‘Yes. We named him after his father. But then, it was awkward having two Vicentes, always together. So for convenience we called him by his middle name, José. And then when he grew up a little he wanted to be called Joey instead.’
‘But his social security card reads Vicente José García?’
‘Yes.’
‘All right. Thanks for calling me, Teresa, I’m sorry I had to interrupt your spa day. Don’t worry now, I know you did what you thought was right.’
‘I know I have no right to ask, but … if you arrest him again, will you let me know?’
‘Yes. I’ll be in touch, Teresa.’ She ran to Leo’s space, found him on the phone and stood in front of him making time-out signals. He said, ‘Hold one,’ into the phone. Then, to her, ‘What?’
She waved a paper under his nose, saying, ‘I have the name you should search for.’
He said, into the phone, ‘Gotta go. Talk to you later.’ He grabbed the paper she handed him, read it and caroled, ‘Oh, yes, baby!’ as he dialed the bank examiners’ number that, by now, he had memorized.
Walking away, she looked at her watch and said, aloud, ‘Four o’clock, though. Rats!’
Ollie popped his head out of his cubicle and asked her, ‘What’s wrong with four o’clock? Perfectly good time, almost quitting time.’
‘That’s what’s wrong with it. The bank examiners have all gone home, probably, so they won’t start scanning the state for Joey García’s account till tomorrow. And by then he’ll have the money in Mexico, what do you bet?’
‘Don’t we have a wants order on him at the border?’
‘Sure. You didn’t get the memo about the system not working to perfection? He’ll find some way to slip through the net.’
‘Sarah, this case is making you gloomy and paranoid.’
‘Yes, it is. What is it with this guy? He makes so many dumb mistakes, but yet he always seems to stay one step ahead of us.’ She didn’t say, ‘Of me,’ not wanting to own the failure. But that was how it felt, as if she had inadvertently engaged in mano-a-mano combat with Joey García, and he was winning.
Till the next morning at six a.m., when Delaney called and said, ‘Well, we found Joey García’s car. Joey’s in it, and he’s dead.’
FOURTEEN
‘Luz told me I’d find him in this part of town,’ Sarah said. A sign across Speedway said, ‘Elegant Junque,’ and another advertised, ‘Cash for Gold.’ The strip mall in the next block included a tattoo parlor, some factory close-outs and a motorcycle repair shop. Off-track wagering was featured in the nearby bar, and if that didn’t suit there were four more bars within easy staggering distance. ‘She was right. This is Joey’s natural turf.’
The Toyota was parked on a small bridge across the ditch that ran along Arcadia Street. Tall cottonwoods and scrap underbrush grew all along the ditch, so the car was hard to see until you were almost on top of it. The patrolman who found it in the dark said his lights just happened to reflect off the one spot on the rear bumper that wasn’t too dirty to reflect anything.
Delaney was worried about the big traffic jam he was sure was going to form along the narrow shoulder on the Arcadia Street side as soon as all the techs and detectives got here. ‘I don’t want anybody getting hurt here,’ he told Sarah. ‘Why don’t you go park in that empty parking lot behind the bar that’s over there on the other side of the ditch?’
Sarah parked behind the bar and walked back to the bridge, where the photographer was already busy taking pictures of the car. The rear of a fingerprint specialist protruded from the driver’s-side doorway, and a DNA tech was leaning into the car from the other side. Both of them kept readjusting the portable lights they’d clipped onto the doorframe. It was very dark on the bridge; the trees blocked out the street lights and the bar had only one small light burning over the door. But the DNA tech said, ‘I’m smelling a lot of sweat on the passenger’s seat. I’m going to swab this side really well and maybe I’ll do you some good. Damn, the light is tough, though!’
Sarah said, ‘You want me to hold the light for you?’ and did, for a couple of minutes. But it proved so difficult to fit two sets of arms in the small space that before long the tech said, ‘Nah, lemme clip it again, it’s easier.’
Delaney was pacing the Arcadia Street side of the bridge, catching detectives as they arrived and telling them to go back out onto Speedway and come in and park in the lot behind the sports bar.