“Did the person who saw them notice where they went?”
“They got in a black late-model car. Sporty. One of those updated muscle cars. Wasn’t sure if it was a Mustang or a Camaro or what. But flashy enough that they noticed. The neighbor, a Mrs. Herrera, said she thought they were drug dealers because of the car and the tattoos and the way the girls were acting. Anyway, because she lives around the corner from the house the guys were using, she really didn’t see where they were headed. Back out to the main road, obviously, but after that, who knows?”
Who knows? That was for sure. Alex wondered if the car was really theirs or if they’d stolen it. They wouldn’t even have to do something violent like a carjacking. No, Matías’ talent would lend itself pretty well to walking up to someone in a parking lot and asking for their keys. Maybe eventually the vehicle would be reported as stolen, but by then they could have ditched it or switched out the license plates or something.
“Any way to figure out if the car was stolen?”
A chuckle, and Miguel said, “Already ahead of you. I did search the stolen vehicles database. Cars like that are a tempting target, so they do tend to get ripped off. But Mrs. Herrera also said it had paper temporary plates, although the car was parked far enough away from her house that she couldn’t see the actual numbers. That narrows it down, because it means the car was stolen somewhere in Arizona. They don’t use paper licenses like that in California. Turns out the car is a Dodge Challenger and was taken from an auto detailer three days ago. Tucson P.D. is on it, but I have a feeling that the paper plates on this car were taken from someone else’s, and they probably haven’t even noticed. I mean, most people don’t memorize those temp things the way they do a real license plate.”
No, they probably hadn’t. Alex knew that when he’d bought the Pathfinder, he couldn’t have read back the code on those temporary plates if his life had depended on it.
“So anyway, unless those boys get pulled over for some kind of traffic violation, I doubt the police are going to catch up with them. I let our guys know to pay extra attention when they see a vehicle like that, and word’s gone out to the rest of the clan to keep an eye out. If they’re holed up someplace and not venturing out much, they might still be hard to track down. But if they go out for beer — well, someone might notice.”
“Thanks, Miguel,” Alex said, and he meant it. That wasn’t just “some” information; it was extremely valuable information. And it might just lead to someone finding those bastards.
“No problem. If I find anything else, I’ll let you know, but that’s all I’ve got for now.”
“It’s plenty. Thanks again.”
Miguel hung up then, and Alex set down the phone. Caitlin gave him another one of those expectant looks. He loved how one of her brows was just slightly more arched than the other, giving her a sort of charmingly quizzical expression.
“So someone saw them in a car?”
“Yeah, a stolen Challenger.” Speaking quickly, he filled her in on Miguel’s side of the conversation.
“And when he says ‘your guys’ are going to be paying extra attention, he means the de la Pazes in Tucson?”
“Well, them and the people we actually have on the police force.” Both her eyebrows went up at that reply, and he continued, “We have a couple of clan members with the Tucson P.D., and then more in the Phoenix area. It’s kind of cheap insurance to make sure any witchy things we don’t want noticed get swept under the rug. Don’t you do that in Jerome?”
“Not really,” she said. “I mean, Roslyn’s older sister Jenny worked in dispatch for the Cottonwood police department for a while, but she decided she really didn’t like it that much, so she quit. I think the Wilcoxes might have some of their family in law enforcement, though. I can’t remember for sure.”
Alex figured if the de la Paz family was canny enough to make sure a few of its members were carefully placed in the local police and sheriff’s departments, then you could bet the Wilcoxes would have done the same thing. Simple insurance. He wasn’t sure why the McAllisters hadn’t done something similar, but maybe they figured they were isolated enough in their little hillside town that such measures weren’t necessary.
Lifting his shoulders, he said, “Well, it just means we have some eyeballs in places that count. I don’t know if that’s going to be enough, though. It depends on how often they might crawl out from wherever it is they’re staying.”