Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(27)

Isabella closed her eyes and her face tensed up as if she were trying to fight back tears.

Marta dropped Isabella’s hand and slipped everything back in her bag. “Can you tell me your friend’s name? Her first name?”

She shook her head. “No, no, no.”

“You can’t tell me, or you don’t know?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know her name.”

Tears poured from her eyes until she began shaking and then sobbing. Marta pushed the call button beside the bed and a moment later Vie rushed in. She looked at Marta accusingly.

“What happened?”

“I asked about her friend and she started crying,” Marta said.

“I think you’d best go,” Vie said.

*

Back in the hallway, Marta was sorry that she’d caused such a reaction in the young woman, but she was interested to learn that Isabella claimed not to even know the other woman’s name. She sent a quick text to Josie and Otto to that effect and took her position on the chair in the hallway, settling in for a long night of waiting and wondering.





SEVEN

Josie arrived home at 7:30 p.m. and found Nick on her couch reading a True Crime magazine and drinking a beer. He pitched the magazine onto the coffee table as she sat beside him.

“You look like you need some sleep.”

She shrugged and blew air out in frustration. “I feel like we’re checking tasks off a to-do list. No big breaks yet. Did you hear anything today?”

“I have feelers out about the trafficking and two missing women. Since we’re in Medrano territory I have guys checking there first. There’s no doubt the Medranos are involved in prostitution and trafficking, but I don’t know about transportation routes. Did Border Patrol have information on routes?”

“Jimmy Dixon’s working on it.”

Josie watched Nick take a long swig of his beer, and again she was struck by his physical presence. When he walked into a room he filled it up; he was big and intense and couldn’t blend into a crowd if he wanted to. In contrast, Josie tried to fall back and observe; she attributed this to being a cop, but she knew it was also her personality. She watched the condensation drip down the bottle and onto his jeans and took in his hard jawline. He smiled without turning to face her.

“You okay with the view?”

She laughed. “A little cocky, aren’t you?”

“Just making sure you’re satisfied.”

“I was deciding what kind of a bodyguard you might make.”

“The best.”

“You busy tonight?” she asked.

“I’m your man.”

She smiled as she nodded. “Good. I need an escort to Mexico.”

*

Nick carried dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico and frequently made the trip across the International Bridge. Driving in his black armored SUV, they passed through customs with no issues, and within a few minutes they were driving parallel to the river, headed for desert country. Once they were out of Piedra Labrada they both rolled down the windows and let the warm night air blow through. When Josie had told Nick about Se?ora Molina he said he knew her. Apparently she was a legend with the young kids in the area. When somebody needed a place to crash, they could count on her.

Nick pulled off the marked gravel road and onto an arroyo that led down into a shallow streambed a half mile from the Rio Grande. The arroyo was dry, since no measurable rain had fallen in the area for several months. The monsoons should have started in September and people were getting nervous that the territory would have another fire season like the year before.

As Nick drove over the fallen boulders in the dry creek bed, Josie couldn’t help smiling at the night. The sun had faded and a fresh scattering of stars cast light across the sky. They were driving along slowly enough to catch the whirring sound of the night insects in the cottonwood trees at the top of the arroyo. In spite of the unpleasant nature of the trip, she relaxed into the night and breathed in the smell of juniper and creosote, a pungent earthy scent like perfume to Josie.

She felt Nick’s hand rest on her own, lying on her thigh.

“You like this, don’t you? The rough desert?” he asked.

She took a minute to respond. “I do. It’s strange to think back, how I grew up in the Midwest, but I never felt at home until I moved here. It’s like my body was meant to be here, with the heat and the wide-open spaces.”

In the failing light, Josie could barely make out the turnoff that Nick pulled onto from the arroyo.

“How could someone in trouble ever make it out here?” Josie asked. “It would be impossible to find.”

“That’s the beauty of Se?ora Molina. To get here is a feat in itself. It’s not like some kid who had a bad day at school would make his way over here for help. You have to seek her out to get here. And she recognizes that. She’s a pretty amazing lady.”

“Have you worked with her often?”

“She’s helped me with a few negotiations. She has a network of contacts that would rival any police department’s.”

“Why don’t the police use her? I’ve never even heard of her,” she said.

“I’m not sure how to explain her,” he said. “She doesn’t have allegiance to the police, or to anyone, for that matter. She wouldn’t put up with the police coming to her for information, especially as an informant.”