Chapter 85

Sunday morning was a bit of a recap of Saturday night. A slower, mellower replaying of the highlights. Once the 'glow' began to fade, and the cool air began to make the drying sweat uncomfortable, it was shower time. The shower was a playful event, and if I hadn't tried to so hard the night before to live up to that request, it might have taken longer, but while I was willing, 'Sarge' was AWOL.

What? Every guy has a name for theirs, don't they? So what if you haven't really met Sarge. Kelli has, and that's all that counts.

"I need to work out," I said as we were dressing. Care to join me?"

"I'd love to watch you work out, but I've got to get going. I'm expected to go to church with the family. There will be a lot of praying for Roberto today."

"Not even breakfast then?"

"No, sorry," she laughed. "Hate to ... shower and run," the laugh turned into a giggle."

"Not a problem. The whole evening was sort of last minute."

"This stink with Roberto will be over with soon. I"ll be settled into my new position, and then we'll have more time together, I promise."

We kissed at the door and I waved goodbye as she pulled away.

Weird. Here I was, the guy trying to hide a burgeoning secret identity and the second life it entailed, and Kelli was the one making excuses for not being able to spend as much time as we'd like together.

I worked out for an hour and came back up to find breakfast cooking. Another shower took care of the sweat from the workout and then it was waffles and fried eggs with toast and coffee.

The distant sounds of construction began again while I was eating. The ADT sanctioned work on the new fence around the main property was under way. Mostly it was a pair of backhoes digging holes and trenches. Since they were at the edges of the property, it was hardly noticeable.

"This is much better.," Mrs. Trinh observed as we ate.

"Don't get used to it," I said. "The pool crew has the day off, but they'll be back tomorrow, and the noise level will go up again."

"I think you're right, but I'm hoping it won't be so bad now that they are done digging the big hole."

"Well, the noise level may not get reduced, but the ground-shaking vibrations might, so there's a chance. By the way, didn't we agree that you had Sundays off? Why are you fixing me breakfast this morning?"

"Well I have to eat too, you know, and I live here," she tittered. "Besides, its hard to cook breakfast for one."

"I hope Kelli spending the night and then not staying for breakfast didn't cause you too much trouble."

"Oh not at all," the way she said it made it sound like it was no surprise to her that Kelli stayed, or that she wouldn't stay for breakfast. I wonder how much behind the scenes prearranging might have occurred. Better not to ask, I think.

With Mrs. Trinh supposedly on her day off, I gathered my bedding and towels together and started a load of laundry. With the washer going I slipped into the cavern. There were a lot of new transcriptions from Net. Hierro was burning up the aether, calling Paco Serna and this time, even Ya Ya Marchiria directly.

I began reading the transcribed intercepts from this latest burst of activity, skipping some of the older stuff that remained unread. I read with an increasing sense of foreboding that turned to icy certainty when I read Hierro saying 'I want her dead, you hear me? I want her and her redheaded lover dead! Today!"

He'd hung up then, not waiting for an answer. I needed answers though. "Are you sure of the translation?" I asked Bud.

"Net is," Bud replied. "The word is pelirrojo – that is redhead male in Spanish. Pelirroja would be a redheaded female.

"Hierro is Roberto Montoya," I said aloud. "How stinking weird is that?" Especially since my hair wasn't that red! More a reddish brown, I'd always thought.

If there had been any doubt about the connection, It was resolved as I read further in the transcriptions. Paco Serna called YaYa Marchiria later in the day. The loyal soldier Marchiria immediately reported the call he'd received from Hierro.

"This is the guy," Marchiria said. "We already kill his parents. Now Hierro wants him dead too, and a young woman from a local family."

"A family with deep roots in the community," Serna added. "I know why he wants this. The connection to the redhead and his family is coincidence, but the woman? That request is personal for him."

"Personal or not, it is loco!" Marchiria spat. "We would be crazy to do as he is demanding. It would be the end of us."

"If we tell him no on this, he will end our association. You know his money is what keeps us going."

"Why?" Marchiria spat again. "Why do we need his money? Why do we do the dirty work for him in this plan to steal land cheaply? What kind of work is that for us? Does it keep us out of the drug trade? No! Does it keep us from running guns south across the border? No!"

"No, it hasn't kept us from the old ways, but it has let us grow beyond the little street gang we used to be."

"We should go back to what we were, and tell this little devil we are done with him."

"I cannot do that, old friend, and you know why."

"Because you swore an oath as children, I know. Sometimes children do foolish things. For this, they are corrected. We had better stop these childish things before we too are corrected."