Ramon winced at the touch of the rubbing alcohol.
His wife said, “Hold still. Don’t be a baby.”
“But it stings.”
They were in the kitchen, just the two of them, his daughter already in her crib and sound asleep.
His wife took her time as she dabbed the cloth soaked with rubbing alcohol on the side of his head. That was where Samantha Lu—or whoever she was—had kicked him.
“Were you there?”
His wife didn’t meet his eye as she asked the question.
“Was I where?”
She leaned back, inspecting the side of his face, and then tossed the cloth into the sink. Without a word she stood up and went to the sink and started washing her hands. Ramon watched her for a long moment, his beautiful wife, the woman he had known since school. As a nurse she spent her days dealing with people who needed their wounds stitched up, and now here she was at home doing it for her husband.
She rarely asked about his job. She had decided long ago that she didn’t want to know, that she didn’t want to face this reality. But now she had asked if he was there, and of course he knew what she meant. Not at La Miserias—she already knew he had been there earlier tonight—but at that abandoned brick building with the three charred bodies.
“I was, yes.”
She turned back to him, her face all at once pinched.
“What was it like?”
He had to actually think about it for a moment. Until then, he hadn’t really had a chance to process it.
“It was terrible.”
“But you’ve surely seen worse before, haven’t you?”
He had. Of course he had. Being an investigator in Culiacán presented him with awful things on a daily basis. He’d seen children lying dead in the streets. A man who had been skinned alive. A woman’s headless body propped in the doorway of a church.
He took a deep breath, let it out slowly.
“This was different somehow.”
She pulled out the chair across from him and sat down.
“What do you mean?”
“Just … just the idea that it might be the work of the Devil”—Ramon shook his head—“I had a chill when I first saw the bodies.”
“And it was really her?”
Ramon nodded.
“Yes. I mean, it has to be her. She would have been the only woman in the house before it was attacked. Her and the children. Besides, the call that came in said as much.”
Her voice trembled as she asked the next question.
“He called?”
“Yes. He told the police where to find the bodies. I don’t think anybody took it seriously. We’ve gotten crank calls like that before. People who say they know who the Devil is and want the reward or people confessing to be the Devil because they’re crazy. But this … this was different.”
“How is Geraldo taking it?”
“How would you think he’s taking it? He came out to the site briefly, but that was it. I haven’t seen him since.”
His wife placed her hand to her mouth, shaking her head slowly. Her eyes turned glassy as she started to tear up.
“I’m so sorry for him.”
“Me too. I don’t expect he’ll be in tomorrow. But maybe he will be. You know how those two didn’t have the best relationship.”
“Ramon, that doesn’t matter. She was his daughter. So what if they hadn’t spoken to each other in years? So what if they were estranged? She was his daughter.”
He leaned forward and took her hands in his, squeezed them tight. Leaned forward even farther and kissed her on the lips.
“I know. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”
She wiped at her eyes as she stood up from the chair.
“I’ve had a long day. And I need to be there first thing in the morning. I should go to bed.”
He helped her clean up the kitchen and then followed her to the bedroom. He paused and entered the nursery. His baby daughter was asleep in her crib. He studied her precious face for a moment before he turned and exited the room.
His wife was already undressing in the bedroom. He had barely walked in when the phone rang.
He frowned at his wife.
“Are you expecting a call?”
She shook her head.
“No. And even if it was work, they’d call my cell phone.”
The phone rang again. It was the landline, and the only extension was in the kitchen.
His wife said, “Answer it before it wakes the baby.”
He hurried out of the bedroom and down the hallway to the kitchen. The phone was about to ring a fourth time when he snatched it off the wall and placed it to his ear.
“Yes?”
Samantha Lu asked, “How does your face feel?”