In Desperation

“The suspect is in the house directly behind yours, one row back.”

“I don’t understand.”

The officer turned to her and she noticed a scar running along his jaw.

“We’re here to help set up a perimeter for the SWAT Team,” he said.

At that point the second officer emerged, nodded to his partner and approached them at the sink.

“Ma’am?” The first officer offered Cora his scope. “Take a look. It’s the house with the pool lights.”

She was apprehensive.

“Go ahead.”

Her kitchen seemed to be closing in on her as the two officers now stood near. Was this a dream? She took the telescope, raised it to her eye, not sure what she was looking for when pain shot through her skull. Her hair strained her scalp, pulled by some force. Duct tape peeled, Cora’s mouth was sealed before she could cry out. The invaders moved her swiftly and silently to a kitchen chair, taping her ankles, her wrists and her chest to it.

Terrified, Cora looked down the hall.

The first man drew his face to Cora’s.

“Your daughter is fine. Look at me!”

Cora tried to talk.

“Are you going to cooperate so we can get through this quickly?” Cora nodded.

“We do not want to hurt you, or your daughter. Understand?”

Cora nodded.

“If you resist, we will kill your daughter in front of you.”

Cora sobbed against the tape.

“Do you understand? If you cooperate, you survive.” Cora understood.

“We know you work for Lyle Galviera at Quick Draw Courier.”

Cora nodded.

“I’m going to remove the tape and we’ll talk. If you scream, if you refuse to cooperate or if you lie, you and your daughter will die. Do you understand?”

Cora nodded and the second man yanked the tape from Cora’s mouth.

She gasped, swallowed and listened to the first man. “Lyle uses his company to distribute our product and move cash to be cleaned. Where is the money?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“He stole five million dollars from us.”

“No! This is a mistake! Are you looking for drug money? Lyle’s not involved with drugs. I’ve got nothing to do with drugs. This is all wrong-it’s a mistake. Please leave us alone! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“We can’t find him. Where’s the money?”

For the next thirty minutes the invaders ransacked the house. What did they do with Tilly? They must’ve tied her down.

Or worse!

“Where is our money?”

“Did you hurt my daughter?”

“She’s not hurt. Where is it?”

“I told you this is wrong. This is a mistake!”

“Listen to me. You will find Galviera and tell him to return our money.”

Sobbing, Cora shook her head.

“This is a mistake. I don’t know anything about this.”

“You know. You do the books for his company.”

“No. No. I’m the office manager, the secretary. I know he left a few days ago for business in San Diego, then in Los Angeles.”

“He is not in California.”

“But I made the travel arrangements. Please, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please leave us alone. Please. This is a mistake.”

“No mistake.”

The first man turned to his partner. After speaking in rapid Spanish to him, the man left the house and returned with a large suitcase they placed before Cora.

“Remember,” the first man said. “Do not scream.”

The second man went down the hall to Tilly’s room. Seconds later Tilly emerged, her mouth covered with duct tape, eyes popping with fear as they met Cora’s.

Tilly was in her pajamas with the unicorn pattern; her wrists were taped in front of her in a praying position as she hugged a hastily balled collection of items. Cora could see jeans, a pink shirt and white sneakers. Was that her toothbrush sticking from the heap? It was as if she were rushing off to a sleepover.

Fear twisted Cora’s stomach.

“It’s going to be okay, honey.” Cora tried to comfort her as the second man opened the large suitcase and positioned Tilly inside, bending her knees to her chest, then zipping her closed as if he were a magician preparing a trick.

“What are you doing?” Cora raised her voice. “Wait! No.”

The first man drew his weapon and pointed it at the bag where Tilly’s head would be, moved his finger to the trigger and turned to Cora.

“Have you forgotten your need to shut up and listen?”

“Yes, please, please don’t hurt her. I’m begging you.”

“If you do as we say, she will not be harmed. Understand?”

Cora nodded.

“We are taking your daughter with us.”

“No. Please!”

“Listen carefully. Lyle must return our money, or your daughter will die. And if you go to the police, your daughter will die.”

“Tilly, sweetie, everything will be okay. Do what they say. Tilly, I love-” Tape was replaced on Cora’s mouth.

“Your binding is not that tight. You should be able to free yourself in a few hours,” the first man said. “We will return your daughter unharmed after Lyle Galviera returns the money he’s stolen from us. He has five days.”

The men left with the suitcase holding Tilly, leaving Cora alone, bound to a chair, sobbing in her kitchen.

2

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

An anguished cry rose from the morgue’s viewing room.

“Mi hijo! Mi hijo!”

Paula Chavez bent over the corpse of a young man in his late teens, her son, Ramon. Her face creased with pain. She stared into his open eyes then at the bullet holes in his tattooed chest. Helpless against the horror, she caressed his face and pressed one of his cold hands to her cheek.

It was evocative of Michelangelo’s Pieta, Jack Gannon thought, watching from across the room.

He turned to Isabel Luna, who had raised her camera to shoot several frames of Paula Chavez. At times, the priest and morgue workers had to steady the grieving mother, who was now childless.

Ramon was sixteen. He’d been Paula Chavez’s last living son.

She’d already lost two others to the violence this year.

The sorrow in the air was as biting as the smell of chlorine and the reek of death.