The Traitor

wasn't really concerned that Santos would harm her.

Killing an ADA was an audacious, but stupid move, and Santos was too crafty to let emotion rule him. She was relying on that. In fact, she suspected that it'd been Santos who'd kept Diego Vargas in check these last few years.

Anyway, El Diablo, as she'd heard Santos called, had made the contact this time.

At this hour of the day, the area was lively with bikers and dog walkers, and Bella waited at the place Santos had designated. She heard him before she saw his bulk looming through the shadows of the trees, even though he trod carefully. She guessed he didn't want to startle her.

As he approached, he searched the area around them with those fathomless black pits. He reminded her of the gigantes y cabezudos of the Spanish festivals of her childhood. His face had the same wooden features of the papier-mache figures as he patted her down, careful not to touch her intimately.

Afterward, he began without preliminary. 'I have decided to tell you everything that you want to know.'

Her surprise must have shown. 'What caused you to change your mind?'

His pause was so long, she thought at first that he might not answer.

'I have been with Diego Vargas since I was a young man,' he explained, 'over twenty years.'

At the word twenty, she jerked involuntarily, telling herself the years meant nothing. Santos worked for Vargas twenty years; her sister had been missing twenty years. It was nothing but coincidence, nothing but an agony of decades for her and her family. And for Santos? She didn't know.

Bella shifted her stance, looked away. 'So? What do you want me to say? That you've worked for an animal like Diego Vargas for enough years that you've become an animal, too?' She hadn't intended to vomit up the pain so caustically.

A faint smile carved his beautifully damaged mouth, but he said nothing.

'I've drafted a deal. Are you ready to look at it?' she asked sharply.

After a long silence, he said, apropos of nothing, 'I have a picture. You look very like her.'

Bella trembled and covered her mouth to keep from crying out. She didn't pretend not to understand and was furious about the possibility that a man like Santos had a picture of her beloved sister.

Silently she held out her hand while he reached inside his pocket and placed a snapshot carefully in the center of her palm, closing her fingers over the worn edges.

She peered at the photo, not really able to make out the features. Perhaps it was a picture of Maria. Or it could be her mind playing tricks on her.

'How did you get this?' she demanded.

'I will tell you that later,' he said, 'after our agreement is complete. I can tell you what happened to her. I imagine that information would be very valuable to you.'

'I can't bargain with you for personal reasons,' she answered even as her fingernails dug into her palms and the beginning of a plan scurried through her mind.

'But you can bargain with me to get El Vaquero. Consider the information about Maria a bonus. And perhaps you will feel generous enough to give me a bonus in return during your negotiations.'

She knew he spoke the truth when he mentioned her sister's name. 'You bastard,' she whispered as he retrieved the photo from her lifeless fingers.

'Yes,' he said, 'that is true, for my father never married my mother. Think about what I can give you. Not only Diego Vargas but… '

He spread his hands in an old-world gesture and smiled with those beautiful white teeth, but the look in his eyes reminded her of a snake ready to strike.

*

'Uncle Santos?' The voice over the cell phone was small, quiet, and sounded very, very young and frightened.

Santos was shocked to hear Cory's voice on his cell number because only Diego and a few close advisors contacted him by this means. 'Ay, Cory, mi pequena muchacha querida. ?Como estas?'

'Okay, I guess.' She sniffled. She had been weeping.

'How did you get this number, little one?'

'I have Papa's phone,' she whispered. He could imagine the small girl, slender and dark like her mother, hunched over the phone, fighting back tears she could not quite control.

'Where is your papa?'

'He's sleeping. He snores real loud.' She paused and then rushed on in a tumble of words. 'Uncle Santos, he's been drinking… a lot.'

'Where is he, Cory?' he repeated.

'He… he's in my bed,' she sobbed, 'and I can't go to sleep because he's so loud.'

A rage wholly unfamiliar to Santos squeezed his chest. Rage mixed with a helplessness also alien to him strangled his breathing. Pinche cabron, he ranted silently as he had many times before about his boss.

But this time, he vowed silently, the pig would be stopped.

*

Rafe followed the directions Max had given him to the house in South Highland Heights.

Max greeted him at the door of a ramshackle stucco dwelling whose lawn needed mowing and whose trim needed painting. 'So, the Vargas case is a mess, huh? Good thing I'm here to solve it for you.'

'Yeah, man, I could use a fresh set of eyes.' Rafe looked around the porch landing at the general air of neglect and lifted his eyebrows in inquiry. He knew Max was a neat freak.

'Uh, listen, this is my grandma's place. She's in a nursing home, but her only son, my Uncle Brian, hasn't gotten around to selling the house yet. He's letting me bunk here for a while in exchange for keeping an eye on the place.'

'Sounds great. I'm in that lousy extended-stay motel.'

'Hey, Hashish, why don't you grab your stuff and stay with me? It'll be great, just like old times at Stanford.'

Rafe hesitated, wanting to spend time with Isabella, but wondering if they'd complicated matters by moving their relationship up a notch. On the other hand, maybe distance would be good until the case settled.

He wasn't ready to share his feelings about her with anyone just yet. Even with his best friend.

And, on top of everything, at the far back of his mind, that little warning jiggled. 'Hell, why not?' he finally answered.

He left Isabella a voice message, giving her details of where he'd be, explained that his old friend needed him, and he'd contact her after she sealed the deal with the informant. Caution made him leave out Gabriel Santos' name.

This would buy him time, he told himself. He'd know when he looked Max directly in the eye. His old friend couldn't lie straight to his face and get away with it.

But the cold suspicion that maybe he'd been betrayed chilled his heart.

Chapter Thirty-five

Very early the next morning the second meet with Santos took place in Bella's office at the courthouse. She hadn't seen Rafe since yesterday, but he'd left a cryptic voice message. She'd deal with that after she solidified the negotiation with Santos.