it and the truth was he would have if he had found Martinez first.
Torres pulled out the drawer of the bedside table and emptied the contents on the floor: socks, underwear, condoms, lube and a bible. He shook his head at the ironic combination. He emptied the next drawer. Nothing that could help him.
Fuck.
He turned and looked out the sashed window at the iconic stripes of El Carmen church. The red and white striped building looked like a piece on a Candyland board. He had to admit the city center was beautiful. The drug cartel it housed wasn’t.
What was he missing? Martinez was the key to finding El Escorpion. He had to find the leader of Los Treintas. Beth wouldn’t be safe until he did.
Suddenly there was a sharp blow to Torres’ head.
There was a bright flash of color and then darkness. He fell to his knees. He reached his hands to his head but they never made it. Another blow and then there was nothing.
“Pretty Girl, can you please put on your shoes. We’re going to be late.” Again. She left the last part unsaid but that is what Beth meant. They were going to be late again, this time to school. The destination had changed but their MO hadn’t. It was kind of her thing now. She had not been on time to work since Alejandra had entered her life, and by that she meant, since Beth had taken the then baby from a bullet-ridden car in Mazatlan and never given her back. Families were formed in lots of different ways. Beth’s small family was formed when she rescued Alejandra from the hit that had annihilated the little girl’s entire family. Sadly no bookshop in the world carried a book to explain that nuclear family. If Alejandra had two dads or was being raised by mom and her lesbian life partner, they would be golden. But as it were, there were no books about families forged through the violence of warring drug cartels.
Beth leaned down and kissed the top of her head. She had arranged her long dark curls into two braids. “I mean it. Shoes on now or no books tonight at bedtime. I’m serious.”
Alejandra shook her head. “No, Mama, you’re not. I always get a book even when I’m bad.” The little girl smiled sweetly before skipping off in the opposite direction.
“When did my sweet baby girl get so sassy?” Beth asked in exasperation. But Alejandra was right, she always got at least two books at bedtime no matter what. Beth was soft, too soft. She had never imagined she would be such a pushover as a parent. Part of the problem is that parenthood had not been a conscious decision. Beth never considered the consequences of being a mother when she pulled Alejandra from the car in Mexico. She hadn’t been thinking at all. Something primal took over when she saw Alejandra’s brown eyes brimming with tears. Taking Alejandra was the biggest mistake of her career and the best decision of her life.
Beth heard her front door open.
“I have the camera. Let’s get a picture of Ally before she goes to school. I can’t believe Baby Girl is in kindergarten now. I have a surprise for you!”
Beth turned to see her sister Paige at the front door, camera in one hand and a cake in the other.
Beth shook her head. “Paige, I am not giving her cake before her first day of school. I want them to think I am a good parent.”
Paige smiled. “You really need to stop caring what people think. And of course I am going to give her cake. It is her first day of formal education. This is to be celebrated. Next thing we know she will be in high school and then she will be off to Yale and then doing her doctorate at Oxford. Life is short, Beth, eat cake.”
Alejandra came running towards her sister. Paige barely had time to set the pink pastry box down before Alejandra jumped into her arms.
“Happy first day of school, Baby Girl.”
“I’m not a baby girl any more. I’m a big girl,” Alejandra informed her.
“Of course you’re a big girl. You’re a big kindergarten girl. Who loves you, Big Girl?” Paige asked.
“Mommy and Auntie Paige, and Grandma.” Alejandra answered.
Beth’s heart constricted at the mention of her mom. She tried to shake off the sadness that clung to her every time her mom was mentioned but she couldn’t, it never fully left her. She always put on a smile for Alejandra, but she never felt it.
Paige handed Beth the camera. “Bethy, get a picture of us.”
Beth shook her head. “One picture and then school. Just once I would like you to be on time.” Who was she kidding? It wasn’t going to happen.
“Better to be late the first day. Don’t let them get their expectations too high. Let them know from the start that you’re that mom. You are always going to be late and anything you provide for bake sales will be out of a box. They just need to accept it. So do you for that matter.” Paige’s nose scrunched up when she smiled.
Beth sighed. “I don’t want them thinking I am that mom… Well not until after Christmas. I want to make it a full semester before they realize I have no idea what I am doing. How long did it take you to figure out I’m a hot mess?” Beth asked Alejandra. She used her sister holding Alejandra as an opportunity to put her shoes on her.
“You’re funny, Mommy.” Alejandra laughed.
“Yep I am hilarious. And I am late. So are you. You’re killing me, kid. I just wanted to make it until Christmas.”
“But what about the cake?” Paige asked.
Beth shook her head. Cake for breakfast was too much even for Beth. “She can have cake after dinner tonight.”
“Can we take some to Grandma?” Alejandra asked.
Beth and Paige looked at each other waiting for the other to speak. Beth cleared her throat. “Sure, Pretty Girl. We can take cake to Grandma.”
The look on Paige’s face told her, her sister was surprised by her answer. Why should she be surprised, she was still their mom.
Ninety minutes later Beth was finally at her desk. She had anticipated tears at the school gate, but from Alejandra, not from her and certainly not from Paige, but the pair of them blubbered away until Mrs. Emerson very politely assured them that it was always harder on the parents than the children. Beth finally left, assured the Alejandra was happy in her new classroom. She had always been just an elevator ride away. One of the perks of her job was the onsite daycare. Beth and Alejandra had had lunch together at least twice a week for the last four years. It was their special time; no matter how hectic her day got, if Beth was in the office, she did her best to carve out forty-five minutes where she could sit with her daughter and chat and eat peanut butter sandwiches and drink juice out of a box. God she was going to miss that.
“Man up, Thomson,” Beth said out loud. There was just enough time for a pep talk before she fired up her computer and got stuck into the exciting world of narco terrorism. There were bank accounts to be analyzed and she was just the girl to do it.
There was a knock on her door. Beth looked up.
“I’m not that late, so save it, Patterson.” Beth only looked up briefly. She had already lost the best part of the morning. She was going to have to put off her daily pissing contest with her partner until this afternoon.
Patterson stood in her doorway. “Beth, can I have a quick word?”
Her back straightened. He never called her Beth. No, that wasn’t precisely true, he called her by her first name twice. But that was years ago, and she didn’t want to go back to that place ever again. It was a dark time, one that nearly destroyed her both personally and professionally.
“What’s up?” Beth pushed away from her desk.
Patterson looked at the floor, his hands clenched and unclenched several times.
He