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“What city?”
“I don’t know, but you’ve got resources.”
“And he’s got almost a week’s head start.”
“That’s why you can’t waste any time. If you find him, treat him kindly, and you’ll get the truth of what happened that night. Nobody committed a murder. Manuelo will tell you that. He can tell you—”
Griff broke off suddenly, surprising Laura, who’d been following every word. One second he’d been speaking rapidly into the telephone, the next, he was silent, staring into near space. Through the phone, she could hear Rodarte saying, “Burkett? Burkett, are you there? Burkett!”
“Griff?” she whispered. “What?”
He focused on her sharply, then slapped the phone closed, abruptly ending his call. He opened the car door and dropped the phone onto the pavement. As he turned on the car’s ignition, he said, “Rodarte’s probably put a satellite track on your phone, so we’ve got to get the hell out of here.”
“I don’t understand.” She clutched the hand grip as he backed out of the parking slot and wheeled the car sharply.
“Manuelo Ruiz can clear me.”
“That’s
why you’re desperate to find him.”
“And why Rodarte is desperate not to.”
CHAPTER
34
HE SPED OUT OF THE THEATER PARKING LOT, WOVE THROUGH the commercial complex, and took the first ramp he could onto Central Expressway, heading north, driving as fast as he dared but not so fast as to invite being stopped. He drove with one eye on the rearview mirror, afraid that, at any moment, he would see a pursuing squad car.
“Why wouldn’t Rodarte want to find Manuelo Ruiz?” Laura asked.
“Think about it. He hasn’t exactly launched a full-out manhunt for him, has he?”
“He thought that you had killed him, that all they would discover was a body. He was more interested in finding you.”
“So he could indict me for murder. Best-case scenario for Rodarte would be for Manuelo to be across the border, well on his way back to the jungle, never to be seen or heard from again. Shit!” he hissed, thumping the steering wheel with his fist. “Do you think he got that address? Do you think he understood it?”
“I—”
“Because if he finds Manuelo before I do, the man will never make it into a court of law, probably not even into an interrogation room.”
“You think Rodarte would help him escape?”
“If Manuelo’s lucky, that’s what he’ll do. What scares me is that Rodarte will make sure no one hears Manuelo’s account of what happened. Ever.”
“You mean…he would kill him?”
Griff shrugged.
“Griff, he’s a police detective.”
“Who’s dedicated himself to putting me on death row. To that end, Manuelo’s easily dispensable.”
“So what do we do? Call one of Rodarte’s superiors, tell them your side?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know who his friends are. He recruited two of them to beat me up. I wouldn’t know who to trust.”
“Then what?”
