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“Looks like blood on the carpet.” He fought to keep his face neutral. Deborah squeezed in next to him, her nearness suddenly unnerving. Color had seeped from her face, and the skin tightened around her eyes. Alex had never worked a case before where he knew the victim. Especially a little kid. Alex liked little kids in general, but Benny in particular. Tough kid, but still sweet. An unusual combination.
“Benny’s blood?” Deborah’s voice cracked a little on the boy’s name. How bad was he hurt? Or was he already dead? “Get the evidence tech over here.”
He stood, wanting to get away from those stains. He’d examined hundreds of crime scenes. This one was different. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but it was.
“And what about this?” Deborah looked up at him, her gaze quizzical. She used the end of her pen to point at three blue-green marbles lined up against the back wall of the closet.
“Benny.” Alex let his breath out. He’d almost hoped Benny hadn’t been here, but the marbles, like the ones left on the road to Ray’s ranch, told another story. “Daniel bought him marbles last week. He left some at the other scene.”
“Kid’s leaving us bread crumbs—so to speak.”
“He’s smart.” Alex said it to himself as much as to Deborah.
“He’s a survivor.”
“Let’s hope so.” Deborah had closed her eyes. She wasn’t listening to him. She looked as if she were praying. He hadn’t even thought of it. “Given his background, I think we have to assume he’s figuring out how to deal with it.”
“These are seriously warped men who are after Jorge Morin.” Deborah whispered something he couldn’t quite hear and straightened up. “They won’t think twice about killing a kid.”
“So we not only have to worry about Jorge Morin hurting Benny, we have to worry about drug thugs.” He had to understand the dynamics of a situation whether he liked them or not. “I’ll get the EU guys in here.”
He left her in the closet. He glanced back. Her eyes were closed again. He trotted into the living room. Samuel was on the phone.
“He’s got Morin on the line.” Ray spoke softly after Alex gave him a what’s up look. “The agent who took the call told him Daniel was in the hospital, temporarily out of the picture. He went berserk, but he stayed on the line. He agreed to talk to Samuel, but he sounds impaired by drugs or alcohol or both.”
Samuel stood very still, one hand arrested in mid-air as if he couldn’t remember what he planned to do with it—scratch his forehead or rub his aching head?
“I’m Daniel’s brother. I’m standing in for him,” he said, his voice cool. It was hard to imagine having that kind of cool under pressure. Alex wanted to learn from his boss, but he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to stand in his shoes. “He’s really sick, hospitalized. He asked me to negotiate with you.”
A pause.
“We’re willing to deal. We can pay you the value of the product Shawna Garza took from you. Just tell us how much, when, and where. We’ll get it to you. In exchange for Benny Garza, unharmed.”
Samuel was quiet then for several beats. The furrow on his forehead and jut of his jaw said he didn’t like what he was hearing. Ray shifted next to Alex, his hand on the butt of his gun. Deborah trotted into the room, looked from Alex to Ray to Samuel and stopped. She didn’t speak.
Samuel’s next words were simple. “Name your price.” Followed by “When and where?” A few seconds later he slapped the phone shut and bent over, both hands on his knees, his head down.
“You okay, man?” Ray put one hand out as if to touch Samuel’s back, then let it drop. “What’d he say?”
Samuel straightened, his expression blank. “He says he has to be compensated for his time and his aggravation. Shawna Garza aggravated him. And he says Benny is his son and he should be compensated for giving him to Daniel.”
No one spoke for a long moment. Ray shook his head, disbelief on his face. Alex could see the white of his knuckles as fingers gripped the weapon at his side. “No way. In the first place, no way Benny’s his son. And, if he is, basically he’s asking Daniel to buy his kid.”
“That’s beside the point right now. We’re not in any position to turn our nose up at his offer.” Samuel smacked his fist against a wall. “He claims he and Shawna had a fling several years ago and if Daniel thinks Benny’s better off with him, Morin wants to be compensated for all his trouble and for the product he no longer has access to.”
Fury rolled through Alex. “His trouble. My guess is he was never around for Benny. He’s probably never seen the kid before in his life. He just abandoned him and then he comes back and kidnaps him, scares him to death, hurts him, and he thinks he should be compensated? I’ll be glad to compensate him. Give me five minutes with him alone.”
He stopped. Everyone was staring at him, varying degrees of surprise on their faces. Even Deborah. The only one who didn’t look surprised was Joaquin. His friend laid a hand on his shoulder for a second. “Easy, bro. We’ll take him out together.”
“Yeah.” Alex wiped sweat from his face with the back of his shirt sleeve. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Ray grinned at him. “Good to see you’re passionate about something besides cars and women.”
Alex felt the tension in the room ease. “Yeah. So how much does he want? When and where?”
“Midnight, tonight.” Samuel glanced at the DEA agent standing next to him. “The entrance to Mission County Park. He wants a million dollars.”
The chorus of agitated words didn’t seem to faze Samuel. He held up a hand. Everyone got quiet. “Let’s focus, people. We’ve got six hours to put together a million dollars and figure out our strategy for the drop.”
