“I’ve stopped them!” said Vincent curtly.
“Stopped?” asked Sean.
“Stopped,’ he repeated. “Although there is one thing I need you to do for me,” said Vincent.
Sean didn’t quite know if Vincent knew what 'one’ meant. Everything he was doing was for Vincent, 'one more thing’ would have been more appropriate.
“What?” replied Sean unhelpfully.
As Vincent explained, Sean wasn’t comfortable but, at the end of the day, it wasn’t going to make too much difference to him.
“Fine but when you say stopped, where did you stop them?”
“Corpus Christi, best I can do.”
Sean didn’t say anything else. He was too pissed off. Corpus Christi. The fucking beach!
He threw his cell at Luis and, grabbing the corpse, he entered the cold waters of the Rio Grande, a world away from the warm gulf waters lapping at the white beaches of Corpus Christi.
Sean kicked off and was soon caught in the river’s current that would wash him down towards the Juarez- Lincoln Bridge and the scene of the earlier shootings.
Chapter 36
Katie Fox tried to sleep but it wasn’t possible. The day had started as they all had since Sean’s death, with tears soaking her pillow. From there it had quickly deteriorated to the worst day of her life, with the kidnapping of James. The miraculous re-appearance of Sean had brought joy and hope back into her life. Joy at his being alive and hope that with Sean back, she would get her baby back. Sean exuded a confidence like no man she knew. That same confidence had convinced her that James would be returned unharmed to her and their family would be perfect again.
The realization that the new Sean wasn’t her Sean had been devastating and almost as though she had once again lost her husband, the grief had passed only to return with the added loss of James. Tears began to flow freely as she reflected on the day, the kidnapping, the killings, the bodies, Sean. Sean, it didn’t make sense, he was exactly like her Sean, his mannerisms, the confidence, the power he exuded. Everything about him said it was her Sean but her Sean didn’t have a metal hip. Even if he had had one, there was no way in the space of three months it could have healed in the way the new Sean’s had. It wasn’t her Sean but everything else was the same. How could a man have an exact replica. Only twins could be identical but Sean didn’t have a brother and even if he did, nobody calls their twins the same name.
Just as sleep and some respite from the trauma began to descend, the creak of the front door being opened snapped her awake. She jumped from bed and rushed to the door, perhaps it was James. The sight of the facially battered Luis met her as she rushed towards the door. The sight of the bruising and lack of Sean by his side sent her in to a fresh round of panic.
“It’s OK,” offered Luis in an attempt to placate her. “Sean didn’t do this, it was my uncle!”
The thought that her son was with a man that did that to his own nephew, not surprisingly, did the exact opposite of what Luis was hoping. Katie began to struggle for breath as a full-blown panic attack washed over her tired and stressed body.
Luis ran to the kitchen and managed to find a brown paper bag, placing it over Katie’s mouth and guided her towards the sofa. Luis explained what was happening and that Sean and James were both fine, which immediately calmed Katie down.
“It’s probably best you get some sleep,” suggested Luis rising from the sofa.
An exhausted Katie could do little more than nod in agreement and force herself up from the sofa.
“What about you?” she asked half heartedly as she made her way towards the staircase.
“I have my orders, I have to clean this place up!”
“Your uncle wants my house cleaned up?” she asked somewhat startled that the madman would care if bodies and blood littered her house.
“No, Sean wants me to clean it up!”
Katie could not think of anything to say. The nephew of the leader of the world’s most feared drug cartel was now following the orders of her, she caught herself, the man who looked exactly like her dead husband. If the day could have got any stranger, she didn’t know how. However, the knowledge that James and the other Sean were OK helped her fall into a fitful sleep.
Chapter 37
Governor Rick Brown stared in dismay at the screen before him and listened as the commentators ridiculed his performance as they reviewed the footage of events unfolding. One commentator touched on the potential of his announcing his run for president, the rest broke into laughter at the mere suggestion. In the two hours since Colonel Masters had been killed, he himself had considered it the same, a joke. His presidency was dead before it was even announced. The revelation that only eight guards had manned the troop carriers hadn’t even come out. When it did, it wouldn’t just be his presidency that was over. Texans would be clamoring for a new Governor.
He changed to a more favorable news station but the comments were just as scathing and it seemed that their love affair with Governor Rick Brown was over. He switched the TV off. His wife had tried to prompt him to bed but he had wanted to be available for the press. None were calling, at least none that wanted anything more than to publicly humiliate him. He doused the light and headed towards the staircase. He’d see the lay of the land in a few hours. Resignation. He wasn’t going to wait for the calls. There really was nothing else to do. He’d announce it first thing in the morning before they even had a chance to ask him if he would be resigning. Rick Brown didn’t play catch up. He led from the front and the end of his political career would be no different.
He turned back to his office and didn’t even bother switching the light on. It seemed more appropriate in the dark. He hit the speed dial for his press officer. Even though it was after three, Rick knew he’d be awake. This was one of the biggest disasters of Rick Brown’s political career and his press officer had her heart set on riding the wave to D.C.. She would not be sleeping as long as there was a glimmer of hope of the big job. As the phone began to ring, Rick realized the sound was actually louder in his free ear. The answer appeared as his office door burst open and a smiling press officer rushed in, ignoring his ringing phone.
“What the hell?” exclaimed the Governor, startled by the explosive entrance.
“You won’t believe it!” replied an excited press officer, rushing past the Governor and hitting the power button on the TV control. The wall mounted TV burst into life, with a banner displaying 'BREAKING NEWS: GOVERNOR BROWN GETS HIS MAN’.
As the Governor struggled to comprehend what was happening, his press officer began preparing the Governor for the cameras. Straightening his tie and brushing at his hair.
“Come on, everybody wants a piece of you.”
“Whoa, can you please explain what’s happening?” asked the Governor, as the snippets of TV failed to explain exactly what the excitement was about.
“You’ve done in two hours what it took the federal government, ten years, thousands of lives and countless trillions of dollars to do.”
Still flummoxed, he looked at his press officer for more.
“You got your number one most wanted man. For the US it was Obama, for you the gunman who shot Colonel Masters and the guardsmen!”
'They’ve got the shooter?” The governor was stunned. Like anybody who knew Mexico, he knew his threat was empty. The chances of catching the shooter in Mexico was pretty much nil and even that was optimistic.
“You got the shooter!”
“Why do you keep saying me?”
“It was your guy that got him!”
