Wearing a white apron with a green trim, the grey-haired man shuffled forward. He had a nametag that read, ‘Eduardo’. He greeted them with a friendly wave. ‘Hola.’
‘Hola,’ Maria said. ‘¿Hablas Inglés?’
Eduardo nodded and smiled. ‘Yes.’
Maria glanced at Payne. ‘He said “yes”.’
‘Thanks, honey. I figured that one out. Now go wait in the car.’
She wandered off. ‘No thanks. I think I’ll shop instead.’
‘Great. Go do that.’
Eduardo said nothing. He just kept smiling.
Payne focused on him. ‘Sir, I was hoping you could help us out.’
‘Do you need directions? I am bad with directions. All the signs are written in Spanish.’
Payne laughed. ‘That’s pretty funny. How many times have you used that line?’
Eduardo frowned. ‘Funny? What is funny about my problem? I cannot read Spanish. I can only read Mayan. And you make jokes?’
‘Oh, man, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I thought …’
Eduardo kept a straight face for a few seconds. Then he burst out laughing. ‘Now that is funny! You should see your face. It is red like tomato. You thought I only read Mayan.’
Payne stammered. ‘Well, how should I know?’
‘How? Look around the store! Everything is written in Spanish.’
Payne groaned. ‘OK, I guess you’re right. Now I feel like an idiot.’
Eduardo kept laughing. ‘Do not feel dumb. I trick people all the time. This job is boring without jokes. I hope you are not mad.’
‘Mad? Not at all. In fact, I’m glad you tricked me.’
‘Really? Why is that?’
‘Now you owe me.’
Eduardo shrugged. ‘Maybe. What you need?’
‘Were you working last night?’
‘Sí. That means “yes”.’
‘Yeah, I know.’
‘If you knew I was working, why did you ask?’
Payne rolled his eyes. This guy joked more than Jones. He needed to put a stop to the levity or this would take all day. ‘On Friday night, a friend of ours was kidnapped in Cancún. We’ve been waiting for a ransom call ever since.’
Eduardo blushed. Now he was the one who felt like an idiot. ‘I am sorry for your loss. Mexico is dangerous place.’
‘Last night, someone used his credit card at your store. We were hoping you could remember what the person looked like. It might give us our best lead to date.’
‘I am sorry. I cannot help.’
‘Why not?’
‘I did not see anyone.’
Payne nodded in understanding. He pulled out an American twenty-dollar bill and placed it on the counter. He wasn’t sure what the going rate for a shakedown was in Mexico, but he figured this would be a good place to start. ‘Does this help your memory?’
Eduardo tucked the money into his pocket. ‘Nothing wrong with my memory. I remember just fine. I was working in the back office all night. That is why I see no one.’
Payne growled but didn’t ask for the money back. ‘Who was working out front?’
‘My son.’
‘Is he around?’
‘No. But even if he was, he would remember nothing.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘He drinks on the job.’
‘You let him drink at work?’
Eduardo shrugged. ‘He works for free, so I let him drink.’
‘Wonderful.’
‘It is good system. It has been working for years.’
Payne took a deep breath. This was going nowhere fast. ‘Maria! Time to go. He can’t help us out. We’ll have to look around the site.’
‘Hold up,’ she shouted from the back. ‘I’m getting supplies.’
Eduardo smiled. ‘She is getting supplies.’
‘Yeah, I heard. Thanks.’
He kept smiling. ‘While you wait, you look at tape?’
‘Tape? What tape?’
He pointed at the security camera. It was barely visible above the counter. ‘Tape of customers. We keep tape for twenty-four hours.’
‘You have a security tape? From last night?’
He nodded. ‘Like I say, Mexico is dangerous place. Tourists cannot be trusted. They are worse than conquistadores. They come in here and steal my Twinkies right off the shelves. Do you know what we call Twinkies in Mexico? Submarinos.’
Payne ignored the Spanish lesson. ‘Where’s the monitor?’
Eduardo signalled for him to follow. ‘Come. It is in my office. I show you.’
Five minutes later, Eduardo was rewinding the tape for Payne and Maria. Unlike the digital set-up at the Fiesta Americana, this system was basic — one angle, no panning or zooming — but it was much better than a drunk witness. If the credit card statement was accurate, Payne knew the purchase had been made at 9.32 p.m. on Saturday night. They decided to start at 10 p.m. and work their way back from there, just in case the time stamp was off.
‘What should we look for?’ she asked.
Payne shrugged. ‘You’d know better than I would.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Weren’t you an unpaid intern in college?’
She nodded. ‘Yeah. I guess I was.’
‘And what did your fellow classmates look like?’
‘I don’t know. I guess they looked like me.’
‘Great. Then we’ll look for hot Italian women.’
She laughed at the description. ‘You think I’m hot?’
‘Maria, this is Mexico. It’s, like, two hundred degrees outside. Everyone is hot.’
She taunted him softly. ‘You think I’m hot.’
‘Shut up,’ he whispered back. ‘I didn’t say that.’
Eduardo looked at them. ‘Are you two married?’
‘What?’ they blurted in unison. ‘No!’
‘That is too bad. You have much potential. You argue like married couple.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ Payne said.
‘My son is married. He does not like it. That is why he drinks at work.’
‘What about you?’ she asked.
Eduardo sighed. ‘I used to be married. I did not like it, either. That is why I let him.’
Payne nodded. ‘Now it makes perfect sense.’
Just then, a female customer flashed across the screen. Since the tape was still rewinding, everything she did was fast and in reverse. Eduardo tapped the ‘play’ button, but by the time he hit it, she had backed out of the door. ‘Should I go forward?’
Payne shook his head. ‘Just play it from here. We want to see her face.’
The camera, mounted high above the cash register, offered a clear view of the front counter but didn’t show much of the store. If Eduardo was trying to catch the Twinkie thief, he was going about it the wrong way. As the customer roamed the aisles, all they could see was her waist and a pair of jeans. Everything else was obscured because of the angle of the lens.
‘I can’t see anything,’ Maria complained.
Payne reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. ‘That’s OK. The person we’re looking for used a credit card. We’ll see her when she comes to the counter.’
The customer kept moving, up and down the rows.
‘What are you doing with that?’
‘I want to take her picture. That way we can show it around.’
She nodded. ‘Good thinking.’
After nearly a minute, the customer walked towards the camera. She had a bottle of water in one hand and a box of cereal in the other. She placed both items on the counter, then pointed outside, as if to say she also wanted to pay for a tank of gas. Unfortunately, her face was hidden by a floppy hat. The kind someone would wear if she were going to be in the sun all day.