Macken took the papers without expression.
"These are the transport records of the truck we have eyewitness reports of leaving the senator's quarry." Casey handed him a DVD. "You'll see the truck go through Mexican customs on this, positively IDed by our witnesses."
Casey handed him a separate folder and said, "I'd say this is our star piece of evidence, but it's not. Good enough, though. Copies of bank records showing the millions the senator has received from Kroft Labs."
Casey shut the briefcase. Macken looked up from the papers and studied her face.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Oh," she said, fishing into her pants pocket and taking out her cell phone, "right. This is the real kicker. The jury will love this, a cop on the witness stand always works wonders. Lots of credibility."
Macken shot a sneering smile at Jose and said, "Ex-cops bounced for corruption? Ex-cops under investigation for murder? He doesn't quite count, does he?"
Casey glanced at Jose, then turned her attention to Macken and said, "Oh, not Jose. No. Someone near and dear to your heart. Our star witness."
She hit the play button on her phone, already cued to the right point, and Gage's voice filled the room.
"They're gone. They're all gone…" Gage said.
"Where?" Teuch's muffled voice asked.
" Mexico," Gage said. "I don't know where. I don't. Chase knows. He knows."
Casey snapped it shut before Gage's scream and let the soft paddling of the fan fill the silence.
"You think he's too busy for this?" she asked.
"What do you want?" Macken asked.
"Everything I said on the phone," she said.
Macken blinked, looked at her blankly, and then said, "I think I should speak with the senator directly."
"Good idea," Casey said. "Mind if we wait outside? This place has an odor."
CHAPTER 72
CASEY AND JOSe LEANED AGAINST THE HOOD OF THE BATTERED Mercedes watching gardeners disappear with the coming light. Birds showed in inky patterns on lonely mesquite branches. The hills across the river lay like sleeping giants, garbed in purple robes. Pastures and woods stretched as far as they could see.
"Good land," Jose said, stretching his legs out in front of him and folding his arms across his chest. "Too bad it belongs to such a turd."
"Land good enough for corporate farming," Casey said. "Lots of jobs for people like Elijandro to come up here for."
"Nice if they could work some of this land for themselves," Jose said.
Casey kept staring at the horizon. A fountain of burning sunlight sprang up from behind the hills.
"But it's not theirs," Casey said, without taking her eyes off the sunrise. "It's ours, right?"
"What does that mean?" Jose asked placidly.
"A river of mud," Casey said.
"The Rio Grande?"
"You just got to be lucky and get born on the right side," Casey said as the first of the sun's rays glinted at them.
"Nice sentiment. But have you ever been to Detroit?"
"Good point.''
"And a US border town ain't no Veracruz, either,'' Jose said. He nodded and raised a hand to block the burning light. "You go there, you think you're in Europe."
The front door of the hacienda swung open and Macken walked double-time down the path until he stood beside them.
"Okay," he said, his face set and serious. "But we want that recording. We want your phone. And we'd like to speak with Chief Gage."
"Last time I saw him, his mouth was full.''
Macken gave her a puzzled look. Jose smiled.
"We're not responsible for Gage," Casey said. "Forget the deal."
"Wait," Macken said, holding up a hand. "I said we'd like to speak with him. We can proceed without him, but I have to have the phone."
"Everything else is the way I said?" Casey asked.
"Yes."
"Isodora and the baby?" she said. "Just like I laid out?"
"As long as you're willing to go to Mexico to get them, then yes."
Casey took out the phone and held it up in front of her.
"I want Jose cleared, too," she said.
Macken's eyes flickered to the phone. He licked his lips, nodded, and said, "Yes. Of course."
He held out one hand for the phone, extending the other to shake and close the deal.
Casey looked at him, not wanting to touch his hand. But she shook it, then surreptitiously wiped the cold sweat she'd picked up from his palm on her pants leg.
She dropped the phone into his other hand.
He smiled.
CHAPTER 73
SIX DAYS LATER, STACY WALKED INTO CASEY'S OFFICE, SHAKING her head in frustration. "There are two women outside, and I'm the one who has to tell them to go away?''
Casey looked up from her computer. Sharon slid another law book into place and turned away from the shelf to see Casey's reaction.
"Tell them tomorrow," Casey said. "We've still got to get this place back together."
Casey looked down at the budget spreadsheet in front of her and sighed. From the corner of her eye, she saw Stacy hadn't left, so she wasn't surprised to hear her speak.
"Well, they both have court appearances tomorrow, so I guess they're out of luck," Stacy said, sighing dramatically and turning from the doorway.
Casey kept her eyes on the numbers, mouthing them silently with her lips, but unable to really focus.
"All right," she said, looking up and directing her voice after Stacy. "Tell them to come around the back, though. I don't want to start an avalanche."
To Sharon she said, "Can you and Donna take these in the conference room? I can't do anything without Tina. Just do your best. Jose is on his way, and I'll get him to finish the books."
Sharon smiled, opened the back door, and showed the women through to the conference room. Casey tried to concentrate.
"Muchas gracias," one of the women said to her.
"Si, muchas gracias," the other said.
Casey looked up and nodded at their grateful eyes.
"De nada," she said.
"Speaking Spanish, now?" Jose said, striding through the door and closing it behind him.
"We're not supposed to be open until tomorrow, but they have court dates," she explained, sitting back in her chair.
"I knew you were a softie," Jose said, setting a folded newspaper down in front of her along with a tray of coffees from Starbucks. "We'll have to see about getting that fixed. You fixed everything else."
He pointed to a small article in the paper headlined FORMER COP CLEARED. Casey read the quotes from Ken Trent apologizing publicly for the department's sloppy murder investigation of Jose's aunt. Casey looked up, matching Jose's grin.
"Step one, anyway," she said.
"You weren't nervous, were you?" he asked.
"It's been almost a week," she said, knitting her brows.
"This stuff takes time," he said. "Big things you're putting into motion."
Stacy reappeared in the doorway.
"I know, the conference room," Casey said.
"Chase is on," Stacy said, breathless. "They're cutting in on GMA, live from Washington."
Stacy's eyes went to the TV on Casey's shelf.
"They didn't get mine hooked up yet," Casey said, scrambling around her desk and following Stacy into the old filling station front room.
Stacy raised a small TV from behind the counter and set it out for them to see. Sharon and Donna came in, crowding around Casey.
"Turn it up," Jose said.
Stacy reached for the button and shot him a look that said she knew to do that already. Chase sat between two other senators on the raised panel, with prodigious notes in front of him, and spoke into his microphone.
His hair was perfectly combed and his reading glasses were low on his nose. He had already begun when the audio switched on.
"-Have launched a full investigation, with the full cooperation of the Mexican government, into human rights abuses at the Kroft Labs facility in Nuevo Leon. This committee does not mean to suggest that the officers or board members of Royal Kroft Incorporated are in any way culpable for these horrible acts. Instead, we fully believe that these abuses were generated on a limited and local level. That said, Mexican federal authorities early this morning have raided the Kroft facility in Nuevo Leon and closed down the entire operation until it can be determined exactly who is responsible and they can be brought to justice.