Chapter 31

 

 

A diner around the corner from Patsy’s place provided substantial breakfast fare, cheaply, and both women felt reinvigorated afterward.

“Patsy mentioned Lila’s funeral at two o’clock. What do you think? Should we spy, see if we learn anything new?”

Sam pondered the question. Who would be there? Both of Lila’s parents. She’d probably already learned what she could from them. There would be tension between them, and she might catch a peek at Margaret’s new man, but a funeral wasn’t the time or place to step up and ask questions anyway. Still, it might be interesting to see which of the friends showed up. Someone’s appearance, or lack of appearance, at the event might give weight to the information each had provided. A friend claiming to love the girl, but not showing up for the funeral … that could be very telling.

She glanced at the time. “It’s one-fifteen now and we have no idea where the service is.”

“We’re only two blocks from Patsy’s. We could follow her.”

They paid, left, and found a curbside spot within view of her apartment’s parking lot. The yellow VW stood out and would be easy to track. Twenty minutes later, Patsy emerged, wearing a black dress and heels, her hair pulled away from her face in a half-up with a clip. She didn’t glance in their direction at all, but went straight to her car.

“Either the place is fairly nearby or she’s running late,” Kelly said, starting the rental.

Judging by the way Patsy threw her car in gear and ripped out of the parking lot with barely a glance at the traffic, it was the latter. She got decent speed out of the little Beetle and wove her way knowledgeably through the streets. Kelly kept pace, but trying to do it clandestinely was impossible.

“Don’t worry about staying back,” Sam advised. “She’s not suspicious and she wouldn’t know this car anyway. Just get us to wherever she’s going.”

They zoomed through a couple of the traffic lights at the last possible second, but managed to stick with their quarry. Ten minutes later, Patsy slowed and made a right turn into the parking lot of an elaborate looking Catholic church.

Kelly slowed down enough to watch the little yellow car pull into a parking slot then she turned left, bringing their car to a stop in front of a pawn shop across from the church. The little strip center held a Laundromat, the pawn shop, a butcher shop, and a tiny café whose big claim to fame—on Day-Glo yellow window signs—was menudo.

“This isn’t ideal,” Kelly said. “Shall I move the car somewhere else?”

“That’s okay,” Sam said, unbuckling her seatbelt and turning around. “I can see the front door, and we have a pretty clear view of who’s coming and going.”

“At least we’re unobtrusive.”

Patsy walked in, pausing a moment at the top of the steps to say hello to a priest in a black cassock. Several men in suits stood around, a couple of them smoking, apparently not wanting to be cooped up inside until they absolutely had to.

“They seem older than Lila and her friends,” Kelly said. “Maybe friends of the parents?”

Sam nodded. Josh and Devon Miller arrived. From their body language, Sam guessed that Devon had somewhat forced her brother to come. He wore sneakers with his jeans and a black jacket; she had on a knee-length navy blue skirt and a navy T-top.

The men with cigarettes stubbed them out in a large planter near the door, straightened their jackets, and walked inside. They were no sooner through the doorway than the priest turned and closed the heavy carved doors.

“How long do you suppose this will go on?” Sam asked.

“I’ve never been to a Catholic funeral before, but if it’s anything like a Catholic wedding … a long time.”

“Maybe it won’t be a religious service, just a short memorial.” Sam knew her voice sounded hopeful.

“We could go in and find out,” Kelly said, giving a glance at their clothing. “Yeah, no. Dusty jeans and sandals probably don’t cut it in church.”

“Especially since our whole point is to be unnoticed.”

“One of those men, just now …” Kelly said. “I may be imagining things, but the guy who wasn’t smoking … he seemed familiar, the same size and build as the man who confronted us last night and told us to back off.”

“I wish I’d taken a better look.”

“I know—I should have pointed him out, but it just kind of came to me now.”

“So, what do you think? Can you be sure?”

Kelly sighed. “Not really. It was too dark to see his face much last night, and all I could tell was that he was husky and had dark hair. A hundred guys who just happen to work out at the gym could fit that description.”

Sam turned to face forward in her seat again. “True. Not much we could do, even with proof. Nothing actually happened.”

In their mirrors they stared at the closed church doors for another ten minutes.

“I’m not sure how Beau and his guys ever did surveillance—it’s the most boring thing ever,” Kelly said.

“We could make the most of our time by going through the things I swiped from Lila’s boxes at the apartment.” Sam reached for her jacket, which she’d tossed into the back seat of the car.

She pulled out the diary and the packet of photos, which Kelly picked up. Keeping an eye toward the church, she began flipping through them.

“Looks like the same group of kids, pretty much. They must have been on some kind of an outing together. The buildings in the background look like old places. There are some ruins in this one.”

Sam glanced at them but didn’t recognize the setting.

“Here are the guys—Josh, Chad, Sergio, Matt, Danny. And this one has the girls. There’s Devon, Lila, Emily, Taylor. I don’t see Abby, but I’ve kind of wondered how much she’s a part of their crowd. A few of them as a whole group …” At the back of the packet were some older shots. “Hm. Looks like this could be back in Nuevo Laredo. There’s one with Lila and both of her parents. And here’s a guy I don’t recognize.”

She held up the photo for Sam. Lila and the young man were embracing, her arms around his waist, his over her shoulder, both facing the camera. Lila’s hair was a bit shorter then, falling to her shoulders. “I don’t know him either,” Sam said. “He isn’t one of the current group we’ve met. He’s got great posture, almost a military look about him, don’t you think?”

Kelly took another look and nodded.

“We could ask her mother about him. They look like more than school chums or drinking buddies.”

Movement at the church caught Kelly’s attention and she nudged Sam. But the open door only discharged one person before it closed again, one of the smokers from earlier.

“Thirty minutes. He’s got it bad,” Kelly observed.

Sam, meanwhile, had paged through the diary from the back, coming to Lila’s most recent entries. The girl apparently hadn’t thought to date the entries, so it was anyone’s guess how long ago she’d written them. Sam began reading, looking for any references to Taos.

There were none, but one entry caught her eye.

Maybe if I tell D he gave me that ring from his grandmother, he’ll think he actually proposed. He was pretty wasted Saturday night.

It went along with Danny’s version of things, but what was Lila going to do when he said okay, we’re engaged, start wearing the ring. She’d obviously seen it somewhere but she didn’t actually have it. Pauline had confirmed that much.

The diary entry went on: I can always get a guy to do what I want, just like R.

“Which of the friends has the initial R?” Sam asked.

Kelly ticked them off on her fingers silently as she pondered the list. “I can’t think of any. Is it a first name or last?”

“I’m assuming first name by the way she wrote this. But she could be referring to a last name or a nickname, for that matter.”

“Or to that unknown guy in the photo?”

“Maybe … this is one of her last diary entries and she’s mostly talking about Danny at this point.”

“So she was stringing along two men at once?”

“That’s another possibility.” Sam leaned back in her seat. “This is getting complicated.”

“Mom, I doubt any mystery gets solved because something was spelled out verbatim in a diary.”

Sam laughed. “Okay, you’re right. I need to keep reading.”

She turned back to the book and was partway through the next page when Kelly elbowed her arm. “They’re coming out. What do we do now?”

A white casket topped with pink flowers was being wheeled to a hearse at the curb in front of the church. “Follow to the cemetery?”

“I’m game if you are.”

Sam counted twenty-five people, including the friends they knew and the parents, trailing behind the hearse and dispersing toward other vehicles. Margaret leaned heavily on the arm of a man, one of the smokers, who handed her into a black limousine parked at the curb. Miguel’s entourage consisted of four men, two in dark suits, like his own, and two in uniform. The uniforms chatted and interacted with the others as friends. This was no official duty today. Someone had mentioned that Lila’s father was a cop—Sally Flores. A few other key answers slotted into place.

Kelly started the car and watched as the hearse and two limos drove slowly southbound. Cars from the parking lot fell in line, although a fair number turned in the opposite direction. During a break in the traffic, Kelly joined the cemetery-bound contingent.

In less than ten minutes, the vehicles began pulling over. A three-foot-high rock wall enclosed the cemetery, a dirt patch filled with white crosses, with a few scraggly trees around the bordering edges. A green awning tent stood over an open grave fifty yards into the enclosed acreage.

“What do you think, Mom? Looks like there is no way at all to keep out of sight if we walk in there.”

“No, that won’t work. Let’s just observe and take note of who’s here. I can’t see any point in trying to talk with them here anyway. They’ll stay a short while and then go somewhere for a meal.”

“Well, there are the two limos with the parents. Those two are definitely in his and hers camps today, aren’t they?”

“The men hanging around with Miguel must be co-workers. They have that look, more than relatives. And I’m guessing the man Margaret is leaning on is her new husband, significant other, or whatever.”

A few younger people had come along, but neither Sam nor Kelly recognized any of them. School friends, probably. Even Patsy hadn’t opted for this portion of the ceremony, most likely due to her study schedule. The other few who trailed along the dusty pathway were presumably the parents’ friends who’d known Lila from childhood.

Sam felt a sudden wash of sadness. Twenty-five years old, at the prime of her beauty, just beginning her young adult life, and Lila had left this world with so few true friends. Had she really been so abrasive as to deserve this? She and Kelly exchanged a regretful look then drove away.