I felt my face flare up and my muscles stiffen. She was talking about Michelle. “Who did they go after?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But from what I heard, I think it was a woman.”
I was studying every pore in her face looking for a tell about how much of this was true, but I couldn’t say for sure, either way. More importantly, I didn’t need to hear the rest of that story, not right now anyway, so I asked her the more pertinent question.
“This Mexican. What else do you know about him?”
She opened out her palms, and her voice ebbed. “Nothing. Wook didn’t tell me anything else, I swear.”
Something still didn’t compute. “So your husband and his boys, they just met him six, seven months ago? And just like that, they agree to do some pretty high-risk stuff for him? Doesn’t seem like the wise course of action, does it?”
“Wook said they’d worked together before. Years ago.”
“Where?”
She sighed, like she was annoyed at herself at having to give it all up. “A few years ago, Wook and the boys used to run shipment security on this side of the border for a Mexican drug baron. This new guy was one of the head honcho’s lieutenants. Wook didn’t remember him, but he said the guy knew stuff, stuff that only someone who was there would have remembered.”
“Like what?”
She stared at me for a moment, looking increasingly uncomfortable. “The Mexican suspected one of his crew was working for a rival cartel. Plotting to take over their turf. Wook was there that day. So was Guru.”
“ Guru?”
“Gary. Gary Pennebaker. He and Wook founded the Eagles when they got back from Iraq.”
I thought back to the two faces on the clubhouse wall that weren’t among the dead.
“Anyway, they’re there and the Mexican starts cutting the guy up to get him to talk. I don’t know the details, but it was bad. Hannibal Lecter bad. Wook said the guy was a real sicko. And Guru and Wook are watching this, and Guru pukes his guts out in front of everybody. Wook couldn’t stop laughing.” Her expression darkened with what I read as embarrassment, that this upstanding citizen was her man. “Anyway, this new guy, he was there that day. He was one of the head honcho’s enforcers. Wook said the way he described it to him, he had to be there. Which was enough to get them started.”
She’d already told us she didn’t know the new Mexican’s name. “Did Wook mention the honcho’s name to you?”
She shook her head ruefully. “No.”
“What about Pennebaker? Where is he? How come he wasn’t at the clubhouse?”
Villaverde was already deep into the ATF file on the Eagles. “It says here he left the club after a stint in prison?”
He looked up at Karen for confirmation.
“That’s right.”
I was buzzed. This Guru could be the key to ID’ing our bad guy. If he was still alive.
“Where can we find him?”
She just shrugged and said, “Your guess is as good as mine.”
30
Tess felt restless as she stood by the door to Alex’s room and watched him play with his figurines on the floor by his bed.
They’d already been down to the breakfast buffet, and they were now back in the suite, waiting for Jules, who was on her way. Alex had spent most of the day before indoors, and Tess felt they ought to take him out for some much-needed distraction. Jules had suggested they take him to Balboa Park, which was nearby. There was plenty there to keep him entertained: one of the world’s greatest zoos, the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, and a whole lot more. The idea had excited Alex who had, predictably, chosen the zoo.
Tess couldn’t wait to get him there. She was hoping the animals and the shows would take his mind off what had happened and help him find his smile again, even if it was just for a little while.
A smile that bringing up the drawing probably wouldn’t inspire. Tess couldn’t get the damn thing off her mind, and she felt bad for obsessing about it. She couldn’t help it. And as she turned away, her gaze drifted across to the small dining table by the windows and a bunch of drawings Alex had done the day before.
She had an idea. One she knew she ought to resist, but couldn’t.
She went into her bedroom and retrieved the drawing she’d brought back from Michelle’s house, then went back into the living room and chose two of the new drawings from the table. She then slid the older one under the two new ones and joined Alex in his room.
She sat on the bed close to him and held up the drawings.
“These are great, Alex. I love them. You did these with Jules, right?”
He nodded but didn’t look up, his attention lasered on the alien battle he was orchestrating.
She looked at the first drawing. It showed a jelly-bean-shaped figure and a big marine creature, either a dolphin or a whale. SeaWorld, obviously. The figure had brown hair and was holding a small stick figure, similar to the drawing she was curious about.
“Is that you and the dolphin at SeaWorld?”
Alex didn’t respond.
“Alex, tell me—is this you and one of the dolphins?”
This time, Alex flicked a quick, disinterested glance at the drawing, then he shook his head.
Tess felt deflated. “It’s not you?”
Alex shook his head again. Then, without looking at her, he said, “It’s not a dolphin. It’s Shamu.”
She felt a twinge of excitement. “Ah, so it’s you and a whale.”
He nodded.
The next drawing showed Alex with his take on leaping dolphins. He was still lost in his fantasy world, and Tess was finding it hard to engage him. She felt guilty about trying to draw him out of it, especially given what she was about to foist on him. But she also felt she had to do it. The little curio-demon was insisting on it.
“Alex, I found another drawing at your house yesterday and I wanted to ask you about it. Can I ask you about it?”
He didn’t answer.
“It’s this one,” she pressed on, holding it out.
“It’s one of yours, isn’t it, Alex? I mean, that’s you, right? With Ben in your hand?”
This time, he glanced furtively at it. Tess was ready for it, studying his face, trying to read his reaction when he saw it.
The unease flashed through the instant he looked over.
Still, she couldn’t stop herself.
“So if this is you, who’s that with you?” She pointed at the mystery figure.
Alex didn’t reply.
“Alex, who is that? I’d really like to know.”
He didn’t turn.
“Alex?”
Nothing.
Tess decided she had to try something else. “Alex, tell me something. Did your mommy ever ask you about it, too?”
This time, she got a reaction. A slow, hesitant nod.
“So what did you tell her?”
Grudgingly, without looking at Tess, he said, “We talked about it a little.”
“And what did you talk about?”
“Mommy also wanted to know who it was.”
“So what did you tell her?”
“I said I don’t know.”
He seemed to be telling the truth.
“That’s all you told your mommy? That you don’t know?”
“Yes,” he insisted, softly. “That’s what I told them.”
Them. Not her.
“ ‘Them’? Who else did you talk to about the drawing, Alex?”
He didn’t answer.
“Alex? You said you told your mommy and someone else that you didn’t know. Who was it? Who else did you talk to about it?”
He hesitated, then he said, “Dean.”
Tess felt the back of her neck sizzle. “Who’s Dean, Alex?”
Alex frowned, then he said, “Mommy’s friend.”
Tess felt lost. Reilly had told her about Tom, but nothing about a Dean. “Where did you see Dean, Alex?”