Family Money(2)

The teenager hung up, looked at me. “Diez minutos.”

“What?”

“Policía. Diez minutos.”

“Ten minutes?” I snapped.

I knew enough Spanish to understand that. I’d practiced the basics with Nicole and Olivia leading up to the trip. I wanted them to be able to communicate on some level with the kids at the orphanage. For a five-year-old and a seven-year-old, they had a knack for grasping the language. Both of them were really smart girls. They got that from their mother.

I again thought of Taylor, felt my chest tighten up. Ten minutes was a lifetime. I couldn’t just stand there and wait for the police. I spun around, stared back at the crowd of onlookers in the marketplace behind me. Could any of them help me? Did anyone know these men who had grabbed Joe?

“Habla inglés?” I began repeating, going from person to person.

All I got back were blank stares and shaking heads. Did no one here really know how to speak English? Most looked like poor people who’d probably never traveled too far away from this village. But then I noticed one Mexican man near the back of the crowd who stood out from the others. Clean-shaven with slicked-back black hair, he was probably my age and wore a nice gray suit with a white dress shirt unbuttoned to midchest. I doubted he was a local villager. Maybe he could help me.

I made a move in his direction. When I did, he immediately turned and slipped away into the crowd. I quickly lost sight of him. I cursed again, stepped back into the dirt road, stared off into the distance. All I could see now were big clouds of dust circling up under the blazing heat of the sun. I fell to my knees on the dirt. My hands were trembling. I kept seeing that black hood being forced over my father-in-law’s head.

Joe was gone. I couldn’t stop it.

What would I tell my mother-in-law?

What would I say to my kids?

How could I even face Taylor?

God, please.





TWO


I paced in a furious circle right in the spot where my father-in-law had been grabbed and had a hard time catching my breath. My heart was racing. I kept reliving every detail of the abduction like a horror film looped in my mind. Who were those guys? Why had they chosen Joe? And why had he not looked as panicked about it as I had? I knew my father-in-law to be cool under pressure, but this was not the simple stress of him making an argument in a courtroom trial. This might be life and death.

I checked the time on my phone. About five minutes had passed since the minivan had disappeared, but it felt like forever. Where were the damn police already? The village was only eight miles outside of Matamoros. It shouldn’t take someone ten minutes to get over here. A few concerned bystanders continued to stare at me with tight faces, but most others just went back to business as usual in the marketplace. Did they see this kind of thing all the time?

A barefoot young girl of probably nine wearing a yellow sundress walked up to me and held out her hand. I looked down and noticed a familiar-looking cell phone in her tiny fingers. I recognized it right away as Joe’s phone. It must’ve fallen from his pocket in the struggle. The phone had a white case with Papa printed on it, the name surrounded by pink-and-purple butterflies. Olivia had designed it using one of those online gift stores and had given it to Joe as a birthday present last year. I remembered laughing out loud. It wasn’t exactly the manliest-looking phone case. But my father-in-law told her it was the best birthday gift ever and didn’t hesitate to place it on his phone. Joe adored his two grandkids and would do anything to make them happy. He would regularly play day spa with them and let them do his hair, nails, and makeup. He would even participate in their cute little plays and wear whatever costumes they dreamed up for him. Joe’s whole life was his family.

I took the phone from the girl. “Gracias.”

She gave me a small smile and ran off.

My own phone buzzed. I held it up and saw a text from Taylor.

Hey, babe, what’s your ETA? Getting hungry around here.

I felt my throat catch. How should I respond? I couldn’t tell her about this over the phone. I had to be there with her in person.

A second text arrived from Taylor. A heart emoji along with a photo of our girls playing dress-up with three similar-age girls from the orphanage. Olivia and Nicole had insisted on bringing an entire duffel bag filled with their Disney Princess outfits. They’d made good use out of them this week. I had a feeling we’d be leaving the costumes behind for the kids at the orphanage and buying all new ones when we got back to Austin.

Looking at Taylor’s second text nearly brought me to my knees again. I had talked her into coming here. I had created this nightmare. One she didn’t even know about yet. I already felt my heart breaking at having to tell her this news. If we didn’t get Joe back, would she ever forgive me? Would I ever forgive myself? How had this happened? Just a few hours earlier, we were the happiest family you could find anywhere, splashing around together in the hotel pool. The day had started perfectly, but then everything had unraveled on me so fast.

“We really need to go, Alex,” Taylor had said to me that morning, frowning while she stared down at me in the water from the edge of the hotel pool. “I told them we’d be there by ten.”

Taylor and I had been together sixteen years—ten married—and she still took my breath away. Even while wearing plain jeans, running shoes, a simple white T-shirt, her brunette hair in a ponytail, and very little makeup.