Then I shift into drive and do my best to get out of town.

CHAPTER 59

WHEN THE Army captain hangs up her phone, Pelayo says aloud, “My, she’s a feisty one, isn’t she?”

Some nervous laughter from his workers, and Casper steps closer to him and says, “I…I just need to ask this. And no offense.”

Pelayo puts his arm around his deputy’s shoulders. “Casper, you have served me well, for many years. How could you say anything offensive to me? Please. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“It’s…well, I’ve always wondered. Since you learned what was going on with Tom Cornwall, and you also learned who was being kept at that house in Three Rivers, why did you send in that man’s wife? Wouldn’t it have been easier, and quicker, to use our own people?”

He gives Casper a reassuring squeeze. “That’s good thinking, and I admire you so. But these are complicated times. Sometimes it’s best to contract out a job like this, in case it goes wrong. If we were to send our own resources…they might stand out. They might be witnessed, it being a small town and such. Besides, it’s always fun to blame the Americans, in case it did go wrong and the Army captain died, and if our subject died, well, that would be God’s will.”

Another squeeze to Casper’s thick shoulder. “Besides, having everything in one place, within easy reach, makes cleanup so much easier. Best to have the American family and our absent friend all within easy reach.”

Casper says, “Don’t you think the Army captain will be suspicious?”

Pelayo says, “I’m counting on it.”

CHAPTER 60

ROSARIA VASQUEZ is doing her best to navigate her way in the very small town of Three Rivers, Texas. Earlier she had been sent by her boss to go to the equally small town of Kenedy, where Captain Cornwall had used a Bank of America ATM to make a cash withdrawal, but an unexpected and quick phone call from Senior Warrant Officer McCarthy changed that.

“There’ve been shootings at a home in Three Rivers,” he said. “Next town over from Kenedy. Go check it out.”

“Do you have information that Captain Cornwall was involved?”

And McCarthy said, “Hell, no, but you’re going to find out. She was in Kenedy not too long ago, and now there are dead people in the small town next door. On Linden Street. And I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Vasquez checks her rental car’s GPS, which sometimes winks in and out, like there’s some sort of communications foul-up in this town. Even though she’s never been in Three Rivers before in her life, it feels very familiar. In her investigations over the years, visiting small towns like this to talk to soldiers either on leave or recently discharged, it was always the same. A struggling, proud small town that doesn’t have much opportunity for recent graduates, except for the military.

The GPS sends her down North School Road, and up ahead, a police cruiser races toward her, then makes a sudden turn to the right.