Garcia’s eyes scanned the photo, and Jack removed the sock from his mouth.
He sneered. “I’m not telling you shit.”
Jack nodded slowly and stared down at his feet and then set the hammer on the table. “Ah, you know what, let’s skip the theatrics and move straight to the final curtain.” He turned and picked up a blowtorch, removed his cigarette lighter and fired it up. A sharp blue flame burst to life. It hissed heating up the air.
“No. No. Please.”
“Then start talking,” Jack said waving the flame back and forth in front of his face.
“I…” Garcia stuttered, fear masking his face.
Jack cupped a hand to his ear and leaned closer. “What’s that? I didn’t hear you.”
“I—I was just told to deliver her.”
“Deliver her. By who?”
“I don’t know.”
Jack offered back a confused expression.
“OK, we’ll come back to that. Deliver her where?”
He shook his head. “I can’t. He’ll kill me.”
Jack leaned forward and cupped a hand around his neck. “Uh, news flash, Garcia,” he said bringing the flame closer to his face so he could feel the heat. He let it linger, hoping to avoid inflicting pain on him. As much as it looked as if he enjoyed it, Jack didn’t. The thirst to prove himself that he had when he was younger was gone. He’d left it far behind along with his life in the mob but this guy wasn’t giving him many options.
“I can’t.”
“Yes you can. Tell me and this all stops.”
He shook his head and Jack gritted his teeth, he was losing his grip on the part of him that he’d buried deep inside.
Garcia’s head dropped then he raised it again. “Please, I have a family.”
Jack stared back at him blankly. “So did I.” Jack grabbed the sock and jammed it back in his mouth then brought the flame down to his right foot and began to melt the skin. Garcia cried out but his scream was muffled. Jack didn’t leave it there long, just enough to cause the skin to bubble. He sat back up and waited until Garcia stopped screaming before he removed the sock from his mouth. As soon as he did Garcia began to spill what he knew. Everyone had a breaking point.
“I don’t know who wanted her, only that if I didn’t bring her to the priest he would kill me and my family. That’s the truth. He sent a photo of my kid here.”
“Where is it?”
“At the department.”
“Why didn’t you notify them?”
Garcia stared back and for a second Jack got a sense that he was lying.
“Why?” Jack demanded
“He said he was watching, tracking my every move.”
“And you believed him?”
“He made it clear.”
Jack studied him. Was he lying?
“So you heard his voice?”
“It wasn’t him directly. Someone else speaking on his behalf.”
“Or it could have been him. What did he sound like? Young? Old?”
“His voice was muffled. I don’t know. I just wanted to protect my family.”
“Or maybe you wanted to cover up your infidelity.”
Garcia shook his head, wincing in pain.
Jack rose and walked over to the curtain and peered out. It was still dark except for a few lights of homes in the distance. He looked at Garcia’s pale reflection in the window. It was possible he was telling the truth.
“And the priest? The one you visited today to confess your sins.”
“I wasn’t confessing my sins.”
He winced in pain.
“No shit,” Jack said turning and looking at him, and then he jerked his head. “So I’m guessing Mrs. Garcia doesn’t know about the whore that went down on you today?”
Garcia shook his head.
“Figures,” Jack replied walking back over. “So you followed Dana back to Colorado?”
“Colorado?” He looked baffled. It was the first thing he’d said that genuinely looked authentic. “I picked her up here in Santa Fe. Flashed my badge and made up a story about her resembling someone who had stolen from a store. I told her I had to take her down to the station except we stopped at the church. The priest, and several other men were waiting to take her from there.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know. I swear. I just did my part.”
“Your part.” Jack nodded, feeling out of control. He could feel his anger getting the better of him.
“Did they kill her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then tell me this. Why did you go see the priest today if it wasn’t to confess?”
“I was instructed to after the murder this morning.”
“Cosmo?”
He nodded.
“Were you responsible for that?” Jack asked.
“No. I didn’t know about it until I got the call to send in officers.”
“How does he communicate with you?”
“I received a text this morning. And a phone call before that.”
“So you have a number?”
He nodded.
“Where’s your phone?”
He groaned again, and then jerked his head towards the kitchen. “It’s out there on the counter as you come in the door. Where the keys are.”
Jack headed out down the corridor and to the back door where a small bronze bowl had been set. Inside were multiple keys but no cell. He glanced over his shoulder. He couldn’t hear Garcia moving but was convinced he was playing some kind of game. Jack headed back to the living room. He was still tied securely to the seat. “It’s not there.”
“I thought I placed it there,” Garcia replied. “Maybe I left it in the car.”
Jack returned a steely gaze. “Don’t play games with me.”
“Does it look like I could?”
Garcia shuffled a little to demonstrate that he couldn’t get out even if he wanted to. Jack walked over and tugged on the restraints. None of them were loose. He’d have to be Harry Houdini to get out of that, and even if he could he’d have a hard time trying anything with two broken hands and a fried foot. Jack strolled over to the wall and yanked out the phone cord and snapped off the end just in case.
“Is the car unlocked?”
He nodded. Jack eyed him one last time before heading for the garage. After accessing it through a door in the home, he entered the car and immediately noticed it wasn’t
