Clare's house would be cool. She believed air-conditioning was a constitutional right. He had helped her install a window unit last summer. She would have iced tea-sweet, like they made it down south-and cold beer. A glass for him and a bottle for her. He could stretch out in one of her oversized chairs and they could talk.
Yeah. Talk.
He knew, as soon as he stepped onto the marble floor of the entryway, that something had happened. He could hear the churn of conversation all the way down the hall. Eric emerged from the squad room, grinning. He sketched them a jaunty wave. "I'm outta here. My son's got a game."
"What's up?" Russ asked.
Eric's grin widened. "Go take a look."
Russ strode in, Knox on his heels. Lyle and Kevin were bent over a desk, heads bumping together, examining what looked like circ sheets. "What's up?" Russ asked.
Lyle looked up, grinning. "We've ID'd John Doe one. He's Rosario de las Cruces, late of Prendiepe, Mexico. The Agencia Federal de Investigación faxed a whole buttload of stuff on him." He waved Kevin back and handed the papers to Russ. "He's associated with the Punta Diablos gang, which has members on both sides of the border: pot coming north and guns going south. He spent a nickel in prison, Federales de somethin'-or-other; you can read it for yourself"-he jammed a finger at the appropriate spot-"but he's got no record of ever being in this country, which is why his prints didn't turn up with our usual search." He grabbed the papers back out of Russ's hands and yanked one sheet to the top. "Here's the Anti-Gang Task Force report on the Punta Diablos; they think de las Cruces was fairly high-level management but not at the top. Didn't get near the product-he was put away for unlicensed possession of a gun, criminal threatening, and currency violations."
"Currency violations?"
"Money laundering."
Russ felt a flare of excitement as the facts finally began to line up. "Our mid-level manager?"
"Could be. Although, seeing as he's dead, he's not telling anybody the names and addresses of his distributors."
"Unless he recorded the info somewhere." He and Lyle smiled at each other in wolflike satisfaction. "CD?" he asked. "Or one of those little whatchamacallits that you stick in the side of a computer?"
"Flash drive," Kevin Flynn said.
"Thank you, Kevin."
Lyle shook his head. "Too easy to duplicate. Plus, it's hard to really erase one of those things. They'd want something they could destroy completely if the Feds came knocking."
"Good old paper and pen?"
"A notebook," Lyle said. "Or a diary, or a journal."
"When they tossed Clare's place"-some of the good feeling fizzled away-"that's what they were looking for. Whoever 'they' are."
Lyle rocked back on his heels and rubbed two fingers over his lips. "They didn't find it that night. And it wasn't bagged with the money and the.357 Taurus. So either Esfuentes never had it, or he kept it someplace else entirely."
"Or it's still hidden at the church," Knox said.
They both turned to face her. She shifted from foot to foot, looking like she wished she hadn't spoken up. "There are books and notebooks all over the place. In the main office. In Reverend Clare's office. Hell, in the Sunday School room. Amado went everywhere, cleaning. He could have slipped it between a couple of other items and no one would have noticed."
Lyle was nodding. "Makes sense." He looked at Russ. "You said he led a pretty prescribed life, right? The Catholic church in Lake George, visits to the house out at your sister's farm, and St. Alban's."
"Right."
"He's not gonna leave it at the Catholic church. What if he can't get back? Same deal for stashing it in one of the volunteers' cars."
"It's possible he left it at the migrants' bunkhouse." Which meant the same crew who tossed Clare's house might be coming over to the McGeochs. He'd have to warn Janet not to let the girls anywhere near the new farm.
"Possible," Lyle said. "But he didn't leave the gun and the money there. The place has been on the patrol list ever since we twigged to the Hispanic connection, and so far it's been quieter'n a-well, quieter than the church, that's for sure."
Russ glanced toward Knox, the only other one of them to speak Spanish. "It's not urgent, then. Knox, you and Kevin can head over there tomorrow to do a search. I'll call ahead and let my sister and her husband know."
She nodded. He remembered her kids. Made a point of looking at the clock on the wall. "Okay, you're off duty. Stop bucking for overtime and go home."
She nodded, her relief plain. She turned.
"Hadley," Lyle said. "One more thing about de las Cruces." She turned back, her face half curious, half wary. "Those tats he had on his fingers? They were gang markings. Which means that the guy you saw in the Hummer-"
"Alejandro Santiago."
"That's him. He and his crew have maybe hooked up with the Punta Diablos. The AGTF didn't know that." The grin on his face widened. "We actually got a thank-you for passing on that piece of information."
Knox stared.
"Good work," Russ added, to clarify.
She nodded, then vanished through the squad room door. They listened to her footsteps clatter down the hall.
"I don't know about that girl," Lyle said.
"Woman." Russ picked up the sheets and shuffled back to the first one. "She'll do fine. She's coming along."
"I got two kids older'n she is. That makes her a girl in my book."
"Yeah? Your hunting rifle is older than Kevin. Doesn't make him a Remington."
Kevin quivered to attention. "Anything else, Chief? You want me to check out St. Alban's for you?"
"No, thank you, Kevin. I'll handle that myself." He ignored Lyle's huff of amusement. "See you tomorrow."
Kevin left with a great deal more reluctance than Hadley Knox had shown. When it was down to just the two of them, Russ let his feet wander to the big worktable. He hitched himself up onto its top. "Sister Lucia's van-" he stopped. Shook his head. "A van with a load of Hispanic men gets shot in April."
Lyle crossed to the whiteboard and wrote it down.
"Also, sometime in March or April, Rosario de las Cruces is killed in Cossayuharie."
"Or dumped there."
Russ nodded acknowledgment. "In May, Hadley and Kevin run across a carload of Punta Diablo gang members."
Lyle jotted on the board.
"End of June, Amado Esfuentes is kidnapped and his residence is searched."