Chapter 16
Sixteen
It was morning. Sheriff Marlowe had an unexpected visitor: Tanner.
“You want to know what I found out about Josie,” Marlowe guessed as they sat in his office.
“Yes,” he replied. “I’ve heard rumors about a large group of people in a village in Mexico who have apparently vanished. There’s
also a tour bus company in the same general area that’s missing two buses. I can’t believe there’s not a connection.”
Marlowe frowned. “I just got that information ten minutes ago—hey! Have you got my phone tapped?” he demanded belligerently.
“I’ve got the whole area tapped, don’t worry about it. Listen, this place in Mexico where the people are missing; how close
is it to Velasquez’s ranch?”
Marlowe was bristling. “You think he took them?”
Tanner shook his head. “I don’t think he knows. And this is going to be tricky. I’d bet my other eye that you know exactly where his hacienda is. The only chance we have to save Josie is if you have the GPS coordinates.”
He was staring right through Marlowe, who would never in a million years, even under torture, have given out that information
except in a life-or-death situation. He had plans for Velasquez and knowing where the man lived wasn’t going to end well for
him.
“Come on, Marlowe,” Tanner said quietly. “You know you’d never do it. You’re too much a lawman.”
The man’s stare was really hot now, blazing. “What do you know?”
Tanner just looked at him. “Nobody knows anything that I know,” he pointed out. “I don’t even share things with my wife unless
they involve me or our baby.” He raised both eyebrows.
Marlowe just glowered at him. “I hate damned spies,” he muttered.
“The clock’s ticking,” he pointed out.
Marlowe relaxed, just a little. He shrugged. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m just living too much in the past. Yes, I have the
coordinates. And no, I probably wouldn’t. But I’d like to.” He glared at Tanner. “And why is none of your business.”
“Coordinates?”
Marlowe pulled up a screen and handed his phone to Tanner, who took a screenshot.
“Thanks. I’ll send in the cavalry.” He tacked the screen shot to a message that he didn’t share with Marlowe and pushed Send.
“I hope that will be in time,” he murmured. “It would be a shame if we let her get killed trying to save the world.”
“I don’t want her killed, either,” Marlowe replied. “And I think your brother’s got a case on her.”
“Feelings that he’s fighting tooth and nail,” Tanner agreed.
“Good thing he doesn’t know what she does for a living,” Marlowe replied dryly.
“Very good thing. Anyway, as soon as I find out anything, I’ll let you know. Maybe we can do something to help, even if it’s
not much.” He hesitated. “I have someone who has connections in the Mexican government and some other less official places.”
He looked up. “Velasquez likes Josie. If he knew about Vega, and he could do anything, I think he’d help.”
Marlowe went dark again. His eyes glittered.
Tanner’s face softened. “We all have tragedies in our lives, Dunn,” he said quietly. “Sometimes we get through them and we
get lucky. I did.”
Marlowe stared at him, at the black patch over what had been another blue eye. He knew Tanner’s past, and what the man had
been through. “Some people have luck like a shadow. I never did,” he added curtly. He sighed. “There was a girl,” he recalled
with a quiet smile. “She grew up next door to me. If she’d been just a little older . . .” He shrugged. “I left to protect
her. She never knew how much I cared about her. She’s had her own tragedies, her own traumas. She’s not the same. I saw her,
the last time I went to visit my dad. She’s . . . different.”
“We all grow up eventually.”
Marlowe nodded. He grimaced. “She had a run-in with Velasquez, too,” he said darkly.
“Did he hurt her?” Tanner asked.
“She saved his life,” he countered. “Made a friend for life and still doesn’t even know who she saved,” he said, and laughed reluctantly.
He shook his head. “My dad and I didn’t tell her.
She wouldn’t have believed us anyway. She and her grandfather apparently thought he was just short of an angel.
They got in some trouble that none of us knew about, and Velasquez helped them.
” He grimaced. “I guess Velasquez has a few redeeming qualities. Not that I wouldn’t put a bullet in him any time I could do it legally,” he added with a cold smile.
Tanner knew why, but he just nodded. “If I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Same,” Marlowe said. “What about your nemesis in DC?”
Tanner smiled. “Stands to lose everything short of his life, and maybe even that when he comes to trial. I’ll have a front-row
seat, whether I’m invited or not.”
“Vendettas,” Marlowe murmured quietly. “Life is full of them.”
“Well, life is never really fair,” Tanner agreed as he got to his feet. He smiled. “But it has its moments.”
Marlowe just nodded.
In Mexico, Raines had finally pulled into what passed for a small pueblo. There were two tour buses parked out front. Inside
the buses, many people in colorful clothing sat rigid in their seats, with fearful expressions and terror in their eyes.
“What is this?” Josie asked, shocked.
“This,” Raines said as they exited the car, “is the genius of my plan. We’re all tourists, headed into the United States for
a nice tour of the area around the border crossing. We’re going up to see the ghost town of Malsuerte, a big ranch that offers
homemade products made from beef, and even a factory that produces carpets! It will be a holiday for our guests,” he added,
indicating the guests, who looked like anything but.
“Why do they look so terrified?” Josie asked him. “And where is the product? Under the bus in a hidden compartment?”
“First place they’d look,” Raines said dryly. “No, it’s hidden better than that. Now, here’s the plan. You drive one bus,
I drive the other. You can drive a bus?” he asked belatedly and with apprehension, because he’d forgotten to even ask.
She laughed. “Of course I can,” she said.
He sighed his relief. “Okay. And I’ve got a wig for you . . .” He pulled it out of a bag he’d retrieved from one of the buses,
along with sunglasses and a cloth hat.
“Nice,” she said, putting them on. “Nobody would recognize me in this.”
“Just try to disguise your voice if we go past the border guard you were talking to when we came across the border,” he added.
She’d talked so well that the border guard had sensed nothing wrong about Raines and his pretend girlfriend. He’d been very
nice.
“Good idea,” she agreed. She looked around. “But where is the product?” she persisted.
“You’ll see.” He looked at his watch. “Time to go. I’ll drive the lead bus, you follow.”
She sighed. “Okay. If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” He waved her to the bus behind the one he entered.
Josie got behind the wheel and started the bus. She glanced in the rearview mirror at all the worried faces of her passengers.
“Que esta pasando aqui?” she asked in Spanish, quickly. When nobody answered to tell her what was happening, she added, “No
tengan miedo, soy una amiga. Quiero ayudaros a todos.” She wanted them to know she was a friend.
Finally, a female voice came from just behind her. “Por favor, salvanos,” it whispered. “Estamos en un buen lio . . . !” It
was just as Josie suspected—they were in real trouble.
At that very moment, the burner phone in Josie’s pocket rang. She pulled it out, only then remembering that she’d already
given the number to Raines.
“You ready?” he asked curtly.
“Yes. I was just making sure I knew how the controls worked,” she added.
“All right. Keep close. When we get to the border station, let me do the talking.”
“Sure thing,” she said.
He hung up. She looked back at the poor tourists. “No tengan miedo,” she assured the people, who seemed to relax just a little.
She started the bus, still confused about the shipment. She wanted to call in local backup, but without knowing where the
drugs were located, that was impossible. Even worse, it would take time if she tried to involve the Mexican authorities. She
was over here in no official capacity that would help her. She’d managed to find time on the bus to use her burner phone to
call her unit and get down to the border crossing where Raines had them flown. They could track her burner phone. But it was
going to take time that she didn’t have. It was going to be very, very close. This time, her luck might have run out.
They drove down the dusty dirt road but not toward the border patrol station. Raines went in a totally different direction.
This was going to throw Josie’s plans into real disarray, she thought with faint panic. Her team would be near the patrol
station that Josie and Raines had come across, and she wouldn’t be able to get through to them in time to change their plan.
This seemed as if they were taking a far more eastern route to some unknown crossing. She wondered if this was Raines’s idea
or their boss’s. All she could do now was keep her wits and be ready to improvise if she had to.
On and on they drove. They’d arrived in Mexico in late morning, but it was getting on in the afternoon. What if Raines carried
on until dark? She had no idea where she was, and she worried that even GPS might have blind areas this far away from any
village. It was suddenly the darkest mission she’d ever had to deal with.
Finally, they crossed the river on a rinky-dink bridge that threatened to fall in as the buses clanked across it, and they were apparently in the States again.
She had to find out where they were before she could alert her team, and even before that, she had to find out where the product was hidden. It was going to be a very long day.
Raines stopped suddenly on the side of the road near a large stretch of open land with nothing but scrub and cactus. She was
about to get out and ask what he was doing when there were suddenly three huge black vehicles barreling down the road toward
them.