Where There's Smoke (61 page)

They didn't miss the smallest movement.
 
His voice was quiet, urgent, compelling, and convincing.

"What are we going to do?"
 
she asked.

Her unqualified trust must have silently communicated itself to him, because his alert eyes stopped their surveillance and fell on her.

"We wait."

At the sound of the fatal click, Dr. Soto came to a sudden standstill.

Key thrust the barrel of the Beretta behind the doctor's ear and yanked his left arm behind his back, shoving his hand up between his shoulder blades.

"If you make a peep, you're history."
 
His voice was a hiss in the darkness, so low it could have been mistaken for the rustle of leaves stirred by the faint breeze.
 
"Walk."

The doctor didn't argue.
 
He moved toward the jeep that rolled out from the deep shadows of the alleyway.
 
Behind the wheel sat Father Geraldo, looking both excited and apprehensive.
 
Lara was balanced on the edge of the backseat, gripping the seat in front of her, watching as Key approached with their hostage.

"Frisk him, Lara."
 
She jumped to the ground and ran her hands over the outside of the doctor's clothing.

"I am unarmed," he said with dignity.

"You're also a goddamn liar," Key said.
 
With a nod, Lara confirmed that the doctor wasn't concealing a weapon, then returned to her place in the jeep.
 
"Get in."

Soto did as Key ordered and climbed into the front seat.
 
Key vaulted in to sit beside Lara, digging the muzzle of the gun into the hollow at the base of the doctor's skull.
 
Father Geraldo put the jeep in gear and they took off.

"Where are you taking me?
 
For God's sake, please .
 
. . I don't know why you are doing this.
 
What do you want from me?"

"The truth."
 
Lara leaned forward so she could be heard.
 
"You know more than you're telling about my daughter's death, don't you?"

Key nudged the back of Soto's head with the pistol.
 
"No!"
 
the doctor protested in a high, thin voice.
 
"I swear I know nothing.
 
As God is my witness," "Careful," Key warned.
 
"There's a man of God present who tells Him everything."

"I cannot help you," he whimpered.

"Cannot or will not?"
 
Lara asked.

"Cannot."

"That's not true.
 
What do you know that you're holding back?"

"Mrs.
 
Porter, I implore you "Tell me," she insisted.

Father Geraldo drove down a dirt lane that ended in a remote clearing above the river.
 
The river began as a clear, rushing stream in the mountains, but by the time it had snaked its way down through the jungle and cut a swathe through Ciudad Central, where it swept up garbage and pollutants, it emptied sludge into the ocean.
 
He brought the jeep to a stop but kept the motor idling.

"Were you on duty at the hospital that day our car was ambushed?"
 
Lara asked.

He tried to nod but couldn't because of the revolver.
 
"Shh," he whispered in fear.

"Did you see my daughter?"

"Sh.
 
She was critically wounded."

Lara swallowed, remembering the amount of blood gushing from the wound on Ashley's neck.
 
The carotid artery had no doubt been severed.
 
She closed her eyes in an attempt to stamp out that mental picture.
 
Later she could grieve.
 
Now, she didn't have the luxury of time.
 
"What happened to my daughter's body?"

"Father," Soto pleaded, rolling his eyes toward the priest, "I beg you to intercede.
 
I have a family to protect.
 
God knows my heart goes out to Mrs.
 
Porter, but I am afraid of reprisals."

"You damn sure should be."
 
Key spoke in a near growl.
 
"El Corazon isn't here, but I am.
 
We haven't come a thousand miles to fuck around with you.
 
Tell her what she wants to know, or you're no use to us.

Comprer'le?
 
In other words, you're dispensable."

Lara didn't approve of Key's fear tactics.
 
They had agreed that he would use them only when all else failed, or and this was doubtfulwhen they became convinced that Soto was telling the truth and that he didn't know anything about Ashley's burial.
 
She was reasonably sure he wouldn't make good on his implied threats, but hopefully Soto would fall for them before she had an opportunity to put it to test.

"Padre?"
 
Soto begged, his voice cracking as he glanced fearfully at the murky, polluted waters below.
 
"jPor favor?"

Father Geraldo crossed himself, bowed his head, and began to pray softly.
 
He couldn't have been more convincing.

"I'm tired of this shit."
 
Key jumped over the side of the jeep and motioned with his head for the doctor to alight.

"Cementerio del Sagrado Corazdn," he blurted.

"Sacred Heart.
 
She's buried there?"
 
Lara asked.

"Sh."
 
The doctor expelled his breath and seemed to deflate like a balloon.
 
"During those early days of fighting, they took most of the casualties there.
 
Take me there, and I will show you.

Father Geraldo stopped praying and put the jeep in reverse.
 
Key climbed back in.
 
He had a warning for the doctor: "You'd better not be bullshitting us."

"No, sefior.
 
I swear it on the heads of my children."

The cemetery was located on the other side of the city.
 
It would have been a long drive under normal circumstances.
 
The distance was increased by the circuitous route the priest took.
 
He doubled back several times to make certain they weren't being followed.

To avoid roadblocks and military convoys, he zigzagged through seemingly abandoned neighborhoods where streetlights remained dark and only alley cats were brave enough to show themselves.

Lara's nerves were jangling by the time they reached the cemetery gates.
 
"It's locked!"

"But it's a low wall.
 
Come on."
 
Key was the first one out of the jeep.
 
He motioned Soto down.
 
"Keep both hands on your head.
 
If you lower them, I'll shoot you.

"You cannot shoot me or you will not know where to look for the girl's grave.

The bluff didn't work on Key.
 
He flashed a grin that showed up extraordinarily white against his black beard.
 
"I didn't say I'd kill you.
 
I just said I'd shoot you.
 
For instance in the hand.
 
You wouldn't be able to change a Band-Aid, much less do surgery."
 
He stopped smiling.
 
"Now move.

The four of them had no difficulty getting over the low stone wall.

Soto indicated the direction in which they should go.
 
They didn't risk using a flashlight.
 
There was no moon, so they had to pick their way carefully around tombstones and over uneven ground.

The cemetery was situated on a hillside and offered a commanding view of the city with the mountains rising behind it.
 
It had not escaped the effects of war.
 
The grounds were no longer maintained.

Very few graves appeared to have been tended since the revolution began.
 
It broke Lara's heart to think of her daughter being buried in this desolate place that was overrun with weeds and inhabited by jungle reptiles that slithered unseen in the underbrush.

Ashley won't be here for long, she vowed silently.

Indeed, Dr. Soto had reached a shelf of land that rimmed a wide depression.
 
There he stopped.
 
Moving slowly so he wouldn't incite Key to make good his threat, he turned toward Lara.
 
She was taken aback by the ghoulish appearance of his eyes until she realized that the wavering sheen in them was actually unshed tears.

"I would not have had you know this, but you insisted," he said.

"It would have been much better if you had not forced me to bring you here.
 
Better yet that you had forgotten what happened to you in Montesangre and stayed in America."

"What the hell are you jabbering about?"
 
Key demanded.

Lara, more mystified than angry, moved closer to the edge and looked down into the depression.
 
It was about twenty yards in diameter, roughly round in shape, and resembled a meteor crater, although vegetation had cropped up in spots.

Still perplexed, she turned to Father Geraldo.
 
He was staring into the shallow bowl of earth.
 
His shoulders were hunched forward, and his arms hung loosely at his sides.
 
He had a listless grip on his flask, but he wasn't drinking from it.
 
Seeing the depression had stupefied him and supplanted his preoccupation with rum.

Key too was staring beyond the ledge as though demanding it to offer up an explanation.
 
Then suddenly his whole body twitched as though a string coming out the top of hishead had been jerked hard.

He dropped the pistol in the dirt and grabbed the doctor by the lapels of his linen suit, lifting him until his toes dangled inches from the ground.

"Are you telling us-" "Sh, sh."
 
Key had shaken the tears from the doctor's eyes.
 
They coursed down his face.
 
"Doscientos.

Trescientos. jQuien sabe?"

"Two hundred or three hundred what?"
 
Lara's voice rose in panic.

"Two hundred or three hundred-" When the answer struck her, she lost her ability to breathe.
 
Her mouth remained open, but she couldn't exhale or inhale.

Key released the doctor and rushed toward her.
 
"Lara!"

The most bloodchilling sound she had ever heard rose above the sepulchral silence of the cemetery.
 
At first she didn't realize that the wail had been ripped from her own throat.
 
Spreading her arms wide, she flung herself toward the rim of the depression and would have plunged to the bottom if Key's extended arm hadn't caught her at the waist.
 
She bent double over it.
 
He hauled her backward, but she fought him with the abnormal strength of the demented.

Finally managing to tear herself free, she crawled toward the edge, inexorably, clawing at the earth, uprooting clumps of grass, and all the while making that unnatural keening sound.

"No!
 
God no!
 
Please no!
 
Ashley!
 
Oh, Jesus, no.

Dr.
 
Soto was blathering about the day the mass grave was ordered.

It had been dug by bulldozers specifically to accommodate the enormous number of casualties.
 
Morticians couldn't keep up with the demand, he said.
 
When the morgue had filled to capacity, they'd begun placing cadavers wherever they could find space.
 
Hundreds had died in the streets, where their bodies had been left to decompose.
 
It became a health hazard to the living.
 
There were outbreaks of typhoid and other contagious diseases.
 
The rebel commanders dealt with the problem the most expeditious way they could devise.

"Lara, stop this!"
 
Key's hands were on her shoulders, trying to pull her up, but she dug her fingers into the earth and wouldn't let go.