I said, “Then you’ll go down for rape, bud.”

His head sprang up. “And if I say things?”

“We talk to the DA,” I told him. “Maybe we can swing a lesser charge of sexual molestation, maybe add another twelve months here in Cochise. That’s a lot better than five-plus in San Quentin.”

Germando stroked his chin, eyes moving between Justice and me. I think he misinterpreted Justice’s fury—directed at me—as being meant for him. “Hokay. It was Juice, Leo, and me dat did her. Pepe was lookout.”

“Much better.” I didn’t dare so much as glance at Brill. I couldn’t face him. “Tell us the story.”

“Nothin’ to tell. First Leo and me hold the boy, an’ Juice does her. Then we get tired of him because he screams. So Juice beat the shit outta him and dump him in de trash. Then I do the girl. Then Leo do the girl. Then we leave.” He shrugged. “Dat’s it.”

I finally screwed up the nerve to turn to Brill. “A word.”

Brill was livid. If I had had any hopes of his recommending me for the Detectives squad, they were squashed by now. We asked for the guard.

“Wha’ you doing?” El Paso bolted up.

“We’ll be back,” I told him.

The guard let us out. We spoke in a private interview room as hot as a sauna because it had walls instead of bars. Brill wiped sweat off his face with a towel, trying to find the right words. “What did you just pull?”

I said, “I think I can get Pepe Renaldes to corroborate the story.”

“Yeah, I figured that out, Decker. You went and talked to Renaldes without telling me—”

“I never mentioned Sarah Sanders to him.”

“I told you not to talk to him. Stone told you not to talk to him. The DA told you not to talk to him.”

“Actually, it was just implied that I shouldn’t talk to him.”

Brill almost spat at me. “I just drove down here for nothing because you just fucked up the case.”

“I didn’t want Renaldes to go down for a rape he didn’t commit.”

“You fucked up everything!” His eyes tore into mine. “Do you have a single brain cell in your head, Decker?”

I crossed my arms, my eyes slicing into Justice’s orbs. My voice was low and menacing. “Someone shot at me, Brill. You think I’m going to wait around and let some dickhead DA call the moves when it’s my life on the line? So yeah, I went and talked to Renaldes. I wanted to know who was using me for target practice. And if he couldn’t tell me that, at least maybe he’d lead me to the Nova. Which he did.”

“You’re an idiot!”

“You say idiot, I say survivor. The tag line here is I’m pretty sure I can get Renaldes to roll against Fedek and Chatlin. If we get Renaldes and El Paso telling the same story, we can probably lock up Fedek and Chatlin for a very long time with charges of rape and attempted murder of a police officer, and that’s what I want because one or both of those assholes tried to kill me!”