chapter twenty

Dave stood motionless along with everyone else in the room, staring at Gabrio as if he’d handed them the key to the whole puzzle. And maybe he had.

“Where?” Dave said.

“There’s an abandoned mining camp a couple of miles outside town. That’s where they’re doing it.”

Dave exchanged glances with Lisa. She looked as surprised as he was. “It can’t be.”

“I’m not lying. Swear to God.”

“We’ve been there recently. We didn’t see an indication of anything going on. Where exactly are they operating?”

“There’s a big building back in the trees where they used to keep a bunch of mining equipment. That’s the place.”

Dave didn’t remember seeing any building like that, but the area had been heavily wooded. And he’d certainly had no reason to be looking there for the counterfeiting operation.

“There’s machinery in that building to do the counterfeiting?” Dave asked.

“Yeah,” Gabrio said. “I don’t know how they do it, exactly, but the stuff is there.”

“But what about electricity?” Dave asked. “Surely they’d need something to—”

“Diesel generators.”

This was beginning to make an awful lot of sense to Dave. “Are there records inside that building? Documents that will implicate Robert?”

“Files, I think. Don’t know what’s in them.”

“We were so close to it,” Lisa said to Dave. “Why didn’t we see people out there?”

“By that time, Robert had probably suspended production, worried over what had happened. He was holding off gearing back up again until the heat was off.”

“Dave,” Lisa said. “If we can get those records . . .”

“We can take him down.”

For a long time they didn’t speak, the possibilities crackling in the air between them.

“But we have to get Adam and Gabrio out of here first,” Lisa said.

“No,” Adam said. “You stay here. Get the evidence. We’ll go to Monterrey by car.”

“You’re injured,” Sera said. “If the road is rough—”

“It’s not a bad road between here and there,” Adam said. “And it’s more predictable than turbulence on a plane.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Dave asked.

“Positive.”

Dave turned to Sera. “How much gas do you have in your car?”

“I filled up yesterday.”

He turned to Adam. “Okay then. Here’s what we’ll do. Sera can drive you and Gabrio into Monterrey. Get to a hospital so they can check you out, and then start the wheels in motion to get Gabrio out of the country. Lisa and I will stay here, and as soon as it gets dark tonight we’ll check out the mining camp, find the evidence we need to nail Robert, then fly back to the U.S. Then the minute he crosses the border, they can get him on the drug charges.”

“We’re not even completely sure he’s still down here, are we?” Lisa asked.

“Yes, we are,” Sera said. “He came into Esmerelda’s when I was there this afternoon.”

“He did?” Adam said.

“Yes. He told me he’d ordered a charter flight to arrive here tomorrow afternoon to take him back to San Antonio. He invited me to go with him.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed. “What for?”

“He said he knew how close you and I had been, and he asked if I’d like to go with him to attend your memorial service on Thursday morning.”

“Bastard.” Adam’s jaw tightened with anger. “I know what he wants. If you went with him, before the day was out he’d be after you just like he is every other woman in this town. And he has the nerve to attend my memorial service when he’s the one who tried to kill me?”

He turned to Dave and Lisa. “Get him. Whatever it takes.”

Ten minutes later, Dave and Lisa helped Adam into the backseat that Sera had carefully prepared with pillows and blankets to make him as comfortable as possible. Leaving Sera with him, they went back up the porch steps again to grab her bags that were just inside the kitchen door.

“Hey, man.”

Dave turned at the sound of Gabrio’s voice. He stood on the back porch, his hands thrust inside his pockets.

“My brother,” he said. “What are you doing with him?”

Dave didn’t really want to think about that yet, but the kid had a right to know what was going to happen. “I’ll have to bury him. Someplace remote where nobody will find him. I’m sorry about that, Gabrio, but I just can’t risk—”

“I know. It’s okay.”

Still he stood there, staring at Dave.

“What is it?” Dave asked.

Gabrio let out a shaky breath. “I—I know what he’s done and everything, but can you say something? You know, after you do it? We’re Catholic, or at least my mother was. . . .”

Right now Dave didn’t feel the least bit inclined toward any kind of mercy for Ivan Ramirez, but he felt a tremendous sense of loyalty to Gabrio.

“Sure I will. Anything in particular?”

“There’s that one verse,” he said. “Something about ‘the Lord is my shepherd.’ Do you know that one?”

“Yeah. I know that one.”

“That’d be okay.”

Dave nodded. “Time for you to get on the road.”

Dave and Lisa grabbed Sera’s bags and took them to the car. Sera got out of the backseat and slid behind the wheel, and Gabrio got into the passenger seat.

Before shutting Sera’s door, Dave leaned in to talk to everyone. “Adam, you and Gabrio stay out of sight on the way out of town. Sera, don’t stop for anything. Just move on through. And, Adam, make sure whoever you talk to about a visa for Gabrio keeps it confidential. I don’t want Robert tipped off until we can get out to that mining camp and see what’s there.”

Adam nodded. “Thank you both for everything.”

“Just be careful. And call us the minute you hit Monterrey so we’ll know you’re safe.”

Dave stepped back and stood next to Lisa as Sera closed the door. She started the car, and Dave and Lisa watched as they drove away. With the sun low on the horizon, nightfall would be coming soon.

“Thank God we got them out of here,” Lisa said, then turned to Dave. “When should we head out to the mining camp?”

“We’ll wait until dark. Might as well have all the cover we can get.”

An hour and a half later, Dave and Lisa drove up the potholed road leading to the mining camp. Dave stayed alert for anyone in the area, but it seemed as deserted as the night he’d come here to rescue Lisa. A half moon lit the sky, dimming periodically as clouds passed over it.

They passed the bunkhouse, then kept on moving up the road, peering through the trees until they saw the structure Gabrio had talked about. Dave swung the car around to the back of the building where it couldn’t be seen from the road.

They got out of the car. The night held just a hint of warmth, but the air was perfectly still and painfully quiet. Every step they took through fallen leaves seemed sharp and magnified, every whispered word a shout.

On first glance the building looked as deserted as the bunkhouse, but when they got out of the car Dave saw a pair of diesel generators beside the building, just as Gabrio had indicated.

The door was padlocked. Dave took out a crowbar, and after a considerable amount of effort he finally managed to break through the lock.

“Anybody who comes out here is going to know this place was broken into,” Lisa said.

“Can’t be helped. Hopefully we’ll have Robert nailed before he realizes anyone’s been checking him out.”

They went inside, shining flashlights around to check out the building. While the exterior looked decades old, the interior had been cleaned up considerably. Dave saw something that looked like a large mixing vat, along with a piece of machinery that appeared to contain molds for the pills. Creating counterfeit drugs was an astonishingly simple process. The chemical content of the pills was irrelevant, and counterfeiters hardly worried about the environmental conditions surrounding the manufacture of their product.

In the rear of the building Dave saw a door that looked as if it led to an office. He handed Lisa his gun. “Keep watch at the window. I don’t want anyone walking in here unexpectedly. I’ll see what I can find in the office.”

Lisa nodded, and Dave went into the office, shining a flashlight around the perimeter until he located two file cabinets. He opened the drawers and scanned the contents, pulling out one file after another. Some of them didn’t seem to pertain to anything concerning the drugs, unless he just wasn’t seeing the connection. Some appeared to be production reports, which might help prove the magnitude of the operation but not who was involved. But when he came upon a folder containing a list of names, he knew he’d found something they could use.

He stuffed the lists back inside the file, tucked it under his arm, and shut the drawer. He came out of the office.

“Find anything?” Lisa asked.

“I think I struck gold.”

He opened the file folder and Lisa shined the flashlight on it.

“See these names?” he said. “Looks to me like they belong to pharmaceutical sales reps who are peddling legitimate products along with the counterfeit one. Every one of them is associated with a city, a territory, and a list of pharmacies.”

“Do you see Robert’s name anywhere?”

“No, but unless I miss my guess, this list could lead us right to one of the sales reps, who just might be willing to give Robert up in exchange for immunity. And look at this.”

He flipped a couple of pages, then pointed. “It looks as if the network spreads throughout Texas, running all the way from San Antonio to Dallas, then east to the Louisiana border.”

“Right through Tolosa?”

“Exactly. If I can fax these documents to Alex, he can help us out on that end. Find somebody who’s willing to talk.”

“That’s perfect.”

“Any idea where there’s a fax machine in this town?”

“Sure. At the clinic.”

“Any other place?”

“I have no idea. Santa Rios isn’t exactly the business hub of central Mexico.”

“Then we need to get into the clinic.”

“I have a key. But isn’t that a little dangerous?”

“Would Robert have any reason to be there this late?”

“I can’t see why. But the apartment building where he stays is right next door.”

“As long as we’re careful, we should be able to get in and get out without anyone knowing it. Five minutes, max.”

They left the mining camp with the file folders, and a few minutes later Dave parked the car a block away in the alley that ran behind the clinic. Keeping an eye on the apartments next door, they approached the building, finding it completely dark. Lisa put a key in the lock and let them in. Dave flicked on a flashlight, holding it toward the floor, and they went into the small administrative office and found the fax machine.

“Wait a minute,” Lisa said. “If Robert sees phone records with a call to Tolosa—”

“He’ll probably never even notice. And even if he does, I doubt he’ll put two and two together.” Dave glanced over his shoulder. “If Robert were to come here, would he enter through the front door or the back?”

“The back.”

“Keep watch for me.”

Lisa went to the window and peered through the blinds to the apartment building next door.

“Everything’s quiet,” she told Dave.

“Good. This’ll only take a minute.”

Dave picked up the phone and dialed Alex’s house. His brother came on the line.

“Alex. It’s me.”

“Dave! Where are you?”

“No questions. Just shut up and listen. I’m deadly fucking serious here.”

Dave’s voice stopped his brother short. “I’m listening.”

“Give me your fax number. Home.”

Alex gave it to him, and Dave wrote it down.

“I’m sending you some documents. Very important, very confidential. I’m going to call you back the moment I send them to make sure you got them, then call you later and explain.”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting.”

Dave hung up the phone, dialed the number he’d written down, and pushed the send button. He held his breath as the speaker in the fax machine blared out the number dialing, then the ring.

“Damn, that’s loud,” he whispered. “Are we okay out there?”

“Nobody in sight.”

Now, if only this machine didn’t glitch and Alex’s machine picked up . . .

Dave watched and waited. Finally the machine caught the first page and pulled it through with a soft mechanical grinding noise, and then the others after that. Damn. Did it always take this long for a fax machine to suck up a document and send it?

Finally the machine beeped, signaling that the transmission was complete.

Dave picked up the phone, called Alex back and verified that he had the documents and that he could read them clearly, then hung up. Dave quickly grabbed the sheets he’d faxed and stuffed them into the file folder.

“Done,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”

They hurried out of the room, closing the office door behind them. Dave followed Lisa out of the clinic. Watching the apartment building carefully, they hurried to the car and backed out of the alley. Ten minutes later, they were back at Sera’s house. Dave phoned Alex.

“Tell me what I’m looking at,” Alex said.

“Distribution records of the pharmaceutical drug ring based out of Santa Rios. Names associated with pharmacies all over Texas and New Mexico. Look near the bottom of the fourth page. The network goes through Dallas all the way to Tyler and Tolosa.”

“So who do you think the names are beside the pharmacies?”

“Maybe the pharmacists themselves, but I’m betting they’re sales reps acting as middlemen. You’ll be able to find out quickly enough. The pharmacies may not even know they’re getting counterfeit product. They’re buying the drugs in good faith and selling them as if they’re the real thing.”

“You could be right,” Alex said.

“Can you find out for sure who these people are? Lean on a few of them for me and find somebody who’ll talk? We know Robert Douglas is at the heart of the operation, but we need somebody who’s willing to testify to that, or lead us to somebody who can.”

“I’ll see what I can do. So where is Douglas right now?”

“In Santa Rios. But we’ve found out that he’s flying out tomorrow afternoon so he can be at Adam Decker’s memorial service in San Antonio on Thursday morning.”

“Give me the number where you are.”

Dave gave him Sera’s phone number.

“I’ll start first thing in the morning,” Alex said. “When are you coming back?”

“As soon as I know for sure that you’ve got somebody who’ll talk and no more evidence is necessary. We can be back in a matter of a few hours.”

“Okay. I’ll do what I can.”

“How is Ashley? Does she miss me?”

“Miss you? Hell, no. When is there time to miss you? John bought her a pony, and tomorrow they’re taking her to Disney World. He nixed the college education thing, though. He figures that’s your responsibility.”

“John’s a smart-ass.”

Alex’s voice became serious. “Of course she misses you. So be careful.”

“I hear you. You just get me that informant and everything’s going to be fine. Get back to me as soon as you can.”

“Consider it done.”

“Give Ashley a kiss for me.”

“Consider that done, too.”

Dave hung up the phone and turned to Lisa.

“So what now?” she asked.

“We wait.”

Adam lay in the backseat of the car, staring out the window into the night sky, wishing the clouds would pass. A bright moon would help. Stars. Some kind of light. They’d been traveling over two hours, the miles speeding away beneath them, but still they weren’t moving fast enough.

He looked over at Gabrio asleep in the front seat, then turned his gaze to Sera. He tried to picture her face in his mind, but other thoughts crept in, and the longer he lay in the darkness, the more completely the barren landscape invaded his consciousness.

Sleep. Just sleep. That’s all you have to do. Then when you wake up, you’ll be there. People. City lights. And then you’ll be fine.

But with every mile that passed away his nerves felt more taut, his mind jumbled and dark. A sense of déjà vu rose inside him that made his stomach turn over.

He heard Ellen’s voice, soft but desperate: Adam. Something’s wrong.

He’d heard those words a thousand times inside his head in the past three years, ten thousand times, and now he heard them louder than ever. They seemed to latch on to one corner of his mind, then balloon up inside him until they drove every other thought away. No matter what he did, he heard every tortured breath, every gasp of pain, every agonized sound of Ellen’s cries unleashed inside his head.

Adam, help me! Please help me!

And then the most horrifying thought of all swept through his mind. He saw not Ellen’s terrified face but Sera’s, crying in pain, begging with him, pleading with him. . . .

A strangled gasp tore from his throat. “Sera, stop the car.”

She whipped around. “What?”

He sat up, his head pounding. “I said stop!”

Sera wheeled the car to the shoulder of the road and put it in park, the engine still running. Leaping out of the car, she yanked open the back door. She climbed in and knelt down beside him, her face filled with panic. “Adam, what is it?”

He squeezed his eyes closed, trying desperately to get a grip on himself. He took several deep breaths, hating the fear and despair that had taken hold of him one more time.

“I can’t lie in the backseat of this car. Not on this road. Not in the dark.”

“What’s the matter?”

He couldn’t tell her. He couldn’t say it. God, the last thing he wanted to do on this barren stretch of road was tell her why his heart was pounding and his mouth was dry and his mind just wouldn’t forget.

Hold it together. You have to hold it together.

“It’s just . . . I just need to sit up front.”

“You need to lie down.”

“No! Damn it, I need to get out of here!”

Sera recoiled. Gabrio looked over the backseat, his face startled. You’re scaring him. You’re scaring that poor kid to death, and that’s the last thing on earth he needs right now.

Adam held up his palm. “I’m sorry,” he said, hoarseness clogging his voice. “I just . . . I’m fine. I just need to switch with you, Gabrio. Okay? Can you sit back here and let me sit up there?”

The kid swallowed hard. “Yeah. Sure.”

Sera helped Adam out of the car. As Gabrio slid into the backseat, Adam got into the passenger seat, wincing with pain as he sat down. Sera closed the door behind him, then circled the car to get back into the driver’s seat.

As she pulled the car back out onto the highway, Adam looked to the road ahead, at the headlights slashing through the darkness and dissipating into nothingness. He felt as if they were driving straight into hell.

“How much farther?” he asked.

“We’ll be there within the hour.”

He nodded, then turned on the radio. Music would help. Noise. Distraction. He leaned his head gently against the back of the seat.

“Adam?” she whispered. “Are you all right?”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her turn to him with that sweet expression of love and concern that went straight to his heart.

“Don’t worry, Sera. I’ll be fine. Really. Just get me to Monterrey, and everything will be fine.”

But he wasn’t completely sure of that. He just didn’t know. Sometimes he thought he’d reached the point where he was sure it wasn’t going to bother him anymore, and then something like this would happen and he’d fall apart all over again.

It was never going to end.

Never.