The Jaguar: A Charlie Hood Novel Part 6

Later when everyone had gone to their rooms Bradley walked past the pool and through the gate and down to the pasture and stood for a while looking at the hillsides to the east, brushed with moonlight. Low in the distance a slick of rainwater caught the light more brightly. Bradley had never seen standing water in this part of Baja. Horses stirred in the paddock.

Again he opened his mind to the raids of memory. What memories were here. For nearly three years, from the time he was just seventeen years old, he had driven to El Dorado once a week and returned home with an average of twelve thousand dollars in cash. The North Baja Cartel took in roughly four hundred thousand dollars a week off the L.A. streets and Bradley drove the collected money south to make his percentage. He had earned nearly a million-six in those first two and a half years, almost pure profit, little overhead and no taxes.

In those early days he had posed as a fisherman, a surfer, a social worker, a church charities representative. He had lugged fis.h.i.+ng gear, camping equipment, surfboards, piles of new and used clothing, Bibles and religious literature, cases of canned food and water and sports drinks. He had used several vehicles, some with doctored plates, and several different sets of false doc.u.ments. Later, his LASD s.h.i.+eld became useful at times. Still later, when Herredia brought several U.S. Customs agents under his influence, complementing the Mexican inspectors he already owned, Bradley's job had gotten much easier. The good old days, he thought. Money and more money. He had enjoyed it immensely.

But now as he stood in this desert and looked at the far hills he felt betrayed by what he had once thought of as bravery and confidence. And betrayed by the burden of Murrieta. Wasn't it all just stupidity and foolishness? What had he gotten for it? A small fortune, yes. And for a while, on the legitimate side of his life, good LASD performance reviews and a minor hero's status.

But he had also been shot and stabbed and involved in a shootout that had claimed six lives. This earned him an ongoing LASD Internal Affairs investigation that stopped his Mexico deliveries a year ago and dried up his largest stream of revenue.

One year ago, he thought. One cursed year ago everything changed. IA had begun tailing him at work, then had him rea.s.signed from Narcotics to a desk job in Fraud; they had spied on him during his free time and even tried to spy on him at home; they had interviewed his fellow deputies; and they had no doubt gained access to his phone records and bank transactions. They were a thousand terriers yapping and biting at his ankles. The terriers had only begrudgingly given him these ten days off even though his vacation time would cover it.

A year of bitter suspicion and a drastic pay cut and now, worst of all, Erin kidnapped. And their unborn child. Unimaginable. Fire of my life, Bradley thought, I have delivered you to my enemies.

He closed his eyes and heard her voice: Come to me by moonlight, sugar/Let the moon be your guide.

Bradley opened his eyes on the moon and to him it looked not like a guide but an unmoved witness to his own vanity and failure.

11.

WHEN HE GOT BACK TO the pavilion Mike Finnegan occupied the chair where Fidel had been. The little man sat up straight, twiddling his thumbs on the table before him, his ankles crossed and the toes of his black dress shoes just touching the ground. He looked up at Bradley. He wore a wheat-colored linen suit with a blue pocket square that matched his eyes and a blue, open-collared s.h.i.+rt.

"I'm deeply sorry for what has happened," Finnegan said. "But I believe we can get her back."

Bradley walked around the table studying Mike. A long moment pa.s.sed before he spoke. "What the f.u.c.k are you doing here?"

"And a good evening to you, Bradley."

"You have no idea what happened, you sonofab.i.t.c.h."

"Don't overestimate me, Brad. People know what happened. Many people. It's a statement. Armenta did this exactly so people would know."

"What are you doing here?"

"Offering to help you."

Bradley felt flummoxed and fooled. "You don't know Herredia."

Finnegan's expression was impatient but somehow soulful. "You're so certain of all the things I cannot know! It really is flattering. But Bradley, let's elevate this discourse. Let's get right to the point. What do you see in all that has happened? Why has it happened? What are you doing to get her back? It's far too late not to be honest with me, and you know it."

Bradley reached down and took Mike's chin in his hand and lifted up his face so he could more fully view it. He felt the stubble of the red whiskers, the heat of the flesh, the strong bone beneath. In the clear blue eyes he saw concern and intelligence and bottomless optimism.

"What I see is one crazy little s.h.i.+t."

"But I hear the tick of a clock."

Bradley pushed away Mike's face and sat. He pressed his hands to his eyes and ran them through his wavy black hair, then folded them on the table and looked at Finnegan. "I'm down to eight days. I don't know where she is. I don't even know if she's alive."

"But do you have the money?"

"Hood has the money."

"He's your mule? So that you and Fidel can find her first?"

Bradley nodded but said nothing. He had never felt helpless and so furious at the same time. Felt so outsmarted and outgunned. But he felt them all now. He felt that, even with Fidel's band of blue-ribbon bad guys, Armenta had already beaten him.

"Erin is very much alive and well," Mike said. "I have word from someone I can trust."

Bradley sprang from his chair and put both hands on the table and leaned his face into Finnegan's. He watched the hopeful blue eyes and he searched them for the smallest hint of what truly lay behind them. "Tell me what you know. Tell it!"

"She has been seen in Quintana Roo."

"Don't toy with me, Mike."

"She has been seen in Quintana Roo."

"How do you know?"

"I have eyes on Armenta, Bradley. But it doesn't matter how I know. It only matters what I know."

Bradley shoved off and paced around the big table, his heart beating urgently and his brain firing thoughts he couldn't control. "And she's okay?"

"Perfect."

"Then they haven't..."

"No. She's being treated well."

"Did Saturnino ra-"

"No!"

"Where is she, Mike! Where?"

"She's being held on one of Armenta's properties on the Yucatan Peninsula. Somewhere between Polyuc and the Kohunlich ruins, near the Belize and Guatemala borders. On a map it looks small but in reality it's a lot of jungle. Very dense jungle. We should have a good GPS fix within twenty-four hours."

Bradley stopped opposite Finnegan and again leaned forward into the man's face. "Should or will?"

"I do what I can do, Bradley. Every vessel has its shape and capacity." Finnegan took Bradley's right hand in both of his small, strong own. "Let me be your ally and friend."

"What do you want?"

"For you to have everything on this Earth that you deserve."

"She's all I want. I'll do anything to get her back."

"I understand that." Finnegan studied him for a long moment and in his eyes Bradley saw both judgment and sympathy. "Then ask me to be your friend. Phrase it any way you like. Make a joke of it if you have to. The words are what matter to me, not your opinion of them. I need to hear them before I can help you."

Bradley pulled his hand but Mike held it fast and Bradley felt the surprising strength of him.

"Speak to me, son of El Famoso."

"Don't start that s.h.i.+t."

"That's a start."

Bradley pulled hard again, but Finnegan's two fierce little hands were stronger than his one, so he twisted it free with a Hapkido move that left him able to break Mike's elbow. "Okay. Be my friend, Mike. Help me get her back. Or I'll snap your neck, roast you on a spit, and feed you to my dogs. I have twelve of them."

Mike smiled. "What an exceptional proposal of friends.h.i.+p. I accept."

Bradley released his arm and sat back down across from him.

"I'll also need just a few drops of your blood."

"f.u.c.k off."

"I'm serious."

"Blood for what?"

"For everything words can't cover. It's a ritual. I'm not sure why, but it works. It really does. You'll see."

"You're out of your mind."

"Just old-fas.h.i.+oned." From somewhere inside his coat Mike produced a dagger and rested it on his palm for Bradley to see. It was short, mostly handle, and Bradley could tell that the metal was black and old. Before stainless steel alloys, he thought. Before carbon and graphite and tungsten. The flatish handle was wrapped in tooled leather held by rounded silver rivets for weight and grip. "Hand out now and palm up. Just a little p.r.i.c.k."

Bradley looked long at the man, remembering that Mike once told him that he had introduced Bradley's parents in order to give him a chance at "magnificence." Mike claimed to be their close friend. And he had told Bradley things about his parents and his ancestors, things that only a very close friend would know. When Bradley had first met Mike three years ago he had sensed a connection but it was a vague sense, and unsteady, a trickle of memory that would flow and evaporate and flow again.

"How long have you known me, Mike?"

"Since your first breath. I've told you this and more."

"And you told me that when I was ready to see I would see."

"First you must look."

"How long have you known Carlos?"

"He was eleven. A critical age. Old Felipe brought him to me. I've always surrounded myself with people of will and talent. Now, hand out and palm up?"

"How long did you know my mother?"

"She was eleven also. It's the pivotal age in my view."

"When I was eleven I had a dream that I was on the Oceanside pier one night, and someone dared me to close my eyes and jump off and I was afraid so I didn't. The next day I was ashamed because a friend of mine had done it a bunch of times. I hated being a coward. It ate at me. I badgered Mom to take me to the pier that night but I didn't tell her why. She did. No moon. It was summer but it was cool and every step farther out on that pier I was more and more afraid. Mom carried a big beach towel and my good jacket because I told her I might need them. She wore a red satin blouse and jeans and her hair was full and s.h.i.+ny. I'll never forget how beautiful she was. I just wore my trunks. I looked down at the faraway water. It was heaving and the yellow pier lights gave it a strange glow. I told her about the dream and the friend. And she said, I'll meet you on the beach-and don't be ashamed to take just a tiny peek on the way down, because so long as you know what's in front of you, you'll be fine. I said, I love you, Mom. And she said she loved me and I closed my eyes and jumped."

Finnegan said nothing for a long moment. Then: "Bradley? Knowing Suzanne as I did, and you as I do, that is a truly moving story. Thank you for it. I wish that she had been better at taking her own advice."

Bradley offered Finnegan his free hand, palm up. "This is for Erin."

Mike gently took Bradley's hand and brought it nearer to him. "You are made by history and history is made by you."

Bradley felt the quick stab of pain. Mike let go and guided the point into his own free palm and he cupped that hand over Bradley's so the two bloods met.

"There," said Finnegan. "I've always wished it would smoke or something. But it does kind of sizzle down deep in the soul, doesn't it?"

"I don't feel anything but rage. Do you know rage, Mike? Or are you just a happy simpleton?"

"Anger. Frustration. Not rage."

"Fury."

"These are destructive. These are indulgences."

"These are what I have now."

Bradley watched the blood from Finnegan's small palm run into his own. He thought of the way his mother had wrapped him in the beach towel and later helped him into his jacket after he'd emerged from the great Pacific, s.h.i.+vering, bone-cold but proud. He thought of Erin on stage the very first time he had laid eyes on her and understood that his life had just changed forever. He tried to picture her exactly right now, held captive by murderers somewhere between Polyuc and the Kohunlich ruins, but this was impossible.

"It's not the blood," said Mike. "It's the giving of the blood."

"Whatever you say." Bradley s.n.a.t.c.hed the blue handkerchief from the little man's coat pocket and stood and clenched it in his bleeding hand. He looked down at Mike's jolly round face, saw the sparkle of mischief in his eyes. "How are we going to find her?"

"The first part is up to you and it is very important: Charlie Hood can't know that we've talked, or that you've seen me, or anything about me. He cannot know about us. Everything that happens from here on will depend on that."

"Done. That's easy. But the Yucatan is still two thousand miles away."

"No. It's just shy of seventeen hundred. So, in antic.i.p.ation of our new relations.h.i.+p, I took the liberty of consulting with El Tigre. You and your merry outlaws will leave tomorrow in the morning in one of the transport helicopters. Carlos can arrange safe airs.p.a.ce to Veracruz but not farther south."

"What about you?"

"I'll find you there."

Bradley sat again and poured a shot of smoky brown tequila for Mike and one for himself. He glanced up at the moon and thought a message to Erin and when he was finished he felt exhaustion slam down on him. He drank half of his tequila, then dropped the wadded hankie to the table and looked down at his palm. The slice was short and not deep and it had already stopped bleeding. "You cut my lifeline, Mike."

"I love palmistry. It's as entertaining as major league baseball."

"What's between you and Hood?"

"That's even more entertaining."

"Do you know his parents?"