Remember The Alamo (12 page)

Dave walked up and down the aisles, looking for Silvio and
Rita in case they had gotten here a little earlier than they expected to. It occurred to him that two people who were looking for each other might wander around in here for an hour
or two without ever running into each other. The place was
that big and crowded.

Maybe it would be better to pick one central spot and stay
there, waiting for Silvio to come to him. He headed for the snack bar near one of the main entrances. All the flow of humanity in the market would come by there sooner or later, he
reasoned, and if Silvio and Rita weren't even there yet, it was
likely they would come in that way.

He got a Dr Pepper and a bowl of nachos while he waited,
knowing that Constance would say both of them were bad for
him. He knew as well that the orange stuff soaking into the
chips wasn't really melted cheese. He didn't care. It tasted
good, especially when it was washed down with a sugary soft
drink.

Dave was sitting at a table and wiping "cheese" off his
mouth with a napkin when he glanced up and saw Silvio and
Rita coming toward him in a crowd of people that had just entered the market. Silvio had hold of his wife's arm, and his face
was pinched with worry as he glanced over his shoulder.

Constance had been right, Dave thought as he started to get
to his feet. Silvio was scared. Rita just looked confused, as if she
knew that something was wrong but didn't know what it was.

A big man going the other direction suddenly moved in
front of Silvio and Rita, blocking them from Dave's view.
Dave saw Silvio shove Rita to one side and then try to step
around the big man, but the guy bumped hard into him. The
man turned his head just enough for Dave to get a glimpse of
his face. It was long and horselike. He was a Mexican, which
made his size even more unusual.

Silvio staggered as if the collision had nearly knocked him
off his feet. The big man put his hands out-

Then Rita screamed as Silvio fell to his knees. She lunged
toward him, but another man got in her way.

Dave yelled, "Hey!"

He wasn't the only one yelling. Men's voices were raised
and somebody else screamed as the crowd got the idea that
something was wrong. Dave hurried toward the spot where
Silvio had fallen, but the crowd had closed in around him and the going was slow. He shouldered people aside, but he
couldn't do it too roughly without risking starting a brawl.

Finally, he reached Silvio's side. Silvio lay curled up on the
concrete floor of the market with his arms pressed to his
middle. Dave was shocked to see the blood on Silvio's shirt.
The crimson flood welled over Silvio's fingers. Dave dropped
to his knees and pulled Silvio's hands away from the wound.
Everyone else had been afraid to touch him so far.

A deep gash more than a foot long had been ripped open
in Silvio's belly. Dave saw the pale, ugly shine of intestines.

The big guy, the hombre with the face like a horse. He must
have done it, Dave thought. He had driven the knife home
when he seemed to bump innocently into Silvio, then reached
out to pull the blade to one side and then yank it free. It had
taken only a couple of seconds to inflict the horrible wound.

Dave lifted his head and looked around at the frightened
crowd. "Help," he said in a hoarse voice. "We need help here!"
He twisted his head, searching for Rita.

She was gone. The crowd had swallowed her up.

The crowd . . . or accomplices of the man who had
attacked Silvio.

11
"D-Dave...

The strangled whisper was barely audible over the stillplaying mariachi music and the frightened babble of the
crowd. But Dave heard it and looked down to see that Silvio's
eyes were open and gazing up at him in desperation.

"Take it easy, Silvio," Dave told his cousin. "I'm sure somebody's called an ambulance, and it'll be here soon-"

Silvio reached into his shirt pocket with a trembling, bloodcovered hand, then clutched at Dave's hand. Dave felt Silvio
press something into his palm. He clenched his fist around it
without even thinking about what he was doing.

"Rita .. .

Dave saw the light fading in Silvio's eyes, and knew his cousin wasn't going to last until an ambulance got here. Silvio
had lost so much blood that he had seconds left, at most.

So Dave said, "She's gone for help, Silvio. She'll be right
back"

He didn't want Silvio to die knowing that the men who had
gotten to him had taken Rita, too.

"Tell her ... I love her ... Tell her ... I'm ... sorr-"

That was as far as he got. His final breath rattled in his
throat and his head fell back, loose on his shoulders in death.

Nearly everyone in the crowd around him muttered a prayer
and made the sign of the cross.

Dave was glad of that. He hoped those prayers helped speed
Silvio's soul on its way to heaven.

But all he could really think about was that horse-faced guy,
and how he wanted to send that bastard straight to hell.

Despite the blood that covered his hand, Dave stuck it in one
of the pockets of his jeans and let go of whatever it was Silvio
had given him. He hadn't seen it, but going by feel, it was some
sort of small cylinder. He had no idea why it had been so important for Silvio to give it to him, but until he had a chance to
check it out, he wasn't going to tell anybody about it.

While he was standing beside Silvio's body which somebody had covered up with a tarp from one of the booths-and
waiting for the cops to show up, he thought about everything
that had happened. Silvio had been frightened of something,
and obviously, he'd had good reason to be. The big horse-faced
guy, and whoever was working with him, had followed Silvio
and Rita to the Mercado and set up the ambush that had taken
Silvio's life.

That much was clear to Dave, but everything else was
murky. He had no idea why anyone would have wanted to kill
his cousin and kidnap his cousin's wife.

He said as much to the police when they showed up. A
pudgy plainclothesman who identified himself as Detective
Obrador was in charge of the investigation. Dave told Obrador
what he had seen.

"You didn't recognize the man who stabbed your cousin?"
Obrador asked.

Dave shook his head. "Never saw him before"

"But you got a good enough look at him you'd know him if
you saw him again?"

"Definitely," Dave said.

After Dave had explained that he had no idea why anyone
would target Silvio and Rita, Obrador asked, "What did Senor
Cruz do for a living?"

"He was an auto mechanic."

"He didn't have any connection with anything criminal, to
the best of your knowledge?"

Dave bristled. "You think just because he was from Matamoros he was a drug smuggler or something?"

"Take it easy," Obrador said. "I'm just trying to find out why
your cousin was murdered, Senor Rodriguez. You got to admit,
the way he was killed was a little like an execution."

Dave thought it over and finally nodded. "Maybe," he said,
"but I honestly don't know anything about Silvio's business
except that he worked for a garage in Matamoros"

"Okay. Why was he here in San Antonio?"

That was where Dave started hedging a little on the truth.
"He and Rita came up here to visit me and my wife. I was
going to meet them here at the market, and then we would
have gone back to my house"

"Senor and Senora Cruz didn't know how to get to your
house?"

"Well, sure they did. But Rita wanted to do some shopping
first."

Obrador nodded. Dave knew his story was a little weak, but
the detective seemed to accept it.

"And you don't know what happened to Senora Cruz?"

Dave shook his head. "She disappeared. They must have kidnapped her. She knew Silvio was hurt. She never would
have left his side willingly."

"I'll get a bulletin out right away with her description, but
I'll need a photograph of her, too."

"I can get you one," Dave said.

"Thanks" Obrador put away his notebook. "This has all the
earmarks of a gang or cartel killing, Senor Rodriguez. We'll
do all we can, but don't get your hopes up"

"That's not a very good attitude to have, is it?" Dave
snapped.

"You try fighting a gang that's got more money and manpower than our whole police department does, then talk to me
about attitude."

"This is the United States, not Mexico, damn it."

Obrador shrugged. "Borders don't change some things."

Dave wanted to argue with him some more, but knew it
wouldn't do any good. Instead he asked, "Am I free to go?"

The medical examiner's people and the crime scene techs
were working over and around the body. Obrador glanced at
the crowd and then said, "Sure. You gave your address and
phone number to one of the officers, right?"

"Yes, I did."

"Then you're free to go, but be aware that we may be contacting you again."

In other words, don't leave town, Dave thought.

That was all right. He had no intention of leaving town. He
wanted to stay here and do everything he could to make sure
that Silvio's killer was brought to justice.

Dave didn't check the object in his pocket until after he
got home. Constance met him at the door, a frightened look on
her face. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him
tightly.

"Hey," Dave said. "What's this?"

"I saw something on the news about a killing at the Mercado," she said. "I knew you were going there, and I got
scared it might be ... might be. . ."

"I'm fine," Dave told her. Since the blood on his hands was
dry, he rested them on her shoulders.

She saw the crimson stains and gasped. "Dios mio! Dave,
what-"

"I have bad news," he broke in. "Silvio is dead, and Rita has
been kidnapped."

Constance stared at him in shock. He wished there had been
some easier way to break the news, but he hadn't been able to
think of any. She started to shake her head, saying, "No, it
can't be ... it just can't . . ."

She began to cry, and Dave put his arms around her to comfort her. They stood there like that for a while before Constance
recovered her composure enough to ask, "Wh-what happened?"

Dave explained everything as best he could, and finally he
thrust his hand in his pocket and brought out the object Silvio
had given him. As he examined it where it lay in the palm of
his hand, he said, "Silvio thought it was important that I have
this."

"What is it?"

"One of those computer memory sticks. Jump drives or
flash drives, they're sometimes called."

Dave was fairly proficient with a computer, even though at
his age computer skills didn't come naturally to him, like they
did to kids. Silvio had been even older, but had also adapted
to the computer age. He had even sent Dave some c-mails, but
not often.

With Constance following him, Dave went to the computer
that sat on a desk in a corner of the living room. He took the
cap off the jump drive and plugged it into one of the USB
ports on the front of the computer. Even though the exterior of the drive had dried blood on it, it had been capped tightly, so
Dave thought it was unlikely the blood would have gotten into
it and corrupted any of the data it contained.

Assuming there really was anything on the drive. Maybe
in the pain and shock of imminent death, Silvio hadn't been
thinking too clearly. Dave knew he might not have been if it
had been his guts that were ripped open.

It took him only a moment to determine that there was only
one file on the drive. It was a Word document titled "Reconquistar."

With Constance watching over his shoulder, Dave opened
the file. The character size was small, and Silvio had made the
document single-spaced. He had never really gotten it through
his head that he wasn't saving paper that way. Thrifty habits
were hard to break.

Dave didn't take the time to make the type bigger. He just
started reading....

He heard Constance gasp a couple of times, and knew she
was reading over his shoulder. He felt a little like gasping in
surprise himself. The message that Silvio had left on the jump
drive was rambling and not too coherent in places, written in
a style that could only be described as stream of consciousness. But the story it told was crystal clear, and after reading
it, Dave knew exactly why Silvio had been scared. He'd had
good reason to be terrified, considering the sort of people he
was double-crossing.

Considering what had happened at the Mercado, it was
plain as day that someone in the cartel hadn't trusted Silviowith good reason-and had had him followed. Once those
men had decided that it was too dangerous to let him run loose
in San Antonio, they had moved in to eliminate him. There
was no telling what they had done with Rita, but as a sick feeling filled Dave, he knew it couldn't have been anything good.