Lex talionis
Chapter 10. On the road
They left the hotel in less than half an hour. Isobel and Jubal returned the rental cars so they could all travel in Darío's. And before three o'clock in the afternoon, they left Ciudad Acuña heading for Monterrey.
They hadn't even been on the road for an hour when the annoying tone of Vargas' cell phone rang, startling the three of them. They had been silent for a while and Isobel and Jubal, who were not driving, had even begun to doze off.
Nervous, Isobel had a hard time finding it in her purse and managing to pick it up.
"Where are you going, Castille? -asked Vargas in that soft, casual tone of his. "Are you leaving Acuña? Has you given up?"
Gritting her teeth, Isobel restrained herself from sending him to hell. How on earth did he know that? Had he bugged the hotel room or what? No. He doesn't know where we're going. Probably just that we've left the hotel... Breathe. Vargas is not omniscient. He's just had people watching.
"I don't have to explain myself to you, Vargas," she managed to sound much calmer than she really was, but behind her, she felt more than saw Jubal jump in the back seat when she named the head of Durango cartel. She cursed herself internally because she had forgotten to tell him that Vargas had contacted her before.
"Aha," Vargas said, dismissively. "Give Valentine my regards, since he's around." Another proof that they had been under surveillance. "And please don't forget that he still has the privilege of being especially in my sights."
Isobel couldn't help but get the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. "I'm keep going, that's all I'm going to say," she growled.
"Very well," he replied in an irritatingly pleased tone.
"And I remind you that I don't work for you," Isobel retorted aggressively. "I don't need your approval."
That made him laugh under his breath in a harsh and unpleasant way. She was this close to throwing the cell phone out of the window.
"Have you heard about what happened in Veracruz?" Vargas changed his tone and subject radically. "You're not the only one on the trail."
"I am aware," she hastened to answer, perhaps with some arrogance.
"You don't disappoint me," said Vargas, condescendingly.
"Juarez, right?"
Darío turned his head and looked at her in alarm, as if that hadn't occurred to him. She heard Jubal gasp. On the other end of the line, there was a brief stunned silence.
"Impressive," Vargas acknowledged.
Isobel had not been sure of that suspicion, but now she could be.
"Watch your back, Castille," Vargas then warned. "The other predators in the hunting ground are dangerous."
"There's always a bigger fish, huh?" Isobel dared to be ironic.
"Juárez is no bigger than Durango," he snarled in a contemptuous tone.
"Of course, of course," replied Isobel with an unexpected sense of triumph because for once she had managed to break through his irritating indifference.
"But against them, you wouldn't last five minutes," Vargas spat before hanging up.
Darío and Isobel needed quite a while to calm Jubal down after how upset he became when he found out about the phone with which Vargas had already called her twice, and even more so when he understood that Durango's thugs had been following them. They explained to him that Vargas seemed to have left Isobel's way clear. But even so, Jubal was not at all reassured.
To be honest, neither was she.
·~·~·
Halfway, before passing Nuevo Laredo, they took a break to refuel and stretch their legs.
They were still not very talkative with each other, but they got some air and, although alert, some soft drinks outside the gas station. It was still a long time before sunset and the afternoon was hot. All around them, the plain seemed to stretch on endlessly. Gusts of a suffocating wind crossed it from time to time. Isobel turned her back on them for a moment as the air brought all her hair to her face, to pin it up with a claw clip.
Doing his best to ignore how inciting the nape of Isobel's neck seemed, Jubal's eyes were drawn once more time to her tattoo. To relax the atmosphere between them a bit, and taking advantage of the fact that he could bring up this subject that intrigued him, he pointed it out with a gesture of his chin.
"I didn't know you had a tattoo, Isobel. When did you get it?"
She blinked because he had caught her deep in her, once again, tormented thoughts. "Hmm? Ah, yeah. A few years ago."
"You didn't know she had it?" Darío asked Jubal.
"No," he answered plainly. He pretended not to see Darío make a brief gesture with the corners of his mouth and eyebrows, as if his response told him something and he was taking note.
Then Darío's cell phone rang. His expression became tense as he consulted the screen. Tossing his can, now empty, into a trashcan, he stepped away a bit before picking up the call.
Silently, Isobel and Jubal leaned without sitting on a low wall, side by side near the car, in the shade. A certain awkwardness still hovered between the two.
"What does it mean?" Jubal ventured quietly, taking advantage of the bit of intimacy.
"What?"
"Your tattoo. What does it mean? If I may ask..."
Isobel withdrew even visibly. "Nothing. A nice design I chose."
"Yeah. OK..." Jubal admitted the rejection with resignation, even though it disappointed him deeply.
It was Isobel's usual reaction. She always avoided exposing herself, and the attempts Jubal had made in the past to get closer, to learn more about her, hadn't turned out any better than this one. In truth, he didn't know why he had decided to try one more time...
It was not possible for Isobel, as on other occasions, to overlook Jubal's sorrowful frown, nor the despondent way he lowered his eyes. This time it made her feel a sharp pang inside her chest. She had been reserved by reflex, as she always did, but Isobel could no longer ignore that, if there was anyone in her life who didn't deserve to be brushed aside with mistrust, it was Jubal. She was abruptly aware of it at that very moment.
"That's not true. Forgive me. Yes, it means something," she admitted.
Jubal's gaze lifted, his eyes tinged with surprise and alight with a gleam that Isobel did not want to recognize as hopeful, but which made them even more beautiful to her.
Unprepared, Jubal's pulse skipped a beat. He waited for her to continue, expectantly.
"The star to the north is determination; the mountain to the west, integrity; the swallow to the east, courage; the waves to the south, compassion."
"A strong symbolism," Jubal opined thoughtfully. And so characteristic of Isobel... Of her identity.
She shrugged a perfect shoulder, playing it down. "It helped me," she explained with a nostalgic and sad expression, "at a time in my life when I almost came to... lose myself."
Strong... but lonely. Jubal could not help but miss family and love in that compass rose. Perhaps that was why she now had her own so unsettled now... he was still deeply troubled by what she had revealed to him that morning. Putting that out of his mind, he did his best to make his expression invite her to tell him more. Isobel turned her face away, but took a deep breath.
"Do you remember Kyle Miller?", she said.
It was so bitter to remember him. Isobel had been trying hard not to for days, even though having to deal with Vargas was a constant reminder.
Meanwhile, Jubal leaned back a little. Of course he remembered. Vargas had ordered one of his thugs to torture and kill Special Agent Kyle Miller, eight years ago.
"Yeah..."
Jubal was stationed in the Boston office at the time, but the whole Bureau heard about it. It is unusual for an FBI agent to be killed, let alone in such a way.
Although he had met Miller at the academy and their careers had crossed paths a couple of times, Jubal didn't know him very well. The truth was that he hadn't liked Miller very much. He had always struck him as a somewhat cocky guy. Also ambitious; determined to get to the top. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing; he had it in common with Rina. And undeniably, Miller was a brilliant agent. He had several commendations and was about to be promoted to SSA when he was killed.
"Kyle was a friend of yours, wasn't he?" he said carefully then. The other time the subject came up, when they caught Vargas the first time, with the bomb around Elise's neck and all, Jubal didn't get a chance to dig into it.
"Losing him was… heartbreaking," Isobel replied.
"I'm so sorry..." he murmured, overwhelmed; he got closer to her, trying to give her support. They both sighed. The recent losses of Jess and Rina were still too fresh for both of them.
"I- I couldn't mourn him like I needed to, so the rage consumed me," Isobel continued, seemingly without reluctance or mincing words this time. "The killer went free on a fucking technicality. I lost my head. I hunted him down on my own. I wanted revenge." She shivered, remembering the searing hatred she carried within her then. She looked Jubal in the face with guilty eyes. "Yes. I almost killed him, Jubal. I almost lost my way completely..."
Jubal was surprised to discover that Isobel had known very well what she was talking about when she had dissuaded him from seeking revenge for Rina's death. No wonder she always wanted everything done by the book...
"The tattoo," Isobel added, "well, it was part of a penance that helped me get it back." She let out a long sigh. "With Jess's help I got new evidence; we managed to put the bastard in jail.
Isobel's moist eyes made Jubal's heart ache, diluting the joy he felt at the trust she was showing him by telling him all this.
She shook her head fatalistically. "We later learned that it had been an order from the capo of Durango. The real culprit remained free anyway. By then, fortunately, I had already regained my balance..."
Therefore, Isobel had not only lost a promotion by letting Vargas go free for saving Elise. In doing so, she had also forfeited the justice that the death of a friend deserved. Jubal found it hard to breathe. Now he understood why Isobel had skipped out on Rina and even threatened Vargas' family so that he would not escape her again.
Slowly, he lifted a hand and placed it on Isobel's shoulder. The exquisite gentleness with which he did so made her feel moved; she marveled that such careful contact could be so comforting.
"I'm sorry for bringing up such a painful subject," he apologized in a whisper.
"No… I'm glad…" Isobel said, giving him a weak but relieved smile. "I'm glad I told you." She placed her hand on her own shoulder, over Jubal's.
The unwise impulse to embrace her, to hold her close to his chest and promise her that she would never have to go through anything like that again, became for him almost uncontrollable…
A few steps away, Darío was raising his voice. At first, while they were having their quiet conversation, nothing of what he was saying could be heard, but now it became unavoidable. The two of them looked in his direction, letting go of touching and preventing Jubal from doing something he feared would have been inconvenient.
"[No.]" Darío paused, listening "[No, I'm not coming back yet.]" Another pause. "[Because I still haven't finished what I'm doing.]
"Veronica?" Jubal deduced.
"Probably," Isobel answered, reserved.
"[I can't tell you. No, not because of that. For your own safety. No, it is not that. No.]" Darío's tone was increasingly exasperated. "[But it was you who left!]" he finally exclaimed. "[You dumped me. Again. And now, what? What are you demanding?]"
"Verónica," Isobel confirmed morosely.
There was a longer pause in which Darío seemed to be enduring a scolding. His face grew congested. He shook his head.
"No. No, Verónica. No more. It's always the same. I'm not going to keep letting you boss me around anymore. I can't. I just can't take it anymore!]" Darío sounded really hurt when he said that. Another voice could be heard speaking loudly from the phone, but he had stopped listening. "[This time it's over. You said so. Not me. Over forever, Verónica. Goodbye]"
And he cut off.
Darío stood still on the spot, as if in shock. Then he looked around him without seeing, seeming on the one hand enraged and on the other, even more, desolate.
His cell phone rang again. However, he only checked the screen before silencing it. Turning, he quickly spotted Jubal and Isobel. He approached them. His green eyes reddened, Darío looked at the two of them for only a moment, dejected and somber. Jubal hadn't understood all of it, but he had understood enough. He did not envy Darío the hard time. Tried to offer an expression of empathy. He didn't look at her, but Jubal sensed that, next to him, Isobel would be doing the same. Darío turned his face away, embarrassed.
"Anyone else dying for a few shots of tequila? My treat," he said in a hoarse voice, looking at the flat, distant horizon.
Isobel sighed and touched his shoulder affectionately. "When we get to Monterrey, okay?"
Darío nodded and they set off again.
·~·~·
Having an injured arm, Isobel did not allow Jubal to relieve Darío at the wheel when he proposed it; she took over and Darío called shotgun.
"[Do you want to talk about it?]" Isobel offered under her breath.
She had known for a long time that Darío's relationship with Verónica had always been tumultuous.
"[Like having my teeth pulled out]," he growled.
Isobel supposed there was not much to say. They had talked about it before. The real Darío preferred to hide behind his shameless facade and that could be maddening, but Verónica was the kind of person who demanded more understanding and affection than she was ever willing to give. In addition, she was very fickle. Too much had Darío put up with that woman.
He spent some time with his elbow resting on the window and covering his face with his hand. Jubal, in the back seat, was respectfully silent.
A while later, seeking to distract himself, Darío turned on his laptop to go back to the investigation of Yáñez's death. He seemed to be reading without much interest, when something caught his attention.
"Hey, you know what?" he said, recovering a bit of his spirits. "They have prepared a report on Yáñez's finances. I'm going to call in a couple of favors so I can take a look at it..."
"Good thinking," Jubal approved. "I'm looking forward to knowing who is behind the way of life that Yáñez led."
"Me too. Whoever it is has to be involved," Isobel chimed in.
Not long after, Darío had received a copy of the report. Jubal stepped forward to look over his shoulder.
Immediately, the three bulky income that Yáñez had received in an account in his name in the Virgin Islands, from a company called Purple Castle Inc. caught the attention of both. Jubal began to investigate it right away. A glimmer of hope welling up inside of him.
"It's a small company based in San Antonio, Texas, that organizes events such as presentations, conferences, things like that," he said after a while, a bit puzzled. "And it shouldn't have that kind of capital. We'll have to look into it further."
Much to their enormous frustration, although they spent the rest of the trip searching, they were not able to find much else.
An hour before arriving in Monterrey, the mountains could already be seen in the distance.
Half an hour later, the elevations already surrounded the flat valley they were traveling through. The sun, setting on their right, lit up the sharp horns of Cerro de la Silla in front of them. The huge, modern city of Monterrey extended to the very foothills of the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, whose towering peaks dominated it, reaching and surpassing 5,000 feet of elevation gain in less than 5 miles.
The three of them watched in awe as they watched the spectacle of that impressive, immense wall of mountains approaching, illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun until only an ominous dark shadow loomed over them.
Jubal prayed that this was not an allegorical sign of what awaited them.
~.~.~.~