'I am sorry, Nurse Byrne.'
'For what?'
'For mentioning the pretty reporter to the doctor.'
'Why?'
'I did not know that he was already in love.'
'He is?'
Sister Sylvia patted her shoulder. 'Yes, he is. But you wear a wedding ring… and your husband is the governor.' She smiled. 'I like Oprah.'
'He was on Oprah? '
'Yesterday. But do not worry, I will keep your secret.'
Sister Sylvia wanted to say more.
'What is it, Sister?'
'He is a very good man, the doctor. Please do not hurt him.'
They drove east to Port Isabel where the smell of the sea came to them on the breeze.
'Why do these poor women have more babies?' Lindsay said.
Jesse sighed. 'I do not know. Perhaps because the church says it is God's wish. Or perhaps because the government will pay for the babies. Or perhaps they hope an American baby will keep them in America. Or perhaps they just think a baby will make life on the border better. Of course, it will not.'
Lindsay's spirits stayed low until the Gulf of Mexico came into sight. They drove over the Queen Isabella Causeway toward the tall condo towers and hotels on the distant island silhouetted against the blue sky.
'We are over the Laguna Madre… Mother lagoon.'
They drove onto South Padre Island and along a palm-tree-lined boulevard past condos and hotels and restaurants and surf shops that fronted the beach. They turned into a small motel. Lindsay stayed in the truck while Jesse checked in. What if he took only one room? Would she insist on a second room? Or would she…? She had been without romance for a very long time, since politics had seduced her husband. She missed it. Romance. Jesse returned, got in, and handed her a key.
'Our rooms are down at the end. Nothing fancy, but clean.'
They had brought overnight bags just in case. She cleaned up and changed into a white sundress. She had sweated through her green scarf so she pushed her red hair under a yellow scarf and topped it off with a sun hat. She went outside and found Jesse waiting; he wore jeans, sneakers, and a black T-shirt.
'There is a good seafood cafe down the beach. We can walk.'
She removed her sandals and walked barefooted through the wet sand where the tide died out. On the horizon shrimp boats returned with the day's catch. Surfers waited for one last ride, and a lone fisherman stood in the surf with a long pole. Joggers and fellow walkers passed them; a few took curious second glances at her. She almost didn't care. Pancho raced ahead, clearing the beach of seagulls and brown pelicans and blue herons that had lighted on the sand. The air was wet and filled with salt, the sea breeze fresh and cool on her face. The Gulf of Mexico lay smooth and blue before them, and the sun set in front of them in shades of yellow and orange. She felt like a girl on a first date. Like lovers without the lovemaking. But she was neither.
She was a forty-four-year-old woman married to the governor of Texas.
She very much wanted to kill this old man. She hoped each time that he would have the heart attack during sex. She wondered if she could fuck him to death. Was that possible? Rosita Ramirez did not know, but she was willing to try.
Six hundred twenty-five miles west of South Padre Island, John Ed Johnson rolled off Rosita. Seventy-one years old, and testosterone still oozed from every pore in his body. Always had. He sat up, grabbed his bourbon from the nightstand and then the remote, and turned on the television.
'Hey, look there, Rosita. The governor's on TV.'
On the television, the governor of Texas said, 'Hell, Dave, I shoot first and ask questions later.'
John Ed and the studio audience laughed.
'But you shot him in the back.'
The governor nodded. 'Twice. So he didn't file a civil rights complaint.'
John Ed bellowed with laughter.
'Why?'
'Because he wouldn't turn around so I could shoot him in the front.' After the laughter died down, the governor's expression turned solemn, and he said, 'Look, Dave, those men were armed and dangerous, they beat the little girl, and they pointed guns at her. That made them bad guys. And in Texas, we shoot bad guys.'
More applause.
'Now, Governor, did I read correctly that one of the bad guys got away? The guy that worked at the ranch? Aren't you worried?'
'Nah. That hombre, he's sitting in Mexico somewhere tonight, drinking a Corona.'
Fifty meters outside the bedroom window, Manuel Moreno squatted and peered through high-powered binoculars at Senor John Ed and Rosita.
SEVENTEEN
'?Es America? '
Little Josefina stared up as cameras captured the moment. Bode felt a bit uneasy about this just being another photo op-this was the Statue of Liberty, after all-but how could he argue with the Professor when his poll and Twitter numbers continued their rapid climb into the stratosphere?
'Yes, honey. This is America.'
She turned to him and tapped her chest. She wore the yellow dress.
'Ya soy yo una americana? '
The American consulate had been working with the Mexican authorities to locate the children's parents or next of kin. So far, they had found Javier's mother in Piedras Negras and Pablo's older sister in Ojinaga; they would fly home when they returned to Austin. And they had found the bodies of Josefina's mother and father in Chihuahua. They had known what the men would do to their pretty daughter, so they had put up a valiant fight. Which earned them each a bullet in the head. Josefina had no one back in Mexico. She knew it. Her eyes told him so.
They had returned to Laredo after noon, stopped off at the house to change, and then driven out to Colonia Angeles. Lindsay made her daily rounds without major incident, welcome after the previous day in Boca Chica. Her worries about her husband's safety had eased with each day; and Austin seemed distant here in the colonias. Like another world. When she returned to the clinic, she found Inez at her desk but Jesse gone.
'Where's the doctor?'
'He went to the movies.'
'The movies?'
' Si. He goes every other Friday. Unless it is raining, then he goes the following Friday. But that does not often happen here on the border. The rain.'
Bode and Lindsay Bonner had stood right there on their last trip to New York, for their twentieth anniversary. She had seemed happy that day. But when they had returned to Austin, he vetoed the funding for the children's health insurance program. And politics came between them.
'?Caramba! ' Carlos said.
They had brought the kids up to the observation deck at the Empire State Building. The view from a thousand feet up was breathtaking. The kids pointed and spoke Spanish and seemed excited.
' Bueno,' Alejandro said.
Emilio threw up.
'Was the movie good?' Lindsay asked.
Jesse had returned to the clinic late that afternoon. Inez had gone out back.
'What movie?'
'The movie you went to see.'
