at least two days ahead of them. What was their objective? Could they be Vargas' men? But... Just now? A year later? The unknowns were too many to even guess at. The only thing that reassured Isobel a bit was that these others surely didn't know about Darío and her.
If you're ahead, you may not notice someone following a couple of steps behind you.
·~·~·
Jubal was trying to relax during the flight to San Antonio.
But it didn't seem possible. His mind was racing and the flight was taking forever. How could a thing moving at over five hundred miles per hour seem so slow? If he didn't have his seat belt on, he'd be climbing the walls. The passenger next to him gave him an irritated look. He seemed a little fed up with the rubber band snapping. Jubal made an effort to stop.
The wound on his arm ached. He took another painkiller and forced himself to close his eyes.
What would Isobel be doing now? Jubal hoped she was simply engaged in her self-imposed mission. For the umpteenth time he prayed that nothing bad had happened to her. And he still had to find her in Ciudad Acuña, which wouldn't be easy without FBI resources and if she didn't want to be found. If she was still there...
He was terrified of not arriving on time. The anguish that this possibility caused him had an almost unmanageable dimension. And he didn't want to think too much about why. He told himself again that this was a cumulative thing, after Rina... Jess... he couldn't afford to lose anyone else. And he actively avoided reflecting on it any further.
Trying to distract himself, he began to think again about Isobel's foolish intentions. She was an intelligent woman, it was not possible that she was gambling her career and her life on the fragile hope that Vargas would be... grateful. There had to some detail that was escaping him.
Although it wasn't that uncertainty that had made Jubal buy the first plane ticket to Texas, paying triple the normal price, without even stopping by home to pick up a change of clothes.
No, that was triggered by Miguel Rojas' response.
It didn't make him proud of himself for it, but Jubal had had to resort to questionable, very ugly -and also very false - threats to withdraw protected prisoner status to get it. Miguel Rojas was afraid, and rightly so.
It was that answer that got him on the plane.
The slowest plane in the history of commercial aviation, apparently...
·~·~·
Darío had been calling the forensic institute, but they weren't picking up the phone, so they drove there. The institute was in Piedras Negras, a little over 56 miles away, about 1 hour's drive.
Upon arrival, a woman in her thirties attended to them at the reception desk.
"[Good morning, miss," Darío greeted and identified himself, "[Do you have a problem with the phone? Don't you ever pick it up?]
"[Oh, I'm so sorry. The number changed recently. I'll give you the new one," the woman replied kindly and held out a card. "May I help you with anything else]?"
"[I'm sure you do,]" said Darío, smiling and making her smile in return. "[We want to talk to Dr. Gerardo Núñez, could you tell him we are here, please? It is to expand on an autopsy report he made.]
"[Um… No, I'm afraid not. Dr. Núñez no longer... He passed away some time ago. I'm sorry.]"
"[Really? When was that?]"
"Mmm... More than a year ago. May 28th. The poor guy. He had been ill for some time..."
Isobel and Darío looked at each other sideways. Sofia and Carlos had been killed two days later.
"[Excuse me, but this is his signature, isn't it?" asked Isobel asked with good reflexes, showing the woman the scanned report on her cell phone, but being careful not to let her see the date, which stated that a dead man had signed it on June 1.
The receptionist seemed to hesitate, but finally said:
"[Yes. I think so.]"
"[And you're sure he died on May 28,]" Dario asked again.
"[Yes, sure. I remember it because it coincided with my birthday...]"
It didn't even take the two of them to talk about it. It was clear that the report had been falsified.
·~·~·
"[Is it me or is this getting a bit weird?]" asked Darío as they waited for their lunch to be brought to them on the terrace of a small restaurant, already back in Ciudad Acuña.
That day, a light breeze brought a cool breeze from Rio Bravo and, despite the warm weather, it was nice outside.
Isobel shifted in her seat, uneasy. No one around her was paying attention to them, just a couple of other people sitting on the restaurant terrace, but she had the uneasy feeling that they were being watched. On the other hand, she felt a sharp frustration. She tried to control it in order to answer Darío. She did not succeed.
"[Can we trust a single word of that forensic report now, perhaps? Or from the case file, for that matter?] She sounded as exasperated as she felt.
Darío shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment.
"[Don't be discouraged. I will try to locate Ernesto Caldera, the GN agent who originally handled the case. Maybe he can give us more information.]"
Isobel nodded, a little calmer, if skeptical. She understood Darío wanting to give a fellow corpsman the benefit of the doubt, but everything was getting too shady for her to have much confidence in what Caldera had to say. And yet...
"[I am curious to talk to him, actually…]"
Suddenly, but with a fluid and concealed movement, someone left a cell phone on their table.
Isobel stood up immediately. Darío, sitting across from her, turned around. He had been a man of middle age, medium height, medium build and dressed in the most common garments of the locals in that area.
"[Hey! You!]" Isobel called out to him, grabbing the cell phone and going in pursuit, "[Hey, stop!]"
The man was already beginning to blend in with the people walking down the busy street.
Isobel hurried, but then the cell phone rang. She hesitated. The screen on the cheap burner phone read 'Unknown Number'. That distraction caused her to lose sight of the man. She looked around, searching for someone who might be watching them, to no avail.
Dario was about to run past her trying to catch up with the guy, but she stopped him. It was not wise to split.
They sat down at the table again. The phone was still ringing with a very generic and annoying ring. Darío cast a questioning glance toward the cell phone, and Isobel finally picked it up. But she kept silent.
"Castille."
It had no question tone. An unpleasant chill ran down Isobel's spine. It was Vargas' voice. Serene, cold, unmistakable.
"Vargas," she replied after a moment, as calmly as she could muster.
How the hell did Vargas manage to keep sneaking cell phones into a maximum security federal prison?
"What are you doing in Acuña, Castille?" he asked in English, with his usual grating politeness. "Do you think it wise to come within my reach in this way?"
"I've come to do something and your threats won't deter me," she replied, defiantly.
"I thought you already knew that my threats are never empty." There was a tense silence. "There's no need to answer. I already know what you're up to."
Is there no place where this bastard doesn't have eyes and ears? Although it wasn't unreasonable to think that Vargas had a mole, or several, in the local police force. Isobel swore to herself. She had exposed herself too much; she had been careless.
"I just want to hear from your mouth why," Vargas continued, "Why are you doing this, Castille?"?
"Why? Because no one else seems to be doing anything." She couldn't help but sound reproachful; perhaps she hadn't even tried not to.
"Castille, has it occurred to you that I may have already taken care of this matter in a quiet and discreet manner?"
In fact, no. That possibility had not occurred to her. Not at all. Panic climbed from her stomach, up inside Isobel's chest, into her throat. She cursed herself for not having thought of it. If that was true, it would completely strip her of the leverage she had thought she had in her reach...
No, no, no. He's just playing with you.
"No, Vargas. If you would have been able to take matters into your own hands, everyone from Chiapas to Baja California would have heard about it," countered Isobel. "The retaliation would have been very bloody and very public."
Another silence.
"I was going to give my people orders to act immediately against you." Vargas paused ominously. Isobel had to swallow hard and looked around tensely. "But to tell you the truth, I am intrigued by what you are trying to accomplish. Are you seeking my forgiveness, Castille?"
As she clutched her cell phone tightly, Isobel pondered the answer. Yes, she felt responsible for Carlos and Sofia's death, but she was still reluctant to assume that the blame was hers. Her ultimate intention was close to what Vargas was saying, but it wasn't about that either. Nevertheless, it was obvious that she should not allow Vargas to find out which was her hand. It seemed that with him was always as playing a long game of poker.
"I seek justice," she replied, melodramatically.
Vargas seemed to reflect. "All right. I'll let you continue for now. Let's see what else you can get. But don't push your luck too hard, Castille. You and Valentine might as well end up hanging from a bridge," he stated harshly.
And he cut off.
·~·~·
What Isobel wanted was to furiously throw Vargas' phone on the ground and stomp on it, but she decided to keep it. She disabled the location and data options, and stuffed it in her purse.
After that, Darío tried to cheer Isobel up lunch, but she, gloomy, only wanted to talk about the case, more determined than ever to achieve her purpose.
They returned to the hotel and Darío immediately sat down to find out how to contact Ernesto Caldera.
Meanwhile, Isobel pulled out the burner she had brought with her from New York. She had been using it these days to talk to the hospital and ask about Jubal. It had been a great relief when she had learned that he had regained consciousness and had no serious after-effects.
But Vargas' recent mind games had left her in a state of grave uneasiness. She called. She needed to know if Jubal was all right.
Darío raised an eyebrow when he heard her call and ask for Jubal Valentine once again; she had done so almost every night since she had arrived in Acuña.
"Well, who is this 'Jubal'" you ask about every day?" Darío asked with an amused air as she was put on hold at the hospital.
Just as Isobel had not told Darío what her ultimate goal in embarking on this investigation was -only that Vargas had targeted her team and that she was determined to find the culprit behind his family's death neither had she told him of her true motivation, of the threat of death that hung over Jubal at that moment, nor how much it mattered to her that he come to no further harm... Nor why.
"He's one of the agents under my command," she answered as neutrally as possible. "Vargas ordered an attempt on his life. It was a miracle he got out alive. I am calling to find out how he is doing, nothing more."
Darío's mouth drew a skeptical little smile that Isobel completely ignored.
However, today at the hospital they had disturbing news. The day before Jubal, against the advice of the medical staff and long before he was fully recovered, had left the hospital.
Damn it! For a day she hadn't called...
Her concern for him spiraled out of control. What on earth was Jubal thinking to do such a foolish thing? She was about to call him immediately. But she couldn't do that without most likely provoking an avalanche of questions as to why she had left on such a sudden trip. Questions that would force her to blatantly lie to him. She didn't want to have to do that.
She could not call Maggie or OA for the same reason.
She had not yet used the burner she had left with her father. Maybe he could find out something for her. She then called the only other contact she had registered on the phone besides the hospital. They picked up on the first ring, as if they had been expecting, even stalking, the call.
"¿Isobel?"
A shudder ran through her from head to toe as she distinctly heard Jubal's anxiety-laden voice call her name on the other end of the line. She was speechless for several seconds before she managed to react.
"Jubal? What-? Why do you have this phone? Is my father all right?" Isobel asked, alarmed at the possible reasons why the burner had ended up in Jubal's possession.
"Isobel. Thank Heavens," he sighed, evidently relieved. "Your father is fine, don't worry. He gave me the cell phone, so I could find you. "He said you'd call. Are you all right? Where are you?"
Damn.
"I'm perfectly fine," she replied very seriously. "So, did my father tell you everything?" she asked rhetorically, "I shouldn't have trusted him."
"No, Isobel. I convinced him. I almost forced him. I had to. You're in danger. We need to talk. Where are you?" he insisted urgently.
The obvious concern and pleading in her deep voice moved Isobel intensely. But she wouldn't let that get to her. "I'm not going to answer that," she replied firmly. " Talk now."
"No. I want to talk to you face to face." This time he was adamant.
Isobel cursed again, this time out loud.
Darío looked up.
"Jubal, you should be in the hospital. Tell me what you have to tell me. That's an order, Agent Valentine." And go back to the hospital, for goodness sake.
The silence that followed was as thick as it was uncomfortable. Isobel was beginning to regret having been so rude.
"I'm getting to Del Rio," said Jubal in a harsh tone. 2Are you going to make me go back the way I came?"
Darío had to smile at Isobel's stupefied face.
~.~.~.~
Author's note: the plot thickens... I've tried to get correctly the Mexican idioms. If any of them are not, please let me know. I'd love to know what you think of it. Comments are always very welcome.