his neck out, but he's not going to leave it out there long enough for you to cut his throat. He's going to be paying attention to every word, every nuance. He's the one who's going to be looking for the trap.”
“Is there anything I absolutely shouldn't do at that meeting so I don't screw up things for you afterward?”
There was a long silence at the other end. Again Titus was left to interpret the reason for that.
“Listen, Titus, ”Burden said. “There's not going to be any afterward for these guys. This is it. We're going to use this meeting to close them down.”
Titus couldn't believe it.
“It doesn't matter what you promise the guy, ”Burden said. “Whatever you promise him, it's not ever going to happen.”
Titus glanced at Rita. Her eyes were riveted on him.
“So, this is it, ”he said. “This is it.”
Before he got off the phone, Burden wanted to talk to Janet. Titus handed the phone to her, and then he and Rita walked out to the patio behind the cottage. The patio walls were covered with moneda vines, and star jasmine crawled up trellises in the corners. A window in the patio's walls, covered with decorative wrought iron, looked out toward the end of the laurel allee and the valley beyond.
Titus told her about the conversation, and when he came to the end, to Burden's remark, she gasped.
“Yeah, ”he said. “That was a shocker to me, too.”
She had been standing in front of the jasmine, which was in full bloom. It was late in the day, and the patio was cooling in deep shade now. To his surprise, she seemed to wilt. She unfolded her arms and buried her face in her hands. The vine's tiny, star-shaped bursts of white blossoms were a dazzling backdrop for her. Nearly perfectly framed behind her head was the grilled window through which he could see in the distance the last of the sun on the tops of the hills across the valley.
“This is too much, ”she said through her hands. He could see her chest moving, searching for air. He looked at the top of her head, her thick buttery hair parted in the middle and pulled back. “The damned tension, ”she said, and took her hands down and looked at him with red eyes. “Titus, I'm so afraid.”
He went over to her and gently put his arms around her. He felt her simply fold herself into his embrace, a rare moment for Rita as she completely gave in to the vulnerability that she could no longer overcome. It was an emotion that she had conquered again and again throughout her life, a conquest that had earned her the reputation for being a strong, rock-solid woman. But this time she just couldn't do it.
“It's going to be all right, ”he said. “I'm afraid, too, no doubt about it. But we both know that I've got to do this. And I want to do it. I've never wanted to do anything in my life more than I want to do this.”
Chapter 44
When Macias started back into the house from the shade around the pool where he'd been on the phone, he saw Luquin through the tinted glass walls, looking at him. Luquin was wearing sunglasses because he was looking outside, and he was watching Macias as if he were watching a fish in an aquarium. But Macias feared there was more on Luquin's mind than idle curiosity.
Macias closed the door behind him, walked over to the sofa, and flopped down where he'd left a soft drink in a glass of ice on the coffee table. The nine-foot television screen was flickering with a movie that Roque had been watching, sitting in an armchair like a cruel imbecile with his headphones on. Luquin didn't like the damn television, but he let Roque watch it because it was one of the few things the guy liked to do besides reading the sepia-toned adult comic books that he devoured.
“So, what's going on? ”Luquin asked when Macias picked up his soft drink.
“What do you mean?”
“You been on the phone a lot.”
“I don't want any screwups, ”Macias said. “If we can believe what we heard Cain tell his wife, things are going to start heating up. So far it's been fairly smooth. I want it to stay that way.”
Luquin took off his sunglasses and put his hands in his pocket. He looked down and walked from one side of the glass wall to the other, thinking. Macias glanced at the movie. He didn't recognize it. He looked at Luquin. He had to admit that Luquin's pensive mood made him uncomfortable.
And it should have. In the last hour Macias had initiated steps that, if followed through, would change the rest of his life no matter what happened. Actually, even if he didn't follow through, that call would change the rest of his life. If the people working with Cain were smart, they would know that by simply contacting them for a meeting, Macias had ended his relationship with Luquin. They could use that phone call-again, if they were smart, they would have recorded it-to blow things apart.
Did Luquin suspect any of this? You had to always fear that Luquin suspected everything. He was uncanny about this sort of treachery within his ranks. And sometimes-Macias had seen it more than a few times-he even wiped out completely loyal men because he suspected them, wrongly.
Macias had one thing in his favor: He was Luquin's numero uno. So far Luquin had never turned on anyone that high. It was the bane of a tyrant that at some point he had to trust someone. He had to. But not forever.
“I've been thinking- ”Luquin suddenly interrupted himself and turned from the windows where he'd been standing, jingling the American nickels and dimes in his pocket. “You started the thing on Cain's wife yet?”
“Yeah, ”Macias lied, trying to sound on top of it. Luquin took it for granted that if Macias said a certain thing was in the works, then it was in the works, and it would be done. He was getting complacent in his middle age. He relied on others to take care of the details for him.
“I've been thinking, ”Luquin continued, picking up where he had interrupted himself. “I want that to be one special hit. It's got to be an accident, you know, like the rest of them so he'll know what happened-but even so, you know, a special accident. Something so that, when it happens it brings shame on her, public shame, so that he can't cover it up.”
Macias stared at him. This guy was something. “You have an idea?”
“No, not really. Drugs, sex, those things. But the important thing
… not something he can cover up. That'll be the thing, you know, the twist of the knife.”
“That may take a little while to develop.”
“That's okay. When it happens, he'll know. Maybe that will even be better. He thinks he's rid of me and then… ughhh. ”He made a gesture of knifing someone in the stomach with an underswinging thrust, holding, then twisting. “But for sure, the thing is, I want it to be a very shameful thing. ”He turned back to the window, looking out. “That pendejo really pissed me off. Shit. ”He turned again. “And I want pictures. I can send him those pictures for years. ”He turned back to the window.
Macias said nothing.
Luquin gave it some more thought. He turned around and wandered in Macias's direction.
“Never go away, Jorge, ”he said, almost to himself. “That's the best torment of all. Hell, I just put it on the damn calendar and forget about it. When the date rolls around I just do it, whatever it is. For them it's worse than just the memory of something terrible. That fades with time. But knowing that I'm going to come back, sometime, some way, and remind them of it with a fresh approach, hell, they can't stop worrying about that. That's real torture. The anxiety consumes them like a fucking disease.”
Macias had never heard Luquin talk like this before. What was this? Did he know something after all? Did he suspect? Was he trolling for a reaction from Macias that would tell him something about his suspicions? If ever Macias had to have himself under control, it was now. The fact was, Luquin could not know what Macias had decided to do, because aside from talking to Cain, the betrayal was entirely within Macias's head. He hadn't uttered a word of it to anyone. There was only the telephone call, that's all. Macias knew that Luquin was capable of playing mind games, and he cautioned himself not to be drawn into them.
“You think about it, ”Macias said, and he turned up his glass and finished his soda to cover his discomfort. “Whatever you want to do. ”He looked at his watch. “Later tonight I'm going to meet with my people. That will take a couple of hours. Is there anything you want me to know before I do that? This will probably be the last time I'll see them personally before this is over. I want to make sure they understand what we're expecting.”
