TO MY SURPRISE, Javier arrived in his champagne BMW with no trucks and no workers – only two bodyguards. I was standing by the henhouse, having expected that we were about to open the bunker. Javier pulled up in front of me and exited the car, looking tired and stressed.
‘Amigo, you’re one tough berraco,’ he said, taking in my patched cheek and crutches. ‘Beaten, shot, nearly killed but straight back to work. That hijueputa Caraquemada has it in for you. But at least your mother and Camila are safe with me and Fabián.’
‘And I’m truly indebted to you both,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘But that’s not why I phoned.’ I tilted my head towards the henhouse. ‘You promised to move that white mierda.’
‘I did promise. And I’m sorry, but I can’t.’
‘Can’t? Why not?’
‘Because I don’t have a clue how to get rid of it. I’ve asked close friends and they’ve said it’s worth millions, but I simply don’t know how that industry works.’
‘How can that be? I know for a fact that your father delivered barrels of sulphuric acid to the Guerrilla.’
‘And as far as I know, that’s all he ever did – divert chemical supplies from our fertiliser factory to Caraquemada under duress. How is that different to your own father handing over his hard-earned cash and crops? And it doesn’t mean that I know anything about distributing the final product.’
‘I’m standing on four tonnes of perico,’ I said, tapping my toe against the henhouse. ‘It’s on your father’s finca. And you yourself showed me the newspaper proving it was placed here two weeks before his death. So clearly he moved a lot more than chemicals. For all I know, your father was a cocaine capo and that’s the reason Zorrillo killed him.’
‘Impossible! How dare you—’ Javier began, raising his fist and stepping towards me.
I jumped back and, with the sudden stab of pain from my wounded foot, it just came out: ‘Then why else would Zorrillo demand the little white book?’
Javier froze, staring at me in shock. Then he frowned in puzzlement before unclenching his fist. ‘Buitrago tapped our phones,’ he stated flatly, dropping his hand by his side. ‘I should have known.’
‘So what was in the book?’ I asked matter-of-factly.
‘I have no idea. We never found it. Fabián and I have spent years wondering. If you’re right, and our father was selling or transporting drugs, then maybe the book had a list of routes or buyers. Whatever it contained, Caraquemada wants it badly. Two months after they killed my father, he sent a squad here. They tied up our caretaker and tortured him, demanding the location of the book. They’re animals, Pedro. Even with Caraquemada weakened I still have nightmares he’ll kidnap me and do the same.’
‘You have Beta. You’re hardly in danger.’
‘Beta? You think I like waking up and seeing an army camped on my lawn?’
‘Tough price to pay. Your businesses are flourishing.’
‘Money isn’t everything. Look at me! I’m thirty-one and I look fifty. I’d love nothing more than to get married and have children. I didn’t choose this life, Pedro. It was forced on me. I’m not a soldier like you. I’m not brave. I’m a businessman. But ever since Fabián and I helped you with Zorrillo, we also have prices on our heads.’
‘Then why not leave?’
‘We could! We have US passports. But I won’t flee like a dog with its tail between its legs. Maybe you and Buitrago are right – maybe our father wasn’t always strictly legal – but he worked like a packhorse his whole life. And I can’t throw all that away. It would be like spitting on his grave.’
‘That doesn’t change the fact Trigeño is promising to visit here any day or that he’ll kill me, you and anyone who’s seen that white powder down there. You need to move it right now, Javier. What about your friends from the fiesta?’
‘They’re the ones I asked. They laughed and offered to buy a brick. For personal consumption. Although there is one person I didn’t call – Don Miguel, my father’s old business partner. He might know someone. But you need to trust me and keep this quiet a little longer. I’ve kept my word. I had Beta bring you Ernesto.’
There was not much I could say to this. Javier had indeed kept his promise to help me get Buitre. It wasn’t his fault the situation had changed with Buitre now holding Ñoño captive in the jungle.
Prior to this visit I’d been certain Javier was involved in narcotráfico, but when he departed that certainty wavered and I began to wonder yet again whether I’d been wrong about him. His reactions seemed genuine. The way he’d puffed up so violently at my accusation against his dead father, and then his sudden deflated calm when confronted with the fact of the little white book. He’d seemed embarrassed, ashamed even, and with a drug trafficker for a father, who wouldn’t be? He’d also been frightened by my mention of Trigeño’s possible visit. Knowing Trigeño’s deadly stance against trafficking, it simply wasn’t logical for Javier not to move the cocaine if he were able to.
There was no doubt Humberto had been a large-scale trafficker who’d worked with the Guerrilla. However, it might just as well have been Zorrillo and Caraquemada, rather than the Díaz brothers, who’d taken over his operations after his death.
Perhaps Rafael knew something. I radioed him and asked him to meet me under the jacaranda tree.
‘What can you tell me about the Guerrilla’s involvement in drug trafficking?’ I asked.
Rafael shrugged. ‘Not a lot. That wasn’t my job, comando. True, I’ve guarded coca fields and shot at the US Blackhawks and fumigation planes sent to poison the crops. I’ve even buried money in the jungle, marking the spot on a map. What I do know is that cocaine is absolutely crucial to their financing. That’s why Caraquemada has been prepared to give up Puerto Galán and Puerto Princesa, but never Santo Paraíso – it’s like a money factory for them.’
‘So they definitely protect the growers and producers, and tax them. But do they traffic it themselves?’
‘It’s possible. I’ve seen cocaine – mountains of it. We used to move it by foot and by boat to Flora’s Cantina.’
‘But how do they get it out? That’s what I simply don’t under stand. We search every vehicle at our checkpoint and Buitrago’s men inspect river traffic.’
Rafael shrugged. ‘No idea, comando. But I just saw you talking to Javier Díaz. Does this have something to do with him?’
‘You know what?’ I said. ‘I’m beginning to think it doesn’t.’