John sat on the sweeping front porch of Luca’s house as he waited for everyone to get out of bed. Curt, who drank more beer than he should have last night, was still sleeping, but to his credit, he had done most of the driving during that fourteen-hundred-mile trip. Back inside and refilling his coffee cup, John saw Luca walk toward him.
“So you are among the living?”
“Barely.” Luca rubbed his temples, groaned, and looked around. “Too many cervezas. Curt still sleeping?”
“He is.”
“Excuse me.” Luca walked into the kitchen and answered his ringing phone. He had a short conversation with someone, hung up, then nodded at John. “Curt’s phone should be ringing any minute. Conway didn’t know if you had a burner yet, and he wanted to speak with you.”
“Sure, thanks. What’s for breakfast?” John joined Luca in the kitchen, pulled open the refrigerator door, and peered in.
“Anything you want. Help yourself.”
After pulling out the carton of eggs and a bag of tortillas, John opened the cabinets and searched for a frying pan.
“I’ll make breakfast,” Luca said. “I know my way around this kitchen pretty well.”
“Good, I’m starving.” John walked to Curt’s buzzing phone that still sat on the table from last night. He looked at the screen and saw that it was Conway. “I’ll be outside.”
Luca nodded and cracked four eggs into the sizzling butter.
With the phone in hand, John returned to the porch and took a seat on the ladder-back rocking chair. “What’s up, Mark?”
“Mr. Vance, I wanted to update you on the most recent events.”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“For starters, I gave the detective’s dog rat poison.”
John laughed. “Did it do the trick?”
“Don’t know since I didn’t stick around too long, but the mutt really gobbled down the hamburger it was mixed with.”
“Okay, what else?”
“The Vasquez brothers were instructed to leave town for a while. I guess their sister, Maria, and the husband of the murder victim are being held in police custody while they try to dig up evidence against them.”
“No surprise there. Police procedure 101.”
“She called Mauricio’s phone from jail and updated him.”
“Doesn’t that bitch know the calls are recorded?”
“You’d think so, sir, but she is only good for her looks, not her brains. The cops wanted to know if she had brothers because of the tire-slashing incident. Guess a neighbor saw two men at McCord’s cruiser, and now they’re looking for them. We’ll either have to continue on without their help or look for new assistants.”
“Nah, that’d be too many people linked to us. Have the brothers continue doing what they were hired to do. They can camp out at Cruz’s house since he isn’t on anybody’s radar. Let Cruz know that, and then tell him to get rid of their phones. Later, I want McCord confronted in any manner you see fit. Just make sure he can’t track you or the Vasquez boys back to me.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll tell Cruz, and we’ll keep eyes on McCord’s house and every move he makes.”
Luca opened the screen door and popped out his head. “Breakfast is on the table, John. Come in and eat while it’s hot.”
Curt was already at the table when John walked in. He sat quietly and sipped coffee.
John raised a brow. “Not hungry, brother?”
“Coffee is all I can stomach this morning. Maybe later.”
John stabbed the fried egg with his fork, dipped a torn piece of tortilla into the yolk, and popped it into his mouth. He tipped his wrist and checked the time. “You have an hour to pull yourself together, Curt. We have to do a test run at the border, and I won’t allow anything to go wrong.”