Valdez ran down the facts while the two agents waited inside their units.
After hearing Joe out, and asking a few questions, Andy smiled. Over coffee at the diner, he'd decided to have Cobb and Springer picked up.
Kerney had beaten him to it.
'Chief?' Valdez said.
Andy laughed and shook his head.
'Do it.'
He watched Valdez and the agents drive off, and the tight feeling in his gut started to evaporate.
In his office, he started making calls to the State Department, FBI, the Department of Justice, Customs, and the CIA. He talked to people he knew, several of whom owed him favors. He wanted to blow a bigger hole in De Leon operation, if possible. He hung up with promises from the feds to move quickly. De Leon was known throughout the criminal justice and intelligence systems, and every agency was eager to cooperate.
He had his secretary fax key documents to federal officials in Washington, Virginia, Albuquerque, and El Paso, and told his public affairs officer to set up a press conference.
To stay on the job in the face of his insubordination, Andy would have to play politics. Once word of his disloyalty reached the Roundhouse, Springer's people would come after him, and he wasn't about to make it easy for the governor to fire him. oncb a farming settlement along the banks of the Rio Grande, the town of Bemalillo was somewhat protected from the suburban sprawl of Albuquerque by an Indian pueblo that buffered the two cities. But the cushion of open land that cut a swath east from the river to the mountains couldn't hold back the development that filled the west mesa.
A gently rising plateau with eroded cones of extinct volcanoes, sandy arroyos, black lava rock, and bunch grass the mesa had been transformed into a series of bedroom communities that filled the skyline.
It vanished from sight when Kerney got off the interstate and dipped into the shallow river valley that sheltered the town. He drove the four-lane main street to city hall, where he stopped and asked for directions.
Ordway lived one block off the main drag in an old two-story adobe farmhouse that had been carved into small apartments. Under the porch were two entry doors, and on either side of the building staircases led to second-story living units. There were lace curtains in the front window of a first-floor apartment, along with a picture of the Virgin Mary that had been taped to a glass pane. The name Abeyta was stenciled on the mailbox next to the door.
Kerney knocked on the door and a heavyset, elderly Hispanic woman wearing a drab gray dress opened it partway.
'Seftora Abeyta,' Kerney said, speaking in Spanish.
'I hope I am not disturbing you.' In the background he heard the loud chatter of a television talk show.
'Not at all, but I have no vacancies,' Mrs. Abeyta replied in English.
'All my apartments are rented.'
'I'm looking for a friend of mine,' he explained.
'NeilOrdway.'
'Oh yes, he just moved in, but he is not here now.'
'Do you know how I can reach him?'
'He said that he had a job working for a carpet installer.'
'Do you know which one?'
Mrs. Abeyta shook her head.
'No, but I think he might be working in Rio Rancho, putting carpets in all those new houses they are building up there.'
'He told you that?'
'Yes, when he rented the apartment.'
'Gratias, selfora.'
'You're welcome, senor.'
Kerney stopped at a cafe on the main street, and used a pay phone and directory to whittle down an interminable number of carpet installers until he located Ordway's new employer. Mrs. Abeyta had heard Ordway correctly, the company was doing subcontract installations for a builder in the Rio Rancho area. Kerney got the address where Ordway was working.
He left Bemalillo and drove up the mesa. The view east toward the mountains showed a sweep of pale hills that climbed from the bosque.
The Rio Grande ran brown and languid around fingerlike sandbars Kerney glimpsed through the breaks in the thick cottonwood stands. But the drive into Rio Rancho took him into a different world altogether. High privacy walls bordered the wide thoroughfare, masking all but the second story of houses squeezed together on tiny lots. At major intersections, strip malls, convenience stores, and gas stations abounded. The stark, beautiful New Mexico landscape had been transformed into a place no different from the oozing Los Angeles megalopolis.
West of the main road, behind an established residential tract, was a checkerboard development of empty lots and high-density housing units under construction.
Along the newly paved streets, stick houses and apartment buildings were going up in assembly-line fashion. While cement crews poured footings and pads at freshly prepped building sites, down the line carpenters framed walls and hung roof joists. The pattern repeated itself until Kerney rolled to a stop in front of three model homes in the final stages of completion.
Little flagpoles with triangular pennants stood in front of the houses, and large signs planted in the yards blazoned the name of each model. A panel truck with rolls of carpet sticking out of the open rear doors was parked in a driveway.
Kerney called for backup before walking through the garage, past a laundry alcove, and into the kitchen. In the adjacent dining nook two men were unrolling a carpet pad. Both froze when they saw Kerney with his semiautomatic in one hand and his shield in the other.
'Ordway?' Kerney asked softly.
'Back bedroom, on the left,' one of the men replied.
Kerney stepped into the room.
'Wait outside,' he ordered in a whisper.
The men scurried past him into the garage.
He found Ordway in the bedroom on his hands and knees with his back to the door, trimming carpet.
Ordway heard him coming, rose to a kneeling position, and turned. He had a knife in his hand.
Kerney moved quickly before Ordway could react; he slammed the barrel of his gun against Ordway's cheek and kicked at Ordway's knife hand with his good leg. The blade went flying.
Neil came off the floor in a rush, diving for Kerney's midsection.
Kerney sidestepped and used Ordway's momentum to drive him, face first, into a wall.
'Hands to the small of your back,' Kerney ordered as he leaned hard against the man to keep him secure, and kicked his feet apart.
Ordway grunted and complied.
After cuffing Ordway, Kerney patted him down and spun him around.
'Hello, Neil,' he said affably.
Ordway's nose looked broken.
Ordway seemed dazed. Blood flowed from his nose, dripping on the tan carpet. He swallowed hard and spat at Kerney.
'Puck you, Kerney.'
Kerney wiped the spit off his face.
'You're under arrest for aggravated battery. Beating up Robert was a stupid idea.'
'I'll be out on bail in twenty-four hours,' Ordway said.
'But unemployed once again, I would imagine,' Kerney replied.
'Let me read you your rights.'
A state police officer arrived as Kerney brought Ordway out of the house. He explained the charges to the officer, who agreed to drive Ordway to Torrance County, book him into jail, and deliver Kerney's criminal complaint to the district attorney.
