El Gavilan (37 page)

“I can’t.”

“Then talk to Tell Lyon. Let him help you. He’s a good man. He cares about you.”

“I can’t do that, either.”

“Why? Tell Lyon told me that you are allies.”

“We are. We were.”

“What’s changed, Able? What has happened? Please trust me to tell me. I’ll talk to Tell Lyon if you can’t bring yourself to.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then help me understand how it is. Help me understand why things are the way they are.”

Able looked around for his car keys. He slipped the Impala’s keys in his pocket. “I’ve got to clear my head. I’m going for a drive.”

Evelia heard the jingle of his keys and ran into the kitchen. She grabbed his leg and held tight. She said, “Pap-Paw Hawk, can I come?”

He smoothed her hair, smiling down at her, surprised at how attached to her he’d already become.

“Pap-Paw has to go out for a while,” Sofia told her granddaughter.

Able considered it. He said, “I’d like to take her with me if you’d let me, Sofia.”

“You’re sure she won’t be a distraction? Particularly now? I mean, as you are now—with all this on your mind?”

“No. She’ll be no distraction. Or, rather, she
will
be. The good kind.”

The child would also be excellent cover.

“Do you know where you are going?”

“The library,” Able said.

* * *

Tell was driving to headquarters when he heard the news announcement on the radio: Walt Pierce announcing that with the assistance and cooperation of Able Hawk, he would soon assume custody of Jésus Acosta. He would do that just as soon as Shawn’s attacker could be released to a prison infirmary. He was also taking custody of all the other presumed MS-13 members in Horton County’s jail. The other gang members would also be charged with the rapes and murders of Thalia Ruiz, Esmeralda Marquez, Marisol Hernandez and Sonya Lorca.

“We have film of them with their vehicle, a red Isuzu pickup truck, dropping Thalia Ruiz’s body where it was found by them two young Mexicans,” Walt Pierce asserted in a recorded interview.

Tell slammed his fist into the dash.

Goddamn Able Hawk
! Was this why Able had gone completely missing? Was it because he’d sold out those damned Mexican gangbangers, and Tell in the process?

With his throbbing hand, Tell picked up his cell phone and called the university professor who had been enhancing the baseball game footage Tell had found implicating Luke Strider.

“Just say it’s fucking ready,” Tell said.

“I’ve seen the news and anticipated your call,” Dan Stack told him. “It’s fucking ready.”

“Is it better than what we had?”

“Much. But that’s relative to next to nothing, you know.”

“You can make out faces now?”

“Faces, no. But race,
yes
. They’re white, Tell. And you can tell it’s a Dodge Ram—can see that big friggin’ grill. They don’t have grills like that on Isuzus. Someone should tell that to that asshole Walt Pierce.”

“You and I are fixing to do just that, Dan. Make ten or twelve copies, would you?”

“Sure. For who?”

“Media. And please say you’ll be available to stand with me at noon. We’re going to offer our own press conference. Let’s do it at your school—right in the heart of fucking Vale County. Let’s run it through those bastards, down
deep
.”

Tell called Julie Dexter and asked her to alert area television and print media to his press conference. Billy Davis came on the line.

“What are you planning, skipper?”

“I’m going to show my version of that film to the media, Billy. Put it up on a big-ass screen and let the reporters see it. And I’m going to name Luke Strider as my person of interest in Thalia Ruiz’s rape and murder. We may
never
make an arrest. We may never have enough for
that
. But, Billy, there’s nothing’s going to stop me from trying this case in the goddamn sorry media. At least we’ll wreck some careers.”

“Our own,” Billy said sourly.

“Maybe. But Strider’s and Walt Pierce’s for certain. Think of it as getting the first shot off. Now that Able’s off the field, Walt doesn’t have much more than me and all of you close to me to focus on, right?”

* * *

Able frowned to see that his e-mail to Shawn O’Hara had bounced back with the notation, “No such user.”

He checked the e-mail address he’d input against the one printed for Shawn in the New Austin newspaper. They were identical.
Strange
.

Able took Evelia by the hand and walked to the pay phone in the New Austin Library’s lobby. He called Horton County General Hospital.

It sounded like Shawn’s black nurse—Wendy, if he remembered right—on the line. Able said, “I know Shawn can’t talk yet, but I wondered if you could just get someone to pick up the phone in his room and get it up to his ear so he can listen. It’s urgent I talk with him. Talk
to
him, I mean. I need to do that right now.”

“Who are you?”

“Able Hawk.”

“Oh, Sheriff! We met the other day.”

Able shook his head. “I remember you.” She had called him sheriff. Wendy must not have heard the news. But given the long hours required of nurses, that was perhaps not surprising. Able was maybe still in the saddle when Wendy started her present shift.

“Good news,” Nurse Wendy said. “We have your man, Mr. Marshall, rooming with Mr. O’Hara. For Shawn’s protection, I mean. You know, since Shawn was attacked in his room the other day.”

Able smiled crookedly.
Someone
was thinking. He wondered which of his former flunkies had hit on that cost-saving scheme. “Give me the number to that room, or better, can you transfer me?”

“I can transfer you.”

Able thought about his pact with Walt Pierce—his promise to have no contact with his deputies. There was no such thing as being too safe or overcautious with Amos’s ass on the line.

“Transfer the call to the room, if you could,” Able said. “But first I need you to call in there and talk to Troy Marshall, Wendy. Have Troy pass the phone to Shawn and don’t identify me to Troy as the caller, right? Just say it’s official police business if he asks.”

Nurse Wendy said, “Mr. O’Hara won’t be talking back, remember.”

“He doesn’t have to,” Able said. “Shawn just needs to listen.”

There was some jostling of the receiver on the other end. Able said, “Shawn, it’s Hawk. If you’re there, and if you have an ink pen or something like that handy, just tap the mouthpiece so I know you’re there.”

There was a rap. Able held the receiver a little farther from his ear. Evelia looked up at him, impatient. He gave her a “one-minute” finger gesture and fished a sucker from his shirt pocket. He pulled the wrapper from the cherry flavored Dum-Dum and handed it to the little girl.

“Shawn, one tap for yes, two taps for no,” Able said. “Got it?”

One tap.

“Good,” Able said. “You’ve heard I’m out as Horton County sheriff?”

A single tap.

“Yeah,” Able said. “Your work e-mail’s no longer working, so am I right to assume that something’s happened to your job too?”

A single click.

“Fired?”

Click.

“Yeah, well, I’m sorry, kid. I didn’t want to go, either. But that’s another story. I can’t go into that too much, presently. I need a big favor, Shawn. A
big
favor. I’ve established one of those free Yahoo e-mail accounts for myself.” Able gave Shawn the address.

“You got that, Shawn?”

Click.

“I want you to go to the Net now and register for one of those addresses yourself,” Able said. “Won’t take two minutes. Then e-mail me at that address I just gave you. I’m going to send you a short note back.” Able had already composed a longer personal note and burned it to a disc he was carrying with him. “Feel free to read that note, Shawn. But here’s the favor, partner: I need you to forward that e-mail to Tell Lyon. Do you have his e-mail address?”

Click click.

“Fuck.” Then Able said, “What about Patricia’s?”

A long pause, then a single click—lighter than the rest. Tentative.

“You’re hesitant,” Able said. “Look, I heard about before. About your e-mail to her … about the picture you sent. I understand why you wouldn’t want to mail her for me. But this is everything for all of us, kid. This is our last shot at getting Thalia Ruiz and them other women some justice. And it’s our last shot maybe at making all this grief we’ve endured count for something. A way for you and me to still make a difference. I can’t contact Lyon directly. Once Troy’s out of that room of yours, for keeps, I mean, I promise to come by and explain why. But this is critical now, getting this message to Lyon. Will you do this thing for me, Shawn?”

More hesitation. Able was aware now of his damp palms on the plastic pay phone’s receiver. Still nothing. Then:

Click.

“Great, kid. I owe you large. I’m hanging up now, Shawn. E-mail me, pronto.”

* * *

Shawn stared at the screen, weighing Able’s words.

Why help them? Why do it?

He hated them both now.

And those Mexicans? After the beating they’d given him, they deserved every dark thing coming their way.

If he shot himself, what could he care for the consequences of leaving Hawk and Lyon twisting in the wind?

But Shawn wasn’t sure yet he had the resolve to take himself out. If he hesitated, and word got out about this letter he hadn’t passed along?

His fingers were poised above the keys, hesitating.
Fuck
…

* * *

Tell settled back in his cruiser, feeling sweat in his armpits and flutters in his belly. God only knew how he came off on camera
this
time.

And now he had to await the return salvo from Vale County’s sheriff and his stooges.

Tell turned on the police band, craving white noise to distract him from his own thoughts.

But he couldn’t escape himself.

Slander
. There might be grounds for a slander suit in what he had just done. But Strider likely couldn’t risk engaging Tell on those grounds. Tell was fairly certain of that. Alleging Tell had slandered him would mean Strider having to go to court and parade out all of Tell’s allegations before a jury. And extending the allegations into a formal setting—and across time—could result in Tell or others proving the truth of the New Austin police chief’s allegations against him. Slander and libel suits were probably not in the offing, then.

Assassination
. Killing Tell was a real possibility. But Tell thought taking his suspicions to the media might insulate him from that threat. At least in the near term that might be so. Strider would be dodging TV reporters and ambush interview attempts in the early going. Strider would be under too much scrutiny to engage Tell himself. But that short-term safety argued for Tell stepping up efforts to bolster his case and charge Strider sooner rather than later.

The enhanced film was an improvement over the original that Tell had uncovered. And projected on the university lecture hall’s big screen, the pickup truck
popped
—it was undeniably a Dodge Ram. But the two men getting in and out of the hulking truck remained unidentifiable.

Given Tell’s presumed limits of Walt Pierce’s imagination, Tell fully expected Pierce to claim that Tell had conspired to have the film digitally altered to make the truck appear to be a Dodge and not the much smaller Isuzu the Vale County sheriff claimed it to be.

Character assassination
. That was the strongest likelihood to Tell’s mind. Pierce would try to take Tell off the field in a professional context. It was the strategy—the tactic—that Tell surmised Pierce had deployed against Able to devastating effect. How else to explain Hawk’s abrupt resignation?

But Tell didn’t have Able’s baggage. Tell didn’t play it gray like Able did. So anything that Pierce contrived to use to compromise Tell would have to be manufactured or stage-managed.

That prospect, like the others, argued for speed on Tell’s part. He needed to move damned fast to buttress his lame case against Luke Strider.

His cell phone rang. Patricia said, “You need to get to a computer, now, Tell. Check your personal e-mail. I’ve forwarded a message to you. Shawn sent it to me to get to you.”

Tell was pole-armed by that. “Damned Shawn sent you
another
damned e-mail?”

“Shawn was just the conduit,” Patricia said. “The letter is really from Able Hawk.”

“I’ll hit the library,” Tell said. “It’s closest.”

* * *

Tell found a free terminal and accessed his Web mail account. He scrolled down to reach Able’s twice forwarded e-mail. It read:

T.—

You must hate me for a son of a bitch now.

But I had no choice.

Despite what’s being said by W.P. in the media to the contrary, I was not going to have any part in railroading even them Mexican sons of bitches on false murder charges.

The choice I made was the only one I could make to protect mine. Long story short: Some others discovered my other little enterprise in much the same way you did. I know you’ll know what I mean. This other who learned what you learned meant to use it against me like you didn’t.

The sorry upshot is I can’t have your back as I pledged.

And I’m foresworn against contacting you … of talking to you. Even this e-mail is a risk. That’s why I’m writing you from the New Austin Public Library. By the time you get this, I will have already deleted this new e-mail account. Yeah, I’m that damned paranoid about W.P. getting wind of this.

I’ve been trying to find a safer way for us to communicate. Racking my brain, I picked up the New Austin Library’s copy of your cousin’s fourth novel. I didn’t check it out mind you—just read it over and put it back. Read all that spooky stuff about clandestine communication and dead-drops and the like. All I can say is, “Boy howdy.” Surely made for rewarding reading.

—Able

Tell half smiled and deleted Able’s message. He then emptied the trash and made his way to the library’s mystery section. He scanned the spines of the books, walking sideways until he reached “L.” He saw a canted hardcover of his cousin’s fourth novel. Tell pulled it from the shelf and flipped through the pages.