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“I’m going to break my own rule here and pick up these four babies. These Cuckoo Marans lay chocolate brown eggs. And there’s a very famous character called James Bond, and he only ate Cuckoo Maran eggs. It’s in the books.”
Emma ignored him. “So we’re going to get more than the ones I picked out?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m bending the rules because I want to have some chocolate eggs.”
“Chocolate eggs. Wow, those will be great for Easter.”
They didn’t need anything at the store, so they came straight home with their little brood of ten baby chicks. He set them up with some sawdust in Emma’s bathtub. He fixed a reading lamp over the tub, which shed light but also heat on the babies. He added a pie plate full of water, which the babies ran through and got dirty right away, and another aluminum pie plate with some baby chick scratch. He knew that Emma would be spending far more time sitting at the edge of the tub watching her babies than watching anything on her tablet. And he was okay with that.
The next thing he needed to do was introduce the babies to Tate. He didn’t want to have any drama about how Tate might react, him being a born hunter, after all. Before, when he had hatched little ones, he let them stay out in the chicken coup. But these babies didn’t have mothers, so they had to be tended and watched. Tate was brought into the bathroom and sat next to Emma, nose down, intently following each of the ten babies. Brady leaned over and petted the dog’s head.
“That’s a good boy, Tate. These are going to be chickens when they grow up. They’re going to lay eggs, and you like eggs, right?”
Tate looked up at him, licked his lips, and then looked back down at the babies.
“Tate, these babies are a no-no. You cannot touch these babies. You stay away, okay?”
Tate again made eye contact and then focused on the babies. Emma was touching them, picking them up, petting them and putting them back down, and Tate didn’t attempt to sniff or lick them or get any closer than he was. After a short period of time, he turned around and left the room, disinterested.
Brady figured he’d done his job.
He received another phone call from Charlie and walked out to the back deck, bringing Tate. He left Emma in the bathroom to watch the chicks.
“Hello there. Is this good news or bad news?” he asked.
“Well, Brady, it’s a little of both. First, I want to give you a contact person in San Felipe. He’s an artist who has a little pottery studio in one of the back alleyways, and we’ve used him as an informant from time to time. He’s familiar with your priest, and he thinks very highly of him.”
“Is that the good news then?”
“Yes, and it’s a good thing we have him, because he can unofficially do some checking for you. I’m not going to task him with this. But I’ve told him that you may give him a call and ask some questions. I think in light of the fact that Maggie hasn’t given you many details, it will be helpful to have one more set of eyes on her or the church or the priest or the town.”
“That’s great, Charlie. Makes total sense to me. It actually relieves me quite a bit.” Brady held his breath because he knew her next statement was probably not going to be something he wanted to hear. But he readied for it anyway.
“So here’s the bad news. We’ve had a shakeup in the Baja region—politics and some of the cartel action there. Baja was always an easy place from which to do business, because the cartels could use planes or boats, and they had that long stretch of shoreline where they could insert and egress from, which made them really hard to track. But there’s been a lot of pushback from politicians in Mexico City, and it’s such a lush tourist area, all the cartel work has been really interfering.
“Now you have international hotels who’ve built up on part of this land, and they don’t want to deal with the cartels. I mean they’ll deal with them as far as make payoffs or private security, but they really don’t want to have gun battles downtown and even many of the locals, who actually drive back and forth to California, Arizona, New Mexico, and even Texas, don’t want to have any of this garbage going on. So it’s kind of become a safe haven.”
“But…”
“Well, we have a new governor for Baja, and he is actually a pretty good guy. But he’s getting a lot of pressure. And he’s trying to do a cleanup, using some of the local legitimate businesses, and his primary ally has become the Catholic Church. There are summer groups and youth groups and non-profits working with the church to help resettle or relocate people who have been either forced out of California or just want to settle in a safe space, be able to go back and forth over the border without being hassled or having to pay a huge tax. My contact says that easily 60% to 70% of the population is in favor of this change.”
“I’m waiting for the bombshell, Charlie. Please.”
“Apparently, the local archbishop who covers this area and the territory on the mainland all the way to Mexico City has been recalled. And I don’t think that’s a good thing, because he was a reformer. He’s been called to the Vatican. And they haven’t named a replacement yet. But there are a lot of priests who are jockeying for this position. I think there’s some kind of funny business going on. I have no way of proving it, but you just need to know that the environment has changed. On the surface, it looks good, but you and I both know that Mexican politics is never simple. And if it looks good, well, it’s buyer beware, and you have to check it out. I honestly don’t think you can do that from California. I think you’re going to have to go there.”
“Then I have to make a decision, don’t I?” Brady mumbled.
“Brady, talk to my friend Sergio, and after you talk to him and established a rapport, see what you think. But trust your gut. Give it a little bit of time to make the right decision. We don’t need you inserting yourself in an unstable area. We can’t protect you there. And we don’t want you to shoot your way out of a bad situation. Let’s hope we can grease the skids a little bit, get Maggie out of there in a reasonable period of time, make sure she has adequate protection, even if she doesn’t know she does, and then get her home safely to you. That’s my recommendation. It’s not official. I can’t really help you. But that’s what I would do if she was my daughter or my wife.”
The decision wasn’t something he was concerned about. Having more facts actually made it easier to take action. The worst thing in the world, was not knowing. Charlie had just eliminated part of that. The rest of it was going to be left up to him.
“Thank your little heart, Charlie. I promise to keep you updated.”
“No, no, no, no. Not too much information. I can’t have knowledge of anything out of the ordinary. I can’t say that I helped you even. All I want to do is pass it on. But, of course, if something awful or something so difficult you can’t handle occurs, then I’ll see what I can do or at least get you onto somebody who can. That’s what I can promise. But if somebody asks me about my knowledge of Maggie going down there, my answer’s going to be I have not heard a word about it. You need to make sure to protect me on that. My job’s on the line if you don’t.”
