Midnight Crossing (2 page)

“No problem. What do you need?”

“It’s Slick Fish. He’s back at it again. I thought we ran him off, but he just changed locations.”

“Somebody saw him?”

“Agnes Delaney, of all people.”

Josie grinned. “Was he naked?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s coming up out of the water just south of Agnes’s house,” Marta said.

“Okay. I’ll check it out.” She hung up the phone and turned to Otto. “Slick Fish resurfaced. Out by Cotton Canyon. Want to go take a look?”

“You bet,” he said. “You got your bathing suit?”

Josie shuddered. “Slick and I will not be swimming together.”

*   *   *

Josie drove with the windows down, enjoying the cooler mid-eighties temperature while Otto cranked up the air-conditioning and pointed all the vents toward his face.

“Four decades I’ve spent in this desert, and I still haven’t adapted to the heat,” he said.

“I’m over a decade into it here, and I wouldn’t go back to Indiana winters for anything.”

Josie slowed her jeep to take a long curve in the road that hugged a bend in the Rio, and then pulled up in front of Agnes’s double-wide trailer. The trailer sat about fifty feet off the road and was the only house for several miles. Boxes and old bedsprings and tires and every kind of worthless junk Josie could imagine were piled around the base of the trailer

“I think it’s gotten worse,” Otto said. “I hope we don’t have to go inside. My stomach can’t take the smell today.”

“That’s what you get. Too many dumplings.”

They exited the jeep and a woman in her fifties with fuzzy gray hair walked outside, leaning on a cane.

“Morning, Agnes,” Josie called.

“Hello, hello,” she said. “Give me a minute.”

Agnes hobbled down the lopsided concrete-block steps and Josie cringed, afraid her cane would get caught in a crack and send the woman tumbling down.

“I hear you had some excitement out here yesterday,” Josie said.

“That man is taunting me. He makes me feel dirty in my own backyard.”

“Why don’t you tell us what happened?” Josie said.

“As you probably know, I’m a birder. I can show you the photographs in my house. I’ve spotted black phoebes, kingfishers, the great kiskadee. And my prize, the Colima warbler.”

“Were you looking for birds when you saw the man crossing the river?” Otto said.

“I wasn’t
looking
for birds,” she said, scowling at Otto. “There’s a difference between looking out your kitchen window at the birds in your backyard, and actually birding. I have journals filled with notes of my trips, and—”

“My apologies,” he said. Otto raised a hand in the air and spoke slowly. “Were you
birding
outside when you saw the man in the river?”

“Yes. I was. I’d walked out into the backyard and had traveled maybe a few hundred feet down toward the river. It’s a hard walk for me through the thicket with my cane, so I’m slow and quiet. I had my eye on a painted bunting. A real beauty. Blue and red and green. A little bird that looks like it’s straight out of the tropics.”

Josie heard Otto sigh and she glanced over at his slack face. She had noticed Otto had begun to lose patience when people being questioned about a topic relevant to the investigation rambled on about something unrelated. A significant number of people in far West Texas lived in remote solitude, so when unexpected visits happened, they occasionally got chatty. It mostly led to wasted time, but every now and then a golden nugget surfaced between the details.

“That’s when I saw a pale blob in my binoculars. I put them down and saw this man dragging a big rubber inner tube by a rope, up and out of the water and onto the riverbank. There was a woman who climbed off the inner tube and stood there onshore with a big black backpack over her shoulders. I almost screamed at them to get off my land, but then I worried they might have a gun. Well, obviously he didn’t have a gun, because he was stark-naked. But she could have. So I just stood there in the tall grass and watched.”

“He only brought one person over?” Josie asked.

“There was a man standing onshore, already waiting there. I hadn’t noticed him until the woman came ashore. Then the naked man jumped back in the river and swam over for another man. He put the rope over his arm, like a woman’s purse, and swam the man over in the inner tube like a fish. He has a heck of a strong stroke. I’ll give him that. I bet I stood there maybe ten minutes and it was over.”

“Was anyone else on the bank waiting for them? A coyote picking them up?” Josie asked.

“As soon as the last man got to the shore another fella in jeans and a shirt and cowboy boots appeared out of nowhere, and the three people followed him out toward the road. I stayed right where I was until I heard a car take off. I couldn’t see them on the road. I was down below the bank.”

“What time was this?” Otto asked.

“About five. It was about dinnertime.”

“Have you seen him here before?” he asked.

“No, sir. But I’ve heard about the naked Mexican. He charges people for that!”

“About a thousand dollars a person,” Josie said.

Agnes’s jaw dropped. “Well, I’ll swim them across for that kind of money!”

Otto smirked. “Don’t try it. It’s a bit easier to arrest you, on U.S. soil, than it is to catch a guy who just has to jump back over the river to avoid arrest,” Otto said.

“We call him Slick Fish,” Josie said. “He’s been doing this for years. He has runners up and down the river that he pays to watch for police and Border Patrol. When the area’s clear, they radio Slick and he strips down, gets his people on the inner tube, and swims them across. No engine noise, no commotion.”

“Why on earth would he come here where he has to swim across?” she asked. “There’s places in the river upstream where you can practically walk across.”

Josie looked downriver to where Agnes was pointing. “He’s got a perfect spot here. The river splits this long low hill.” She pointed to where the river dipped down a fifteen-foot bank and disappeared from view. “The cottonwood trees and the salt cedar give him cover. His scouts look up and down the road here to ensure there aren’t any cops. And he has easy access to a road. When you cross in the open desert, you can cross the border easy enough, but you’re an open target on the run. Here, it only takes fifteen minutes and he’s got three people across the border, loaded into a pickup truck, and headed north to freedom.”

“And three thousand bucks for his trouble,” Otto said.

Agnes looked horrified. “Well, you can’t just let this naked man ferry people onto my property!”

“We’ll get someone out here.” Josie handed her a business card. “You call me if you see anything else. By the time we get here the transport will probably be over, but we’ll track what times he comes and goes. We’ll get him eventually.

“And, whatever you do, don’t get involved. No yelling at him to get off your land, or firing shots, or you’re likely to get shot yourself. Understood?”

Agnes nodded, her expression grim, and slipped the card into her shirt pocket.

*   *   *

They got back in the jeep and Otto buckled his seat belt, clearly agitated. “Explain how a multimillion-dollar border fence is going to stop a guy like Slick Fish.”

“No clue,” Josie said. She’d heard the same rant from Otto for years.

“We spend a small fortune building a fence that they’ll go under, or over, or cut a hole in and drive straight through. Makes no sense.”

“It’s a deterrent. It slows them down,” she said, which was the same response she always gave.

“It’s like shoving your thumb into a hole in a dam and expecting to stop the water. The water always wins. It doesn’t work.”

Josie changed the topic. “I’ll work with Marta to set up an observation post to track Slick’s movements. It’ll be tough to find her time to get over there in the evening, but we’ll give it a shot.”

“We’ll never catch the bastard. He’s naked and he’s slick. Unless you’re right down there on the water and plan on jumping into the river and wrestling him back onto U.S. soil, he’s home free. What’s the point?”

“What are you so grumpy for?” she finally asked.

He ignored her question as she parked in front of the PD. They entered the building and found Lou behind the entryway counter, leaning against it with her hands folded in front of her, grinning as if she had a mouthful of gossip ready to spill.

“Okay. Let’s hear it,” Otto said to her.

Lou grinned wider. “Can’t. It’s a surprise. And, boy howdy, is it ever.”

Josie refrained from rolling her eyes and walked through the swinging door at the end of the counter and back toward the stairs that led to their office. Pointless gossip annoyed her almost as much as meaningless small talk.

She reached the top of the stairs and was surprised to see the office light on. Marta had another half hour before her shift began, and she wasn’t one to come in early. Then Josie smelled cigarette smoke. She knew it wasn’t from Lou sneaking one in the bathroom because she’d given up the habit several months ago and turned into an anti-smoking zealot.

Josie pushed the office door open and the “surprise” stood and smiled, blowing smoke out in a stream and dropping her cigarette into a Coke can sitting on the conference table.

Josie pushed past her shock and said, “Mom! It’s great to see you.”

“You bet it is!” She gave Josie a quick hug and turned to Otto, who had been right behind her. She walked up to him and poked a finger into his chest. “And I remember you. Officer O. Right?”

“Otto,” Josie said. “His name is Otto.”

“It’s good to see you, Beverly,” Otto said, reaching his hand out but accepting her enthusiastic hug instead.

“Of course I know this is Otto! That was my nickname for him!”

Josie didn’t remember that at all. Her mom had made the trip from Indiana to Texas once a few years back, and it had been a disaster.

“This is a big surprise,” Josie said. “What brings you here?”

Her mom planted her hands on her hips and looked offended. “Seriously? You have to ask? I came to see you!”

“Beverly, it’s a pleasure to see you again. I’m sorry to leave so soon, but I’ve got a meeting I need to get to.” Otto laid his notebook on the conference table and headed toward the door. He turned to Josie when he reached it, his eyebrows bunching up as he offered what she assumed was a sympathetic look. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

She nodded. He didn’t have a meeting. Their shift was almost over and he had just mentioned going home to feed his goats. “See you in the morning.” Josie didn’t blame him. She didn’t want the drama either.

“I figured, you won’t call me, so I’ll just come visit in person!” Beverly said. Her voice was loud and overly cheerful in the otherwise quiet room.

“The phone lines run both ways,” Josie said.

“You going to take me out to dinner tonight? Introduce me to your friends?” her mom asked.

“A friend of mine is coming over for dinner tonight. His name is Nick. Why don’t you come by about six, and I’ll have dinner for us.”

Beverly’s face fell and her shoulders slumped. “I thought I’d be staying with you. I drove all the way out here. Gas cost a fortune. And buying all my meals along the way. I just figured you’d put me up.”

Josie felt blood rush to her face and she struggled to contain a smart remark about the visit that she’d had no time to prepare for. “I have a small place. I think it—”

“You have two bedrooms!”

“—would be better for us if we got you a room at Manny’s. You stayed there last time you were here. I’m sure he’ll have a nice room for you. And his rooms are very reasonable.”

Beverly huffed and Josie motioned to the conference table, where they both sat down. Her mom was wearing a short denim skirt and a T-shirt that fit her like a second skin. Josie acknowledged in her mind that it had been several years since she’d seen her mom, but she was fairly certain that her mom’s chest was a size or two larger now than she remembered.

“Surprised?” her mom said. “I could tell I got you when you walked in the room.”

Josie smiled, trying to warm up, to be gracious and show some appreciation for her mom. As happened with almost every visit, she felt nauseating guilt for the irritation she felt over her mom’s presence.

“You surprised me. That’s for sure,” she said. “How’s everyone back in Indiana?”

“Did I tell you Aunt Sugar got married?” Beverly asked.

Josie shook her head. She hadn’t talked to her mom in almost a year. Her mom knew that she’d not told Josie about her aunt. She’d never understood her mom’s insistence on pretending they had a close relationship when it so obviously was not the case.

“She got married a month ago and moved to Oklahoma last week. She’s my last family. Everybody else either died or deserted me. I figure, maybe it’s time to move west. Be closer to Sugar. Closer to you and my grandkids.”

Josie raised her eyebrows. She was an only child, mid-thirties, never married, no kids.

“You’re old enough. I figured I’d show up and find out you were married, with a kid on the way. You and the accountant. What’s his name? Drake?”

“His name was Dillon. And he no longer lives here. He moved back to St. Louis about a year ago. And no. I have no plans for marriage or kids in the near future.”

The intercom buzzed on Josie’s desk phone. Josie took a deep breath and walked over to her desk and pressed the button, telling Lou, “I’ll be with you in a minute.”

As she sat back down at the table, trying to avoid the feeling that her mom was baiting her, she heard the steady clomp of cowboy boots, the precursor to a visit from Mayor Moss. She briefly closed her eyes and wondered if her day could get much worse.

Thirty seconds later the mayor walked into the office, glanced from Josie to her mom, and stopped as if he’d suddenly forgotten why he was here. He played like he’d just walked into the middle of a pleasant surprise.

“Afternoon, Mayor. What can I do for you?” Josie asked.

He looked from Josie to her mom and back again. “Sisters? I definitely see a resemblance here.”

“Mayor Moss, this is my mom. Beverly Gray.”

He gave Beverly a big skeptical grin as if he couldn’t believe it. “Mother? No way. You have to be sisters.”