Shadows Across America Read online

  Ethan was impressed by the pastor’s performance. He walked confidently through his congregation, pointing at them with an accusing finger while they stood with their heads bowed, though they continued to make their gang sign. It was their way of being submissive without giving up their principles. Ethan was amazed by their ability to combine religion with extreme violence. If there was something that the murderers and victims in this world shared, it was belief. The drug traffickers and the Mara sought his protection, justification, and consolation, just like the families of their victims, and they accepted the judgmental sermons of their priests, staring at the ground in exchange for being allowed to be a part of the religious community. But the moment they stepped off holy ground, they’d return to their criminal lives without a second thought. To them, God’s love was compatible with whatever way of life one chose so long as blessings were given when they asked for them.

  At some point during the sermon, Calvo lost interest, rolled a cigarette, and turned to Ethan. “You look a little run down. The tropics aren’t agreeing with you. It happens. Some people can’t get used to the sun. Are you using sunblock?”

  “Yeah, slathering it on like mud. I’m trying to reduce the scarring. Apart from that, I’m not sleeping. And as you know very well, the climate has nothing to do with it.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you. First you turn up as though you had an altercation with a cat, and then you disappear just when a crazed mob lynches Leidy’s family. You’re full of surprises.”

  “I read about it in the newspaper.”

  “To see if they left anything out? I have a journalist friend; if you want to share any more details, I’ll pass them on.”

  “You’re so sure I was there?”

  “Ever since you arrived,” Calvo said, “I’ve been nothing but good to you, and now you’re treating me like this. You can accept my help or not, but don’t take me for a fool. I knew as soon as I heard, but the witness statements confirmed it. I told you that those cuts on your face wouldn’t help you to blend in. Maybe in a cane field . . .”

  “If you already know all about it, you’ll know that no one went there to kill anyone. The situation got out of hand. You can tell that to your friend; the press only mentioned the fire.”

  “Something tells me that the longer you’re here, the more situations will get out of hand. Starting with mine.”

  “I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You weren’t involved.”

  “That’s not how it seemed the other day. It was nice of you to send a warning through Andrés. But selling me out to strangers? That wasn’t so nice.”

  “I knew you could deal with it. I assume I was right, but I still owe you. And I apologize, of course.”

  “I don’t know what you thought you were doing, but I am grateful to you. On the one hand, you put me in danger, but on the other, you gave me an advantage. There’s no need to thank me. I like to return generosity in kind.”

  “By bringing me here? It wouldn’t have occurred to me.”

  “No, by keeping your ex alive.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “If she’d been at home, she’d be in there right now.” He pointed at the coffin. “Along with her brother. We had to get her out of the way somehow.”

  Ethan bridled at this veiled confession. “What do you mean?”

  “You know very well.”

  Reacting instinctively, Ethan turned to Calvo and grabbed hold of his neck, but just as quickly he remembered himself and let go. “That was your solution? You ordered them to beat her just to punish me?”

  The detective didn’t bat an eye. He smoothed out the wrinkles in his jacket. “No, that was the favor, not the punishment. It gave me a chance to negotiate for her life. But there had to be some kind of retaliation. Do you think they’d ever have been happy just to let her go? At least this way we were in control.” He smiled sardonically. “It was only a minor beating, nothing to worry about. And it wasn’t done by the Mara; otherwise she’d have been left unrecognizable. They told me that they only broke one tooth, and that was by accident. It’s hard to get it exactly right . . .”

  “So you didn’t just allow it—you paid for the beating.”

  “If you had a better plan, you could have told me. It would have been a big help, but you weren’t around.”

  “But you knew they were coming for Beto. You knew they were going to kill him, and you did nothing.”

  “I knew what was going to happen, and I did what I could. I find your indignation laughable. They were going to kill Michelle. You know now that she didn’t spend the night there. As soon as you left, she went back to the engineer’s house. By the way, I’m sorry you didn’t know about that before. But they were going to kill her just the same. You and your friend Andrés’s little street party really ruffled their feathers.”

  This was a bitter pill to take. Ethan knew that the detective was right, but it was still hard to accept. “Why didn’t you pay for Beto?”

  “You pay for what you can pay for, and I chose to save Michelle. Fortunately for us, the MP12 don’t know anything about the daughter, and they don’t care. That’s why she wasn’t important to them. They wanted to punish Jonathan’s buddies for abandoning him, but if I hadn’t intervened, she’d have met the same fate as the couple. There’s always room for one more.”

  Ethan stood up and began to walk in circles, disgusted.

  Calvo stopped him. “Calm down, my friend. Public displays of any kind aren’t advisable here.”

  He discreetly nodded to the crowd gathered around the coffin. Their attention was still on the sermon, but they were hardly a safe distance away. Ethan sat down again, and the detective rolled another cigarette.

  “That’s much better. Look at them over there. They’ll put up with the priest, but their eyes are open. We don’t want them taking too much of an interest in us.”

  “So why are we here? You said it would be useful.”

  “I said that you’d learn something, and I’m sure you’re smart enough to have kept your eyes open. See those kids? Look how clean and smartly dressed they are, in chinos, and the adults, the ones over thirty, they’re the pintos, the bosses. They don’t look like gang members, but none of them would think twice about killing you.”

  “I deal with gangs in the US.”

  “These are like them but on steroids—believe me. There are lots of ways to be a gang member, more than I can count. They don’t always wander around with tattoos and their underwear showing. Murderers come in many different shapes and sizes. If they come for you, that’s it.”

  “You really think this is useful?”

  “Try to memorize their faces. It couldn’t hurt.”

  “While they memorize mine.”

  “Yes, exactly. Look at it as though we’ve come to a fashionable bar, the kind of place where hipsters go to be . . . what’s the word? Cool. We came to chat but also to see and be seen.”

  Ethan carefully scrutinized their faces. No one paid them any attention, or at least they didn’t appear to.

  “Have you sold me out?” Ethan said.

  “My friend, how can you accuse me of something like that?”

  “You brought me here so they can recognize me? Is that the punishment?”

  “Well, that might be a more accurate description.”

  “So we’re even?”

  “Let’s say it’s part of the payment for Michelle.”

  “Giving me to them is what you paid for the beating?”

  “No. They just want to see you, to put a face to the gringo. You must know that you’ve aroused their curiosity. It’s part of the deal I offered to keep her in one piece.”

  Ethan sighed, taking all this in. “And all this because of Jonathan? I thought he didn’t belong to the Mara.”

  “Neither did Beto. But there the Mara are, paying their respects while the family has been forbidden to come. This isn’t about belonging; it’s about ownership, ter
ritory. If Jonathan were Mara, I wouldn’t have been able to buy Michelle.”

  The ceremony was coming to an end.

  “Neither Jonathan nor Beto were Matapatria homies, but they both obeyed them and operated under their protection. And look what they did to one of them because of what happened to the other. It’s a question of hierarchy. A lesson so no one forgets who’s in control.”

  To Ethan’s surprise, Calvo finished up with a congratulatory slap on the back. “But you should be happy, damn it.”

  Ethan stared at him in amazement as Calvo continued in a triumphant tone. “Well done. You were right, and I was wrong. Jonathan was an informant—he was the one who sold Michi’s routine. My boys found that out. Good for you. How did you do it?”

  “I was just following your advice.”

  “Hahaha! It came as quite a surprise. You’re very good; you went under my radar and uncovered secrets I was unaware of. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. But I congratulate you just the same. So someone paid for Michi, and the Doce gave it their blessing.”

  “At least we have something to go on. She was kidnapped.”

  “I didn’t say she was kidnapped,” Calvo said sternly. “I know that someone paid for information and the Mara knew about it.”

  “That’s what you’ve found out? I knew that already. How do you know that they paid for the information but not the kidnapping?”

  “I’m telling you everything I know. But I know something else that you’ll find very interesting.”

  Ethan waited suspiciously.

  “I have your villain. The man who paid Jonathan. A deputy police chief he and Leidy worked for. They spied on others before Michi, and guess what? They were all kidnapped.”

  He passed Ethan a handwritten note. Ethan took it curiously. It was a name. Calvo smiled, not that he ever really seemed to stop smiling.

  “Nothing digital, no traces. If anyone asks, I have no idea where the piece of paper came from.”

  “An organized group?”

  “So it would seem. There have been ten victims that we know of in three years. Seven paid the ransom and were returned. Three weren’t. The deputy police chief has a deal with the Doce. I don’t know how it works, but he doesn’t pay for each kidnapping. That’s why I never found a payment we could connect to her. Either he does jobs for them, or he pays a fixed fee. Even so, Michi doesn’t seem to fit.”

  “She doesn’t fit with those ten cases. We don’t know how many more there might be or whether the chief had other informants.”

  “But that doesn’t change my point. Our girl still doesn’t fit. I shared all this with Andrés, but I held something back that I can tell you. Of those that came back, several were missing fingers. They seem like professionals, and tough ones, and time is still against you.”

  Ethan decided not to reveal that he’d already spoken with Andrés. “You told Andrés?”

  “I asked him not to tell you, to let me do it.”

  “So what are we waiting for? Why aren’t we following this guy?”

  “Didn’t you hear me? He’s a policeman with an agreement with the Mara, the details of which are a mystery to me. And the way things stand, I’d say that I need to be careful they don’t start thinking I’m getting a little too nosy for my own good.” Calvo pointed to the young men who were now drifting out of the cemetery. “Getting that name wasn’t easy. My life expectancy isn’t looking too healthy right now.”

  “I thought that was what we paid for.”

  “That piece of paper is worth six times what you paid me. Stop complaining; this is my parting gift now that the contract’s up.”

  “You mean that’s it?”

  “I was hired by the engineer. He’s a good, trustworthy man. You know, I can say this now: when she moved in with him, she sent the girl to live with her grandmother. I’m sure she had her reasons. You know how it is. They’re looking for a girlfriend, but when she arrives with an unexpected bonus, a lot of them run for the hills. Maybe she was waiting until he was good and committed . . . it’s none of my business. Now do you understand my initial reservations? I said those things for a reason. The girl wasn’t living with them when she disappeared. I imagine they hired me out of guilt.”

  Ethan struggled to process this flood of painful information. “When did all this happen?”

  “Not long ago—maybe a couple of months? Yesterday, when the engineer went to visit Michelle, he decided that enough was enough. He summoned me and explained his priorities. He asked me if it was safer for her to give up the investigation, and I told him the truth: it is. It was stupid of me to get involved in the first place, but so far it’s gone OK. Now things are beginning to look stickier. Now that the contract has been terminated, I feel better. I didn’t like the look of where things were heading.”

  “But you’re leaving me with a clue,” Ethan said, holding up the scrap of paper.

  “Like you said, that’s what you paid me for. Listen, I don’t know who’s in charge, but from what I’ve seen, it seems as though you’ve been very intelligent to make sure that your left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. I think that’s worked for you so far. But only so far. If you keep going and find them, if you fight them, catch them or kill them before they kill you. The Mara will have no mercy. There’ll be no chance of a payoff or negotiation. You’ll be dead, and so will everyone around you: Michelle, Andrés, and anyone else you’re connected with. I like you. I’d be sorry to see you end up like that kid over there.”

  “I don’t know what to thank you for and what not, Calvo. What do you get out of this?”

  “Nothing. I thought that was obvious. This has all been a service, and it’s been paid for. The Matapatria wanted to see what you look like, and so I showed you to them. You made trouble for me, but then your warning gave me enough time to work it out. Now I’m fulfilling the contract, and you have the name you were looking for. But I’m warning you: if you act on it, you’re finished. We’re even.”

  Everything seemed to fit. As far as Calvo was concerned, the conversation was over. He got up to take his leave.

  “But why did you deal with Andrés?” Ethan asked. “He wasn’t paying you. He had nothing to do with it.”

  “What does it matter? What matters is what you’ve got, what you know, and what you should know now.”

  Ethan wasn’t satisfied with the answer. Why tell Andrés but forbid him to tell Ethan? It didn’t add up. “Any final words of advice? What would you do if you were me?”

  “Leave.”

  “You know I can’t do that.”

  “You asked me for advice.”

  “How about you, Adrian? Could they pay you to find me?”

  “That’s not how the Mara work. But they could.”

  “And would you agree to do it?”

  Calvo shrugged. Ethan stood up, and they said goodbye more like old friends than business associates. A flurry of questions still swirled around Ethan’s head about Calvo and Andrés. Why give him the name knowing that it would be worthless to him?

  “To find out who our source was!”

  The detective turned around in confusion. “What?”

  “That’s why you told Andrés while I was gone. That’s why you asked him not to tell me: to see who else he went to. To find out who the other guy was. Isn’t it? They’re looking for him too!”

  Calvo smiled his smug smile and winked.

  Ethan was sitting in his apartment in the dark. The telephone didn’t ring. He reread the name written on the piece of paper. It meant nothing to him. Andrés must have given it to Suarez already, maybe days ago, while he was still at the beach, completely unaware of the web of intrigue being woven in his absence. Should he have stayed? Should he have ignored Lorena? She had turned out to be playing with him too. He was drinking beer, writing down the information he had and everything that had happened, trying to piece together everything in a way that made sense, looking for patterns. But all he’d put together wa
s a puzzle in which Suarez was the missing piece, the one everyone was looking for. Was this a battle between two different families? And if so, who was he working for, and who was Adrian Calvo working for? Ethan felt that he was being swept along by events over which he had no control, hidden forces that were ready to change the face of the city, maybe even the entire country, to hold on to their power. But nothing that had happened led him to Michelle. It was as though the stories had crossed each other somewhere, but he’d taken the wrong fork. Was there any point in continuing to work from the pit into which he’d fallen, when he was unable to look at anything objectively? He said the name out loud. It meant nothing. Four people had died, and he hadn’t achieved anything. What kind of madness might be unleashed if he went any further? Calvo had been suspiciously quick. It wasn’t hard to see how this piece of paper could be a trap. But had it been laid by Calvo? What would Suarez say if they ever saw each other again? What action might Calvo take against Suarez, using him as an intermediary? And after that there was nothing. His ex-lover was telling him the same old lies, and he’d let himself be tangled up in them once again, just like old times. Just when he’d thought he was free. Her family was devastated, and Michi was gone. He kept trying to look at things from Ari’s point of view. And doubting his own mental health. How could he have set out on this ridiculous quest just because of a few crazy dreams, dreams that he hadn’t had again for weeks? And in the darkest part of his soul lurked the fear, which he couldn’t admit even to himself, of what not dreaming of Michi might mean. It was as though all was lost. He thoughtfully dialed Andrés’s number, knowing that doing so meant setting out on a dangerous path.

  “Hello, Don Ethan. I’ve been praying for you, hoping that everything will work out and there’ll be no more suffering.”