The Gods of Guilt(78)

“That’s good.”

“Yeah, real good.”

I opened the contacts file on my phone and scrolled down to the Vs. I might not have had Fernando Valenzuela on speed dial anymore but I knew I still had his cell on my contacts list. I made the call and wondered if he’d answer when my name came up on the screen. I was about to hang up before it went to message when he finally picked up.

“Yo, Mick, don’t tell me you’re calling me with all of this work you promised me.”

“As a matter of fact, Val, I thought you should know that I’ve partnered up with Fulgoni, so it looks like we’ll be working together again after all.”

“Ain’t that a shame. I’ll believe it when I hear it from Fulgoni, not you.”

“That’s fine. You call him. But there’s something I need from you right now.”

“Of course there is. But I’m not falling for this shit, Haller. I’ll call Fulgoni and if he clears it, then I’ll see what you need.”

“You can do whatever you want, Val. But I need you to text me the photo you took of Giselle Dallinger when you papered her back in November. You got that? Giselle Dallinger. If I don’t get it in the next ten minutes, you’re fired.”

“We’ll see what Sly says about that.”

“Sly and his old man are working for me. I don’t work for them. You’ve got nine minutes now, Val.”

I disconnected the call. Something about Valenzuela always got under my skin. He always acted like he knew something I didn’t, like he had something on me.

“That true?” Earl asked from the front seat. “You and Fulgoni partnering up?”

“Just on one case, Earl. That’s about all I could take with those guys.”

Earl nodded.

I looked around and saw that he had us back on the 15 Freeway heading south. Traffic was sparse and it gave me hope that we might get into L.A. before the afternoon traffic crunch. That would allow me to keep rolling with the momentum the prison visit had brought.

I called Cisco to once again redirect his activities.

“I’m going to need you to go to Colorado.”

“What’s in Colorado?”

“A guy named Budwin Dell. He was a witness against Moya at his trial. He’s an unlicensed gun dealer from Littleton who testified that he sold the gun to Hector Moya at a gun show in Nogales. I think he lied. I think somebody from the ICE team maybe put him up to it. The ATF probably had something on him. I want you to go talk to him and see if he’s going to hold up when I get him on the stand.”

“I’m working five different things here, Mick. You want me to drop it all and catch a plane?”

Sometimes momentum can move you too far too quickly. Cisco had a good point.

“I want you to go when the time is right. But I think this guy’s going to be key.”

“Okay. I’ll get out there by the end of the week. But first I’ll make sure he’s in Colorado. If he’s still on the gun show circuit, he might be anywhere. They’re all the rage these days.”

“Good point. I’ll leave it in your hands, then. You know what to do.”

“Okay, what else you get up there?”

“Sly Fulgoni Jr. subpoenaed Gloria a week before she was murdered. I think that’s what triggered the whole thing. They killed her before she could talk.”

Cisco whistled. He did that whenever a piece of the puzzle fell into place.

“There was no subpoena found in her place. I studied the inventory.”

“Because they took it. That’s why she was killed in her home. They had to find the subpoena or the locals might ask questions.”

“How did they know?”

“Fulgoni filed it under seal, so I’m thinking Gloria told the wrong person about it.”

“Marco?”

“That’s who I’m guessing. But I don’t want to guess. I want to nail it down.”

“Phone records?”

“If there are any. La Cosse said he and Gloria used burners that they changed all the time.”

“I’ll see what I can find. You might have to ask a judge for Marco’s records and we’ll try to match her numbers from the burners.”

“That’ll be a fight to the finish.”

“What else did you get up there, Mick? Sounds like a good trip.”

“Yeah, well, I think I got our case. We just need to nail down this guy Budwin Dell and a few other things . . .”

Prompted by thinking about the fight that would ensue if I sought Marco’s phone records, I was suddenly struck by where the case’s true battle would most likely be.

“It’s going to be a subpoena case,” I said. “Getting these people into court. Dell, Marco, Lankford—none of them are going to willingly testify. Their agencies will fight it tooth and nail. The feds will even fight my putting Moya on the stand. They’ll cite public safety, the cost to taxpayers, anything to prevent him from being brought down to L.A. to testify.”