She opens a tab on the browser, types at the keyboard, and brings up another page.
La Baliza, the headline of the webpage reads.
I say, “What’s The Beacon?”
“An independent news publication. It’s outsourced by people like me all over the country. Most news nowadays won’t tell the truth because they’re afraid of the cartels or the government or sometimes both. We work in anonymity so we have nothing to fear.”
“How did you end up at the motel?”
“There’s an online portal where people can anonymously leave tips. Many police officers do. They keep me updated when something big happens. Today one of them left a tip that an American tourist found three bodies burned to death. They also mentioned the phone call sent to the motel. I went straight there.”
“After those investigators left and you went inside, how did you know where they were headed next?”
“I gave the clerk inside twenty dollars. He was happy to give up the information anyway. He said one of the investigators assaulted him.”
“So what’s your story about so far?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Somebody’s already posted about the attack at the Diaz’s place.”
“Somebody?”
She shrugs.
“We all act as separate units. None of us knows who the other is. That way we can move about safely.”
“So you’re writing about these burned bodies.”
“Yes.”
“And the police believe this Miguel Dominguez is the killer?”
“No way he’s the killer. But a call was made from the pay phone to the motel, and Miguel was working there last night, so the police want to question him.”
I glance at the computer again.
“Why are you so certain he’s not the killer?”
“You saw his apartment. I’m no cop, but he doesn’t strike me as somebody who could pull that off.”
“You mean burning a woman and two children alive?”
Gabriela frowns at me.
“Why do you think the bodies belong to a woman and two children?”
Whoops.
I say, “I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me. Something I’m missing. You don’t seem too shocked to find out those people had been burned to death.”
“I’m not. This isn’t the first time it’s happened.”
Now it’s my turn to frown.
“What do you mean?”
Gabriela says, “He’s been doing this now for over a year. This is the sixth time he’s struck.”
I think about Maria and those children, leaving them there at the brick building by themselves in the dark.
You promised to keep us safe.
I stare hard at Gabriela.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nobody knows his name, but everybody calls him el Diablo. The Devil. He’s a serial killer taking out the mothers and children of cartel families.”
Twenty
Ramon stood on sand, inches from the incoming surf, and stared out at the ocean.
Behind him, Carlos said, “Tell me why we climbed down here again.”
Ramon turned to him.
“I told you already.”
“Yes, and it didn’t make much sense then, so why don’t you try it one more time?”
Ramon stepped back, surveying the small beach.
“After I spoke to Samantha Lu and told her she was free to go, she stood up and stared out at the ocean for a couple seconds.”
Carlos lit a cigarette, blew out smoke through his nose.
“And?”
Ramon glanced up toward the top of the bluff, then back down at the beach.
“And I think she was looking for something.”
“Like what?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought maybe she was just looking at the ocean. But after what we now know about her …”
Carlos said, “We don’t know much.”
“No, but what little we do know is suspicious enough.”
“If she was looking for something down here, what do you think it was?”
Ramon was quiet for a moment, surveying the beach once again.
“I’m not sure. But we’re, what, ten miles down the beach from the Diaz place?”
“Give or take, sure.”
“How did the victims get here so fast? I mean, assuming they left around the time of the attack.”
Carlos was quiet for a couple seconds, thinking it over. He took one last drag on the cigarette, flicked it out into the water, and sighed.
“I hate it when you start to make sense.”
“You see my problem with this, don’t you? Not to take away from the fact that a woman and two children are dead, but how did they get here? They could have driven, yes, but not down the drive from the house and then onto the main road. Narcos were headed to the place while it was being attacked. The woman and the children would have been seen.”
“So the other options?”
“Walk down the beach is one that first comes to mind. But it would have taken too long. How long do you think it would take a woman and two children to walk the beach in the middle of the night? And let’s not forget they’re being forced against their will. The kids were probably crying. From the time of the attack to when they were—”
Ramon paused, the image of those three charred bodies flashing in his mind. He cleared his throat, tried again.
“From the time of the attack to when they were murdered, it doesn’t give us a very large window.”
Carlos nodded.
“I agree. So what’s the next option?”
“They took a boat.”
“A boat.”
“Makes much more sense than flying. There’s a possibility this guy has a helicopter, but it doesn’t seem too realistic.”
“So you think they took a boat.”
Ramon paused a beat, giving it some more thought, and then nodded.
Carlos said, “Okay, but there’s a problem with that theory.”
“Which is?”
Carlos spread his arms, motioning at the beach.
“There’s no evidence of a boat.”
“He obviously took the boat with him.”
“That’s not what I mean. Look at the sand. Any trace of a boat being docked here?”
“Maybe he kept it farther out. Dropped an anchor. Forced the woman and the children back onto the beach, had them walk up to the bluff, and then—”
Flash of those three charred bodies again.
“—and then did what he did.”
Carlos stared at him, not saying anything.
Ramon said, “I know I sound crazy.”
“No, you don’t sound crazy. That’s the troubling part.
