Ruthanne nodded. “Yeah, he came out of the kitchen when we first got here. He didn’t seem particularly worried to me, but then again, what do I know?”

  “So other than the obvious questions about Justíno and why we need to talk to him, what else do you want me to find out?”

  Gail popped the bit of tortilla she was holding into her mouth and pulled a notepad from the briefcase at her feet. She flipped a few pages before finding what she was looking for. “For starters, I need to know who this lady named Gloria is who placed the original 911 call. She didn’t give the 911 operator her last name and was gone when Arnold arrived to take the original report.”

  I nodded and filed the name Gloria in the back of my mind for future reference. Gail continued, “Second, I know the victim isn’t a regular here, but the bartender said he’d seen her around on occasion. He couldn’t remember who she’d come in with in the past, but I got the feeling he was holding back. We asked Carmen, but when I showed her a picture of the lady, she said she’d never seen her before. And third, what the hell was Jason doing here? Granted, he’s a body builder who, from everything I’ve been able to gather, doesn’t,” She held up her fingers in little quotes. “look gay. But still, no self-respecting gay man would ever come here.” She took another bite, then spoke around the food in her mouth. “Especially at night.”

  Both Casey and Ruthanne nodded at that. Personally, I’d never paid much attention to whether there’d been gay men or lesbians in the bar whenever Megan and I had come in, but I don’t usually make those kinds of distinctions anyway so I wouldn’t be looking in the first place. “Have you asked Marcos why Jason was here?”

  Ruthanne nodded. “He insists Jason was with him the night of the rape, and since he is Jason’s alibi, I don’t think he’ll ever change that story.”

  I looked over at the bar. It hadn’t opened yet, so Jesus wasn’t anywhere to be found. When Celia returned with the plates of food for me and Casey, I caught her attention. “Hey, Celia. What time does Chuey come in today?”

  She blew out a long breath as she looked into the distance, apparently trying to see the employee schedules with her minds eye. “Let’s see, this is Friday so I’m pretty sure he comes in a little early to make sure the weekend delivery has arrived, and he has all the stuff he needs. I’m thinking he gets here around eleven.” She nodded to herself. “Yeah, I think around eleven. Why? Do you need to talk to him?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Gail flipped through her notebook, then stared up at Celia with a puzzled look on her face. “Has anybody talked to you yet about the night of the rape?” Celia slowly shook her head and Gail continued. “Is there somewhere we could go where I could ask you a few questions?”

  Celia turned to me with a beseeching look. I could tell she didn’t want to talk to Gail, but I also saw that she knew something about that night. I moved my foot under the table until it rested on top of Gail’s shoe. She glanced up at me but knew enough not to say anything. I reached over and tapped her empty tortilla plate. “Dang, Gail, you’ve still got beans but nothing to scoop ‘em with. How tragic is that?”

  Gail laughed and Celia hurried off to get her some more tortillas. When she was gone, Gail motioned towards me with her chin. “You think she’ll be more willing to talk if it’s just the two of you?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe, but I think you and I should pay her a visit someplace other than here. Not her home, but someplace neutral and safe. Let me think about it for a minute, okay?”

  When Celia returned with the hot plate full of warm, buttered tortillas, Gail thanked her profusely and dug into her beans with a relish. Celia took the opportunity to quickly head over to another table to serve some other guests.

  When I’d finished my meal, I pushed my chair back and stood. “I’m gonna to go say hello to Fernando. I’ll be right back.” On the way to the kitchen, I glanced around the room to see if I recognized any of the patrons seated at the other tables. No one looked familiar, but one woman caught my eye and quickly glanced away. I wasn’t sure what that was all about. I filed it away for future reference and stepped through the swinging door that led into the kitchen. Fernando stood at a chopping block mincing what looked to me to be an enormous amount of garlic. He already had a large bowl three quarters of the way filled and there was still a large pile of freshly peeled cloves waiting to be minced.

  “Ah, Detective Wolfe, Celia told me you’d returned this morning to enjoy our hospitality. Please forgive me for not welcoming you properly, but without Justíno here to help with the food preparation all of the work falls to me and Carmen or Celia.” He lifted an elbow to indicate Carmen who was stirring a heavy pot on the stove. “If Carmen is out serving, Celia cooks, if Celia is out, well, as you can see, Carmen stirs the pots.”

  “Wait a minute. Justíno’s your chef? For some reason I thought he helped out with the bar.”

  Silence filled the little kitchen except for Fernando’s chopping. I tried to catch Carmen’s attention, but she studiously stirred her pot and refused to look at me. “Carmen, I understand you didn’t work the night of the rape, is that right?” I almost missed the small headshake she gave me for an answer. “So, do you know who was here that night? Who worked?” She shook her head again.

  Fernando continued chopping steadily with his knife. “I’ve already given Detective Redfox the schedule of who worked that night. You can ask her if you need that information.”

  I picked a tortilla chip out of a bowl on the counter and took a small bite. “Hey Nando. I have a question for you. What happens if a gay guy comes in here? Does that happen very often?”

  Carmen snorted and Fernando shushed her with a scowl. “You have to understand, Detective Wolfe, in my culture, the men are macho.” He beat his chest with the fist that was holding the knife. “Many of the Mexicans who come in here are hard men.” He resumed his garlic chopping. “Me? I have a little brother who lives with another man.” He looked up at me and smiled. “And honestly? I like his boyfriend better than I like my own flesh and blood, can you believe that? But here, at the bar, my customers are macho men who treat gay men very badly. If I see or hear it, I stop it, but mostly I’m here in the kitchen and don’t see it, so, gay people, they mostly don’t come.”

  I heard the back door open behind me, and when Carmen muttered, “Dios mío.” I turned and came face to face with Rodolfo Aguilar. We stared at each other, both of us sizing the other one up, me wondering if I could take him in a fight, him probably wondering if he could kill me and get away with it. Fernando had stopped chopping and was standing in a way that made me wonder if he thought he could protect Carmen from the viper who’d just slithered his way into the kitchen.

  Little brother Enrique came through the door next with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. He rolled it back and forth across his bottom lip using only his tongue, his little rat eyes flicking from person to person as he gazed at each one of us in turn.

  Carmen began backing toward the large freezer directly behind her. Her movement seemed to break the spell holding all of us in its grip. In an instant, the viper reached behind his back and the rat lunged toward Fernando who instinctively brought his chef’s knife up into a defensive position. As soon as I saw the viper reach behind his back, I drew my Glock—luckily, I was quicker than he was—and yelled, “Freeze, Rodolfo or you’re a dead man!”

  He froze, not moving a muscle except for a slight movement of his upper lip. It seemed to curl upwards, not into any type of smile but more like a slow-motion tic that drew the flesh away from his teeth one tiny bit at a time. Fernando had backed up enough that Enrique hadn’t been able to grab him. The rat stood between Rodolfo and Fernando clenching and unclenching his fists.

  A half second later the door to the dining area slammed open and Casey, Ruthanne, and Gail all poured in with weapons drawn. Even with the three women surging in and moving into position, Rodolfo’s eyes never moved away from mine. He’d turned to stone, his malevolence searing into my soul with a malignancy unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I can’t explain it, but I felt as if the personification of evil was standing in front of me dragging me down into the pits of hell.

  Casey spoke from somewhere off to my left. “If there’s a gun in that hand behind your back, drop it now.” When Rodolfo didn’t move, Ruthanne stepped around the chopping table, grabbed Fernando by the back of his shirt and tried to pull him and Carmen out into the bar.

  Fernando lowered his knife. His voice shook slightly when he spoke to her. “No, no, it’s okay. It’s all a misunderstanding, Detectives. These…” He fumbled around for the right word, “…friends stop by many times.” He took a step forward. “Rodolfo, por favor, No hay ningún daño.”

  Gail spoke up then. “That’s right, there’s no harm done. Just turn around so we can see what’s behind your back. Then we’ll talk.” Slowly, the viper uncoiled. He brought his arm down to his side and we could see that he wasn’t holding a weapon. “Okay, now, lift your shirt and turn around.” When he turned, we saw he had a semiautomatic handgun tucked into the waistband of his pants. Since the rest of us all had our guns pointed at his back, Casey holstered her weapon, moved forward and took control of the gun. She then put him into handcuffs while Gail patted down Enrique.

  When she found a small handgun tucked into the upper part of one of his boots, she handcuffed him as well. I holstered my weapon and listened while Ruthanne got on the radio and called for a patrol officer to come transport them down to the main station. Both of them were not only convicted felons illegally carrying firearms, but they’d snuck back into the country illegally and I was sure Chuck would be more than happy to send them packing again. Heaven forbid the court system hold them accountable for any of the above-mentioned crimes they’d committed.

  Casey and Gail took the two men outside to wait while Ruthanne and I tried to talk to Fernando and Carmen. Neither of them wanted to talk and honestly, with a bar full of people wanting their breakfast, this wasn’t exactly the most opportune time to get any information out of them. I signaled to Ruthanne to go wait outside and when she left, I pulled up a stool and sat next to the chopping table where Fernando had resumed his decimation of the garlic cloves.

  Neither of us spoke for a while. I thought I’d just wait a little to see if Fernando would offer up something on his own. Carmen had also returned to her pots. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her reach up and brush a tear off her cheek. When she realized I had seen what she’d done, her face crumpled, and she covered her mouth with her other hand. “Tell her, Fernando. You have to tell her.”

  He stopped chopping and carefully set the knife on the chopping block. After a big sigh, he said, “I have worked hard my whole life, Detective Wolfe. Never did I believe…” He shook his head sadly.

  While I waited for him to tell what Carmen thought I should know, Celia came hurrying into the kitchen carrying a tray full of dirty dishes. She set the tray on the counter and unloaded everything into the sink, then turned to face us. “When all the commotion happened in here, everybody asked for their checks and left.”

  My patience was wearing pretty thin and I thought it was time to take the plunge. “Okay, you guys. There’s something going on here and I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you know. So… here’s a list of questions. You can pipe in with the answers anytime. One.” I held up one finger. “Why are Rodolfo and his brother hanging around here? Two.” My second finger joined the first. “Who the hell’s Gloria? Three.” I put up a third finger and then held my hands out to my side. “What the hell happened to Justíno?”

  Celia angrily walked up to me and rested her hands on her hips. “You think we don’t talk to you because we don’t want to? Those two men you just took are killers. And they come from una familia de killers, so don’t think just because you take them away that we are now safe to talk to you.” She motioned toward the Glock on my hip. “We don’t have guns we carry around, even though sometimes I think we should.”

  Fernando walked over and put his arm around Celia’s shoulders. “My daughter is frightened, Detective Wolfe, or she wouldn’t speak to you in this way. We know what you found when you went to talk to Justíno yesterday. We don’t know where he is. He’s my nephew, and we have many, many people out looking for him.”

  I pointed out the back door. “Do you think Rudolfo and his brother had something to do with his disappearance?” All three immediately shook their head.

  Fernando dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. “Rudolfo is un demonio encarnado pero he’s one we know how to live with. Please, stop asking us questions about the rape. It happened, it’s over.”

  “What does that mean, he’s um… whatever it was you called him.”

  “Demonio encarnado.” He tried several times to translate the words into English before giving up and looking to Celia for help.

  Celia shook her head. “I don’t know the words. It means…a demon walking the earth…?” She seemed to be asking me if that’s what it meant, and I had no idea. Once again, I held my hands out to my sides to show I really didn’t understand

  “It means evil incarnate.” Gail strode into the kitchen from the back alley where she’d been waiting for a patrol car to arrive. “And I agree with you one hundred percent, Fernando. When I stand next to him…” She shuddered and glanced at the door she’d just come in. “My grandfather, Eagle Who Calls, was a tribal shaman. He walked the spirit world with the ancestors of our tribe. His spirit guide was a shy coyote and the two of them roamed the spirit realm asking questions and returning with answers that, many times my people didn’t know needed to be asked.” She smiled at the memories and Carmen nodded with understanding.

  I didn’t know Gail Redfox very well, but I’d heard Ruthanne talk about the wonderful stories she’d tell on some of their longer stakeouts. She was a natural born storyteller, and I was interested to see where she was going with this particular tale.

  She acknowledged Carmen’s encouragement with a nod of her own. “There were many times that I sat with Eagle Who Calls as he walked with his friend the shy coyote. One time, we sat next to the campfire. My grandfather was swaying and chanting, completely unaware of the physical world around him. As I sat staring into the fire, I felt a blackness descend on our campsite and I watched as a vile, obscene being formed within the smoke of our fire.”

  Carmen crossed herself while Gail continued. “Grandfather went into convulsions. I couldn’t move and I watched as that cloud of evil swept toward me.” She stopped and shook herself as though trying to get the image out of her mind.

  Celia whispered, “What happened to you? What happened to your grandfather?”

  I watched as Gail kept shaking her head back and forth in a slow, wide motion. Finally, she seemed to gather herself. After taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly she said, “He died. My grandfather died that night.” She looked over at me. “I know it doesn’t sound like something a professional law enforcement officer would say or believe, but I think he died because he was wrestling that demon to keep it away from me. Just before the smoke got to me, I saw a vision of a coyote leaping into the swirling mist, and then the evil was gone, but so was Eagle Who Calls.” She let out a guttural sigh. “Anyway, when I stand next to Rudolfo, I see that image in the smoke, and I know the same spirit my grandfather wrestled with that night inhabits that demonio encarnado standing outside right now in handcuffs. That’s why I had to come inside for a few minutes.”

  She seemed a little abashed and I wasn’t sure what to say. That was a really strange story, but in a funny way, I knew exactly what she was talking about because I’d felt that same thing when Rudolfo was staring at me. We were silent for a while until Gail pulled her notebook and pen out of her back pocket. “Anyway, I’m not really sure why you guys are giving us the run around, but somebody here must know something about what happened the other night.”

  Fernando started to speak but Gail held up her hand. “I know, I know, we need to talk to Justíno, but we can’t find him, he may be dead for all we know, and unlike my grandfather, I can’t walk the spirit world looking for him.”

  No one offered any information, so Gail continued to press. “Here’s an easy question. Who is Gloria?”

  Fernando glanced back at Carmen and Celia elbowed him in the ribs. He immediately turned back, but not before I saw the guilt flit across Carmen’s face. I stepped over to the stove and put my hand on hers to still her frantic stirring. “Carmen, who is Gloria?”

  A tear slid down her cheek. She quickly reached up to wipe it off. It was obvious she had more information than she was letting on and I waited quietly, wanting to let her know I wasn’t going anywhere until she told us what we needed to know. After a long pause, she spoke so quietly I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly. “I am.”

  I blinked several times trying to make sense of what she’d just said. “You? You made the 911 call that night?” Another tear appeared and I put my fingers under her chin so that I could look into her eyes. “Carmen, you know you’re not in any trouble, right?”

  She covered her eyes and began weeping, and I looked around with what I’m sure was a perplexed expression on my face. Gail walked over to put her arm around Carmen’s shoulders and led her out into the empty bar so they could speak in private. Celia glared at me as she walked to the stove, picked up the spoon and took up stirring where Carmen had left off. “Papa, you’d better call Arny to come into work. It’s almost time for the lunch crowd and now we’re missing both Justíno and Carmen.”

  Fernando obediently took out his cell phone. He walked a short distance away and began calling in his employees. I studied Celia a minute. “So, you guys honestly don’t know what happened to Justíno? Do you at least know what your dad thought he could tell me?”