'To determine the cause of death.'
'Cause of death? How about a bullet through her fucking head! I was in the room, Paul. I saw the bullet hit her. I saw her die. So did the governor.'
'Jim Bob, I'm standing next to the body. I've seen hundreds of gunshot deaths, I know what killed her, but-'
'Paul, an autopsy-the report, the photos-it'll all be public record. It'll be on the national news.'
It'll reveal that Mandy was pregnant.
'Jim Bob, look-'
'No, Paul, you look-at her. At her face. What do you see?'
'Her brain.'
'Exactly. You want her autopsy photos splashed all over the Internet? Her mother sure as hell doesn't. She wants the world to remember her daughter as the beautiful young woman she was, not with her fucking face blown off. Paul, she wants to cremate her daughter. Let her mother have her peace.'
He heard the ME breathing into the phone. Jim Bob gave him time to think it through. The ME finally spoke.
'As Chief Medical Examiner for Travis County, I am responsible for investigating and certifying cause of death and manner of death in all cases of violent death. My investigation and certification as to cause and manner of death may, but is not legally required to, include an autopsy…'
He sounded as if he were rehearsing his response to the inevitable questions from the media as to why he did not conduct an autopsy.
'… and cause of death was clear and obvious, the death was witnessed by two credible witnesses, one of whom is the governor of Texas, and both of whom swore under oath as to the circumstances of Ms. Morgan's death. Thus, it was my…'
He was rehearsing. Paul Janofsky had been the Travis County ME for over thirty years. He had handled numerous high-profile murders. He had experience with the media circus. He was the only Republican holding elected office in the county.
'… professional opinion that, in light of the horrific trauma to her body and the family's wishes that an autopsy not be conducted and photos not be taken in order to preserve their daughter's privacy and dignity, an autopsy was not necessary or appropriate in this matter to determine cause of death. My official ruling is that Mandy Morgan died of a gunshot wound to the head. Manner of death was homicide.'
He paused.
'Sounds good to me, Paul.'
'Okay, Jim Bob. No autopsy. No photos. I'll need those sworn statements from you and the governor, then I'll sign the death certificate and issue a certificate for cremation. We'll release the body upon receipt of the next-of- kin's signed release form. Time of death was nine-thirty this morning, so she can't be cremated until nine-thirty Monday morning-there's a forty-eight-hour waiting period. You're on the clock, Jim Bob. Won't be as much press coverage this weekend, but come Monday morning, all hell's gonna break loose. You'd better get this wrapped up and the body in the furnace by then, because if the district attorney gets involved-and he will-and he requests an autopsy, I'm required by law to do it. And the D.A.'s a Democrat.'
'The governor won't forget this, Paul.'
Jesse drove her into Laredo where there was cell phone service. She cried all the way. He was unfaithful, he was ambitious, he was a politician-but he was still her husband. She breathed with relief when she heard his voice.
'Bode-thank God you're okay. The Border Patrol agent said they killed you.'
'They killed Mandy.'
'Oh, no.'
He exhaled into the phone. 'Lindsay, you've got to come home. This guy ain't quitting. If he ever finds out you're right across the river from him-'
'He won't. How's Becca?'
'Daddy, I thought we were safe here. But if they can kill Mandy right here in the Mansion, they can kill us, too.'
Becca sat in her bed, where she sat or lay most hours of every day now, cuddling the oversized teddy bear Bode had given her for her twelfth birthday.
'Honey, you're safe with me.'
'She wasn't. Hank, Darcy, now Mandy… They're not going to stop until they kill all of us.'
Tears ran down her face.
'Daddy, who are those people?'
'You killed his girlfriend.'
Four hours later, Hector Garcia had just arrived back in Nuevo Laredo and the compound. He was weary from the long drive.
' What? '
'It is on the news.' Enrique turned the TV on with the remote. 'See? You did not kill him. You killed her.'
Hector had the governor's head in his cross hairs when he pulled the trigger. He knew the local police would lock down the area, so he had left Austin immediately and driven south to the border without stopping.
'Hector, go now and do not return without the governor's head.'
Darcy was dead. Hank was dead. Mandy was dead. Becca could be dead. He could be dead. But for Mandy, he would be dead.
El Diablo would not stop until he had his vengeance. As a father, Bode could understand that. If those hit men had killed Becca that day, he would hunt El Diablo down and kill him. If it took the rest of his life-if it took his own life-Bode Bonner would have his vengeance. Just as El Diablo wanted his.
Any moment, anytime, anywhere-a bullet could slam into his head. Bode turned his eyes up to the animal heads on the wall-now he knew how they felt. The only difference was, he knew he was being hunted. He knew they were coming after him.
Bode Bonner had hunted all his life. Now he was the hunted.
THIRTY-THREE
Mandy Morgan's body, encased in a cardboard box, was slid into the natural-gas-fired furnace at the crematorium at nine-thirty the following Monday morning, exactly forty-eight hours to the minute after the time of her death shown on the death certificate signed by the Travis County Chief Medical Examiner. Ninety minutes later, the sixteen-hundred-degree fire had vaporized her body tissues and organs and reduced the physical being that was Mandy Morgan (and her unborn child) to skeletal remains. Which remains were collected and pulverized by the cremulator until they were ashes. She had weighed one hundred ten pounds in life; in death, her ashes weighed only three and a half pounds and were placed in a silver urn at her mother's request. Madeline Morgan, James Robert Burnet, and Governor Bode Bonner witnessed the cremation. Madeline cried; Bode sat stunned; Jim Bob paid the $500 cremation fee from the campaign petty cash fund. The Travis County District Attorney filed a written request for an autopsy with the Medical Examiner's Office at precisely 11:07 that morning.
Jim Bob drove Mrs. Morgan to the airport for her flight back to Odessa with the urn containing her daughter's ashes cradled in her arms like an infant. Bode returned to the Mansion and found the kids playing soccer on the south lawn. With no adult supervision. He walked over to Josefina. She again wore the yellow dress, as if it were her only item of clothing.
'Where's Becca??Donde esta Becca?'
' Duerme.'?Duerme?
'?Que? '
' Esta durmiendo. '
Bode turned his palms up.
