Chapter 42

He put his hand on his crotch and asked, "You want this?"

"I don't know what you got?" I asked.

He opened his fly and showed me a very average sized penis. "Suck it," he said. "You Anglos do it so much better."

"Not here, too public," I said turning to walk into the lady's room. I peed then returned to the club. I never thought I would be glad there was no hallway outside a ladies room. Martinez was still waiting.

"Come we will go to my car," he said.

I followed him outside. When we got outside he led me to a jacked up older car. It looked like a crew car. I wished I had known about this, we could have just used it, I thought. He slipped me into the rear seat then he sat beside me and worked his penis out of his pants.

"Now puta no more stalling," he said. He pulled my head down painfully. I took his penis in my mouth and began to nurse on it. It took only seconds for Jeremy to reach into the car and hit him with the needle. We both held him till he was completely out.

"Let's get the Impala over here and get him inside," I demanded. A few people came out of the club so I expected his crew to come out shooting at any moment. It didn't happen thank god. The people who came out mostly ignored us. I said drunk to the others. We got out of the parking lot with nobody really questioning us. The people who frequented that club sure as hell didn't know us on sight.

When we got to the community center, we checked to be sure no one had followed us. Then we loaded the Q10 leader into my truck where he slept peacefully. "Probably the best he had since he was a kid," I said.

"He sure as hell has no worries at the moment. That is about to change though," Alice said almost bubbly. I had to wonder if Andrew did a psychiatric evaluation on her.

Alice followed Jeremy while he took the stolen car back to the parking lot. With just a little luck it would be days before they found that the car had been taken out for a joy ride. By the time they found out hopefully the tape would have been erased.

I drove directly to my house and ran in to pick up the black canvas bag by the door and a medium long camo hunting coat. I was back in three minutes. Martinez didn't move a Muscle. I drove him up to the cabins on the old church property. I waited for Jeremy and Alice to show. It took them a half hour after I arrived at the Cabin, but they made it without incident.

It took all three of us to get the younger man inside the cabin. Jeremy and Alice wore knit ski masks which could be pulled down when Martinez began to come around. Which is exactly what they did. I didn't bother he had already seen me. He either had to be convinced we were thorough or he was going to have to die.

I had a fire going in the cabin when he came around. "So you decided to rejoin us," I said.

"What is happening here?" he asked.

"Oh well, we are going to have a little conversation, that's all," I said.

"About what?" he asked.

"About your involvement in this," I said sliding the note from Carlos' windshield in front of him.

"I had nothing to do with this. Q10 had nothing to do with it," he said.

"You did see the signature on the note," I asked.

"Fuck you puta," he said.

"He isn't taking me serious, should I convince him that he needs to cooperate?" I asked it of Jeremy who nodded his hooded head.

I very quickly used the bush pruners to harvest the first joint of the little finger on his left hand. Then I hit the wound with the propane torch to cauterize it. If there had been a neighbor within five miles they likely would have heard him scream. The smell of burned flesh was sickening, but I forced myself to smile like a complete idiot.

"Now that I have your attention, and you have proved you are macho for your gang members, let's get down to helping each other. No one ever has to know." I slipped digital pad in front of him. On the pad was a picture of Jose. "Have you ever seen him before?" I asked.

"Fuck you," he said. I quickly cut off another joint of the same finger then cauterize the wound.

"Come on tough guy don't faint like a little puta," I said slapping him.

"Water," he said weakly.

"You can have all the water you want, when you cooperate. Now do you know the young man?" I asked it while twirling the clippers in my hand.

"I have never seen him before," he said.

"I believe you. See that wasn't so hard. So Q10 didn't kidnap and kill him?" I asked.

"No, we didn't kidnap him or kill him," he said.

"Do you recognize this man," I said changing the picture in the pad to the picture of the man who took the ransom money.

"Him, I do recognize," he said.

"Well Martinez, he set your ass up for this," I said.

"This piece of shit did this to me?" he asked very upset.

"You guessed it. He might as well have hung the target on your back. Now we have to talk about your final disposition," I said.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I have two options. I can kill you and drop your body in a lake to wash away any trace evidence," I said sounding like a cop. I knew the county cops were dirty, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to think they would do the questioning of Martinez. "Instead I could let you go, if you gave me your word this ends right here and now between us. I will even let you make an anonymous call to the cops. One where you name the kidnapper, or you could question him yourself. If you do that, I will give you a cell phone number to call and leave a message."

"So should I go with the guaranteed course of action, or should I trust you. So can I trust you?" I asked.

"Yes, you have done nothing I wouldn't have done," he said carefully choosing his words.

"Good, now you have seen my face so you might be able to track me down, but you have not seen the faces of my two friends. If anything happens to me. If I have an auto accident or I walk in front of a car or become the victim of a drive by shooting, Mrs. Martinez, your mother, will die a very painful death." I showed him a picture of her at home working in her garden. Then there is your older brother. Your girl friend and your baby, and lest I forget your dog Satan. So do you get the picture, or should I kill one of them tonight to prove I'm serious." I had no idea if anything I said was a bluff or not. I doubted that it was. I had feeling Church Camp would not appreciate having spent all the money on us, to have a punk like Martinez and Q10 thug wannabees mess it up.

He had looked at me with hate in his eye at first, but it had changed to respect mixed with a healthy dose of fear. "Remember this, they know you, but you don't know them," I said it then I hit him with more horse tranquilizer.

We left him outside the county dog pound with a blanket to keep him warm. I had a feeling he was going to be pretty miserable for about a week.

We cleaned up the cabin before we all drove home and rode our trikes to breakfast. I even spoke to the SMP officers. "Did you get those reflectors for your uniforms?" I asked.

"No, but we did get our jack boots out of storage," one said and the others laughed.

"You are a fucking psychopath," Jeremy said with a laugh.

"I for one love it," Alice said. "Do you expect to hear from Martinez today.

"No idea, he could easily sleep all day or be in the hospital emergency room. If he went there the cops have him," I said staying very cool.

"Let's all go home and have sex," Jeremy suggested.

"I'm going home and sleep. You should do the same, just in case you have to kill his mother tonight," I said.

"Yes, but I want another biscuit. I had no idea torture makes one so hungry," Jeremy said way to casually. Who were these fucking people, I asked myself.

I did go home and I did nap but it was only for a couple of hours. It was 10 AM before I got moving even though I had been up an hour drinking warmed over coffee and staring at the fire. It was then that I got the idea.

I called the man who manufactured my stoves in the garage outside his house. "Hey Essi, I have a suggestion for you. Since the power goes off every time it snows, why not put a tempered glass door on the stove instead of steel. That way there would be light in the cabin even without the electricity. Just a thought," I said. I never claimed that I didn't have the mind of a bipolar bitch. He said he agreed and would look into it.

I found Martinez's message on the line by noon. "Our friend says he found the package in that condition, so he used his knowledge of how we operate to process it. He also said the man who left the package was one of yours. We are even. Do not ever come back to my club again."

"Right," I said to the message machine that had just finished playing his message. "So," I said aloud in my empty house. "I'm pretty sure the man who collected the ransom didn't lie. Well at least not for long. So was it Bradshaw's husband. My money was definitely on him. He was suspect number one. Suspect number two had to be Joan herself. She was known to lie, so I couldn't believe her statements to me.

Finally Carlos called, "Senorita Rose," he started to cry. I wanted to make it easier for him but I couldn't unless I wanted to put my cover in jeopardy. "I'm sorry Seniorita but Jose is dead. The police found him last night but didn't identify him until today."

"I am sorry Carlos. Is there anything I can do for you or Nita?" I asked.

"No Senorita Rose, they killed him. The police said he had been dead all along. I will repay you the money," he said

"Don't worry about that right now," I said. "So the police said someone killed him. Do they know who?"

"It was not Q10. It was someone else. A North Americano I think. There are some things that point to it," he said.

"Well, I hope they find whoever did this," I said sadly. "Please is there anything I can do?"

"No but I will let you know if anything comes up," he said.

"Very well," I replied. I could have asked him about work, but I was trying to act like I didn't know anything. I was also leaving messages for Joan Bradshaw every half hour. I went to College Hill, then called back to the police on the burner phone where Martinez had left the message. I suggested that Joan Bradshaw and her husband should be questioned. Then I cleaned and disposed of that phone. The cops might be able to pull up the one message I had received on it. I really didn't care if they did.