Part 7 (2/2)
”That's what I said.”
”Did Toledo talk her down or something?”
”He did, yeah. Five hundred is what she asked for.”
”Why only five hundred? The Guatemalans told me Toledo was supposed to be worth something like sixteen million.”
Russo said, ”That's a good question.”
The waitress brought our food. Russo took a ma.s.sive bite out of his burger. He chewed with his mouth open. Bits of burger fell onto the table. I looked at Harper and raised my eyebrows. Harper shrugged and dug in.
”So,” I said, ”what do you know about the kidnapper?”
Russo made no comment.
I took a bite of my cheeseburger, chewed, and swallowed before saying, ”I heard the woman's name is Alejandra Delarosa. I heard she was Toledo's mistress.”
”How about that. I think we heard that too.”
”Were you able to confirm it? Anybody see them together at hotels? Unexplained gaps in both of their calendars? Anything like that?
”Nope,” said Russo, ”but that don't mean a thing.”
”Do you have proof they even knew each other?
”She worked for him. A secretary. Or administrative a.s.sistant. Whatever.”
”How long did she work for Toledo?” I said.
”About a year, maybe. We're talking about a seven-year-old cold case here, so I could be wrong. But she was with him for a while.”
”She knew him pretty well?”
”Looked that way to us.”
”It's hard to kill someone you know well.”
”Baloney. Almost every killer knows the victim.”
”In cold blood, I mean. It's harder to do it in cold blood when you know someone well.”
Russo talked around a last big bite of burger. ”If you say so.” Even someone clear across the dining room could have seen the contents of his mouth. Then, just for a second, I looked him in the eye. He looked away immediately, but I had seen the raw intelligence there, and I realized all the rest of it was probably an act. I decided to call him on it.
I took a huge bite of my own burger and let a little bit of it fall out when I talked. ”I heard the Delarosa woman was with the URNG.”
”Seems like you heard a lot.”
”Do you think she was with them?”
”She most likely was, yeah.”
”What makes you think that? Because she said so?” My mouth was still full. It was hard to say the ”s” sounds without spewing bits of burger across the table, so I did.
Russo was watching me suspiciously, his eyes aimed at my mouth. He said, ”Because of the evidence, all right?”
”What evidence?”
”She knew a lot of details about Toledo's life back in Guatemala. She talked about him like he stole his money from the Indians. She sent her demands to a TV station. She sent in videos. You probably saw them, right? Everybody else did.”
”I remember.”
”Yeah, well, the uniform she wore and the insignia checked out. And she mentioned several known members of that commie group of hers.”
”The URNG aren't really Communists. At least not anymore. Nowadays they're just another Guatemalan political party.”
”Whatever.”
”Why would she shoot videos?”
”To convey her demands.”
”Yeah, but videos contain a lot of extra information. It's harder to control. It's not safe. Why not just send notes?”
Russo pushed back from the table. ”Obviously Delarosa wasn't trying to play it safe, because the deal wasn't about the money. It was personal. She believed Toledo was responsible for her father's disappearance in Guatemala.”
This was new information to me. ”How do you know that?”
He looked at me. ”We did our job. She could of picked any of the guys who used to run things down in Guatemala, but she picked Toledo. We wanted to know why, so we asked around. Turned out she had a grudge against him personally because of her father. But it was also an act of terrorism. A way for the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca to make a statement in a big way. If you steal from the Guatemalan people, the URNG will get the money back, and they will kill you, okay?”
I nodded. He had p.r.o.nounced Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca perfectly. I felt a little foolish for underestimating him earlier. I said, ”That makes a lot of sense.”
He brushed bits of food off his potbelly, slid out of the booth, and stood up. Looking down at Harper, he said, ”You ready?”
Harper started to go for his wallet. ”I guess so.”
I said, ”Don't worry about the check.”
Russo said, ”We won't.”
11.
The next day was Haley's birthday. It was the first thing on my mind when I opened my eyes that morning. I ached at the thought. I probably would have rolled over and gone back to sleep in self-defense, except I didn't want Simon coming over with a cup of french roast at three in the afternoon. So, although it took a few minutes to summon the gumption, I got up. I decided the time had come to go see Haley.
After a shave and shower, I put on my best black suit. I walked across the property to the garage and got into her Bentley. As I waited for the gates to open at the end of the driveway, I saw Teru standing in the distance. He wore his usual green s.h.i.+rt and trousers, and a pair of black rubber boots that came up nearly to his knees. He was sending smoke signals skyward from his pipe and spraying water from a hose onto a flowerbed. I saw a little rainbow in the mist around him. I realized he was watching me. The gates were open and I drove out. I didn't wave good-bye.
<script>