The Horsewoman(70)

“With your help, Your Honor, maybe I have finally done that,” Daniel said.

The judge thanked him. Daniel walked back to his seat. Even from a few rows back, I could hear him exhale, loudly, when he sat down.

The judge then stated that in chambers she would consider Mr. Connors’s recommendations and the prosecutor’s, read the letters and the original arrest report, and would then announce her decision.

When she was out of the room, Daniel came and sat with Gus and me. As cold as the air-conditioning was in the hearing room, he was still sweating slightly, as if he were still standing in front of Judge Ross.

She came back fifteen minutes later.

“First off, Mr. Suarez,” she said, addressing Hector directly, “the next time somebody calls you a shitty name in a bar, go home to your wife.”

I leaned over and said into Gus’s ear, “Can she say that?”

“She just did,” he said.

Judge Ross leaned forward slightly.

“But as for this proceeding, we have wasted too much of your time in that detention center, Mr. Suarez, and too much government money,” she said. “Your friend is right. You’re not a criminal, unless being a victim of circumstances is now a federal offense in this country.”

She shifted her gaze to the two ICE agents.

“Perhaps in the future, we should think about doing a little better job making that distinction,” she said.

She banged her gavel.

“Your petition for cancellation is granted by this court, Mr. Suarez. As quickly as we can process you out, you will be released from custody.” She smiled at Hector now. “Where’s your wife?”

“Working,” Hector said.

“Call her,” the judge said, then announced that court was adjourned.

When we were all on the sidewalk, I took Daniel’s hand and gave it a good squeeze.

“You’re an even better friend than you are a trainer,” I said to him.

“Much better,” Gus said.

It got a laugh out of Daniel. Never, I knew from experience, an easy thing to do.

“You think this is funny?” we heard from behind us.

It was the shorter of the two ICE agents, showing us his badge, as if that were necessary.

“No, sir,” Daniel said. “Please believe me, I don’t think any of this is funny.”

The taller one said, “We’d like a word with you, Mr. Ortega.”





EIGHTY-SEVEN



THE COLOR DRAINED from Daniel’s face, in a blink, as if he feared the judge had changed her mind while we were exiting the building. Daniel looked at both of the agents, then at me, then at Gus. I could see him trying hard to swallow. I remembered all the times he had spoken of the government. Now here the government was, in the form of these two guys, standing right in front of him, in front of a federal building.

But Daniel didn’t get the chance to speak because Gus beat him to it.

“No,” Gus said, “you may not have a word with him. But thanks for asking.”

“Who the hell are you?” the taller agent said.

“Think of me as a concerned citizen,” Gus said, then whipped around his wheelchair to face them both squarely, a quick move that bumped one of the wheels against the taller man’s foot. I knew it hadn’t been accidental. But what were they going to do, arrest a guy in a wheelchair for assault?

“Sorry,” Gus said.

“I’ll bet,” the taller agent said.

“Got a question,” Gus said to him. “Is it your intent to arrest Mr. Ortega?”

“Like we said,” the shorter one said. “We just want a word.”

“And like I said,” Gus said, “if you’re not going to arrest him, get the hell out of here.”

The two agents looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Tough guy,” the shorter one said.

“You have no idea,” I said to them, smiling.

The shorter agent ignored Gus and me, turned his attention to Daniel.

“You need to know something, Mr. Ortega,” he said. “Your buddy got lucky today, absolutely. Caught himself a dream judge. So he won, we lost, the judge gave us some shit. Happens. But not very often, does it, Eddie?”

“Hardly ever, Larry,” Eddie said.

“And you know all that information about yourself that you gave the judge a few minutes ago?” Larry said to Daniel. “Now we’ve got it, too. We’ve actually had it since you went on the witness list. We know where you work, and who you work for. We know a lot.”

“And now we’re giving you a heads-up,” Eddie said, “that one of these days you might get yourself on the wrong side of all this.”

“You know what guys like us find out in our line of work?” he said. “That everybody has secrets.” He smirked at Daniel. “You got any secrets, Mr. Ortega?”

I thought, This started off badly and has gone downhill.

“We should leave,” I said to Gus.

Gus looked at the tall one, then the short one. Even dealing with a couple of federal agents, I knew how much he hated bullies.

“Them first,” he said, his eyes still not leaving them.

No one said anything then.

“Screw it, the guy’s been put on notice,” the shorter one, Larry, said, before he and his partner walked back up the steps of the Immigration Building.