Salvation in death

She led him down the hall, into the bullpen where Jenkinson snarled into a ’link, “Look, you fucking shit-weasel asshole, I get the intel, you get paid. Do I look like some fuckhead sitting here jerking off? You don’t fucking want me coming down there, cocksucker.”

“Ah,” Eve said. “Office. Sorry.”

López’s face remained serene. “You neglected to add ‘colorful’ to your ‘loud and full of very bad people.’ ”

“I guess. How do you take the coffee?”

“Just black’s fine. Lieutenant… I brought the baptismal records.”

“So you said.”

“And I intend to give them to you before I go.”

Eve nodded. “That would make sense.”

“I’m doing so without authorization. My superiors,” he continued when she turned with the coffee, “while wishing to cooperate with the investigation, of course, are also cautious about the… backlash. And the publicity. They informed me they’d take the request under advisement. Advisement often means…”

“Just this side of never?”

“Close. I accessed the records myself.”

She handed him the mug. “That makes you a weasel. Coffee payment enough?”

He managed a soft laugh. “Yes, thank you. I liked-Lino. Very much. I respected his work, and his energy. He was my responsibility. I feel I can’t understand this, or know what to do until I know who he was, and why he did what he did. I have to counsel my parishioners. Answer them when they come to me upset and worried. Are we married? Has my baby been baptized? Have my sins been forgiven? All because this man pretended to be a priest.”

He sat, sipped. He lowered the mug, stared. Then sipped again, slowly. A flush rose to his cheeks. “I’ve never tasted coffee like this.”

“Probably because you’ve never had actual coffee. It’s not soy or veg or man-made. It’s the deal. I’ve got a source.”

“Bless you,” he said and drank again.

“Have you seen this before?” She took the print out of the tattoo, offered it.

“Oh yes. It’s a gang tattoo; the gang’s long disbanded. Some of my parishioners were members and still have the tattoo. Some wear it with pride, some with shame.”

“Lino had one. He had it removed before he came here.”

Understanding darkened López’s eyes. “So. This was his place. His home.”

“I could use the names of the people you know who have this tattoo.” When he closed his eyes, Eve said lightly, “There could be more coffee.”

“No, but thank you. Lieutenant, those who lived through those times and aren’t in prison are now older, and have work, and families, have built lives.”

“I’m not looking to change that. Unless one of them killed Lino.”

“I’ll get you the names, the ones I know or can learn. I’d like to have until tomorrow. It’s difficult to go against the authority I believe in.”

“Tomorrow’s fine.”

“You think he was a bad man. Lino. You believe he may have killed Flores to put on his collar-taken his name, his life. And yet you work like this to find the one who took Lino’s life. I understand that. I believe in that. So I’ll do what I can.”

As he started to rise, Eve spoke. “What did you do before you became a priest?”

“I worked in my father’s cantina, and boxed. I boxed for a time, professionally.”

“Yeah, I looked that up. You won your share.”

“I loved the sport, the training, the discipline. The feeling I’d get when I stepped into the ring. I dreamed of seeing big cities and fame and fortune.”

“What changed your mind?”

“There was a woman. A girl. I loved her, and she loved me. She was beautiful, and so unspoiled. We were to be married. I was saving money, nearly every pe

“I’m very sorry.”

“I’d never known hate like that. Even bigger than the grief, was the hate, the rage, the thirst to avenge her. Or myself. How can we be sure? I lived on that hate for two years-that and drink and drugs, and whatever dulled the grief so the hate could stay ripe.

“I lost myself in it. Then they found them, after they had done the same to another young girl. I pla

“I don’t know. But I believe in the power of believing in them.”

“She told me I had to let her go, that it was a sin to lose myself for what was already gone. She asked that I go, alone, on a pilgrimage, to the shrine of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos. To draw-I had some little talent-a picture of the Blessed Mother as an offering. And there I would find the rest of my life.”

“Did you?”

“I did. I loved her, so I did what she asked. I walked, a long, long way. Over many months. Stopping along the way to find work, to eat, to sleep, I think to heal, and to find faith again. I drew the portrait, though it had A

“What happened to the men?”

“They were tried, convicted, and were executed. There were still executions in Mexico at that time. Their deaths didn’t bring A

“No. But no more girls were raped, terrorized, beaten, and strangled by their hands. Maybe that’s God’s will, too.”

“I can’t say, but their deaths didn’t bring me pleasure.” He rose, put the empty mug neatly beside her AutoChef. “You’ve killed.”

“Yes.”

“It didn’t bring you pleasure.”

“No.”

He nodded. “I’ll get you the names. Maybe together we can find justice and God’s will, on the same path.”

Maybe, she thought when she was alone. But as long as she wore a badge, justice had to take priority.

7

SHE FELT PISSY. EVE COULDN’T QUITE FIGURE out why, but the pissiness stayed full-blown through the drive home. The floods of tourists cavorting in New York’s spring like a bunch of chickens before the plucking couldn’t shift the mood into mildly irritated or cynically amused. Even the animated billboards a

The ad blimps cruising overhead and tying up air traffic didn’t cut through the cloud of irritation as they blasted their litany of Sale! Sale! Sale! (in English this time) at the Sky Mall.

She couldn’t find her appreciation for the chaos, the cacophony, the i

What the hell was she doing here? She should’ve stayed at work where she could turn a pissy mood to her advantage. Should’ve locked her office door, programmed a pot of black coffee, and dug in. To the evidence, the facts, the tangibles.

Why the hell had she asked López what he’d done before wrapping that collar around his neck?