Icy air blew through the open driver’s window, chilling Cait’s face and raising goose bumps under her down jacket. Alert and invigorated, she inhaled the perfume of juniper as she drove down NM 53 into the village of Zuni. Tucson in February might bask in mid-day warmth but Zuni, at an elevation of almost 6,300 feet, was ensconced in winter.
It was dark when she bumped over muddy ruts in the dirt lane to her parents’ place. She parked by her dad’s old truck and got out. Blotches of unmelted snow glowed in the light of a half moon.
A porch light burned by the front door; she’d let Ernie know she was coming. She stood savoring the fragrance of wood smoke and damp earth. Dogs barked in the distance. Horses and goats shuffled about in enclosures behind the house. The Milky Way trailed high above, an infinitude of diamonds and crystals strewn over a backdrop of black velvet.
The door shunted inward and the screen door creaked. “Keshi. kyatsik’i.” Ernie Zapata stood outlined in light from the house.
“Keshi.” She started toward the steps.
A scruffy canine squeezed past him. Wiley ran up and placed muddy paws on her stomach. Then he jumped down and pranced a happy dance, tail waving. “You big rascal.” She knelt and petted him while he licked her face.
At the door, she hugged her dad. “I’m so glad to be home.”
“You’re always welcome here.” Ernie led the way into the kitchen. Ink, her black cat, blocked her way and sniffed her pants leg. She picked him up and sat at the table.
“I wish I could have seen mom.” Cait knew Ana had already left for Phoenix to lead a creative writing seminar at Arizona State University.
“She left yesterday.” Ernie sounded resigned to the arrangement. “For a week or so.”
“Darn. I’d hoped to see you both.”
“She’ll be back. She has a good job and loves what she does. Hungry?” He filled a tea kettle and set it on the stove.
“A little.” Over left-over blue corn tamales, Cait talked about the craziness in Tucson. Running from gunmen west of the city. Finding a tracking device under her jeep. Encountering a jaguar. Rescuing Jack’s brother from his captors.
Ernie listened without comment, concern showing in his dark eyes. “Criminals chasing you scares the heck out of me. A jaguar doesn’t bother me half as much. What about Jack and his parents? And Chris? They’re all in danger.”
Cait wrapped her fingers around her mug. “I talked to Chris. He has somewhere else he can stay. Jack had a big security fence put up around his parents’ house. He’s trying to get back to work and deal with the threat. He heard about drugs being shipped out from a warehouse run by the guy who tried to kill him. But the place had been cleared out when the cops showed up. That gang is always one step ahead. It’s frustrating.”
“They were tipped off.” Ernie sat with elbows on the table, chin resting on his hands.
“I think so. Dad, one of the reasons I’m here is because you might be in danger. The people who kidnapped Julius asked him about my family. Have you noticed strangers around here?”
“No one passes by us but the Lonjoses and the Quams. The road out front ends by their places. I haven’t noticed anyone suspicious, but I’m in my workshop a lot during the day.” Ernie’s shoulders tautened. “What about Ana in Phoenix? Going to and from her classes? I worry about her.”
“One good thing is that mom isn’t staying in an apartment complex where no one knows her. She’s renting a guest house behind a professor’s gated home. That sounds safer.” Cait fended off a yawn.
“Still worries me.” Ernie rubbed his eyebrows. “Chris like his new job?”
“So far. He loves the desert around Tucson.” Cait knew her dad wouldn’t like her plan. “I’m going back to Albuquerque to help Jack.”
“Back to your newspaper job?” Ernie gave her a stern look. “Is that safe?”
“Not yet, not until things are resolved. I just want to see Jack and his parents.”
“I wish you, Jack and his parents would stay here until the trouble blows over.” He rose and carried his mug to the sink. “But I can’t make you. Just promise me you two won’t do anything crazy.”
***
The next morning after breakfast, Cait said goodbye to her dad and drove north on Indian Route 4 to NM 602. At Gallup, she got on eastbound I-40. She felt guilty for not staying to see aunts, uncles, cousins, and the rest of her extended Zuni family. They would be sorely disappointed to hear she’d come and gone.
But she didn’t feel sociable, not with trouble nipping after her. Not with the danger Jack was facing in Albuquerque. She sped past the town of Grants and the turnoff to El Malpais National Monument. Soon she’d pass through the Acoma and Laguna Reservations with their casinos just off the freeway. She played with the radio and found a Navajo talk show and a news broadcast that soon faded to static. Traffic was light except for intermittent convoys of semis that sped past.
Sipping coffee from a travel mug, she checked the rear view mirror. A black sport utility she’d noticed a ways back was now only three car lengths behind, though the passing lane was clear. Annoyed, she slowed a little. The SUV switched lanes and moved up.
A series of loud pops made her drop the mug. The rear of the Jeep bucked and swayed. Cait gripped the steering wheel and edged onto the shoulder at the first rough thump of a blown tire.
The sport utility slowed and kept even with the jeep. She looked over as a man in sunglasses leaned out the passenger window. Aimed a handgun at her.
She ducked as driver and passenger windows shattered. Bits of tempered glass sprayed onto her. Screaming, she raised up to look over the dash. Stamped on the accelerator, fought to hold a straight line. Her hair whipped around her face from wind blasting through the jeep’s interior.
A disintegrated left rear tire made the vehicle yaw and pitch to the side. The acrid stench of burning rubber filled her nostrils. If only she could make it to one of the casinos ahead. Drive into a security-patrolled parking lot and blast the horn for attention.
A billboard flashed by. The Sky City Casino and Hotel exit was up next. The black SUV raced alongside her in the fast lane.
Another shot smashed into the dash and demolished the CD player. She felt the sting of plastic fragments cutting her face.
Cait clutched the steering wheel like a lifeline, put the gas pedal to the floor and rocketed into the fast lane. Pushed the speed over ninety. The SUV honed in on her bumper. She leaned on the horn as she passed two sedans and a van. Hoped someone would report two crazy drivers to 911.
The jeep ate up the distance to the exit, but there was a problem ahead. An old pickup putted along in the slow lane. No way could she pass the slogger and dive around it to the exit. She’d lose control and roll.
She veered across the slow lane and onto the shoulder. Sailed past the truck, its bed piled high with furniture. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a woman gawping at her from the passenger seat.
The black SUV almost rear-ended the pickup. Brakes screeched as the driver laid down rubber to avoid a pileup.
She sped down a long exit ramp. Screamed through a left turn onto a two-lane road that ran under the freeway and fed into the casino parking lot. Blew her horn and stood on the brakes to avoid a couple running to get out of her way.
A white SUV marked Sky City Police stopped at an angle in front of her, emergency lights painting the sky. Cait slammed to a halt. Behind her, the black sport utility swung around and zoomed back to the freeway. Cait watched it in her rear view mirror, wishing she’d gotten the plate number.
Two Acoma tribal officers jumped out of their unit and crouched behind it, guns drawn. She kept her hands out as she swung her legs onto the blacktop and stood, knees shaking and pulse drumming.
“Hold it right there. Don’t move.” One of the officers approached, gun in one hand, handcuffs in the other.
“I’m so glad to see you.” She turned her head toward the freeway. The sound of a high-speed vehicle, engine gunning, carried back from the direction of the I-40. “That black SUV. They shot at me. Look at the left tire. My windows. They did that.”
Officer Manny Soso reconsidered Cait. “You hurt?”
“Just my poor Jeep.” She introduced herself and explained that a gang had been after her and her fiancé, an Albuquerque detective. “They targeted our families and followed us to Tucson. I just came from my parents’ place in Zuni. I guess I picked up another tail.”
“Stay right there.” Officer Soso backed up out of earshot, conferred with the other officer, and keyed his lapel mike. Soso occasionally looked at her as he talked with dispatch.
He returned to inspect her jeep and what was left of the shredded tire. “You were running on the rim. You must be one heck of a driver to keep it together at speed.”
“Only choice was to make it here or die trying.” Cait rubbed her mouth to stop her lower lip from quivering.
“The Department of Public Safety will be on the lookout for the vehicle. Too bad we don’t have a license plate or description of the occupants. Let me call a tow truck for you.” He took out a cell phone.
“Thanks.” She located her phone and called Jack. Her hands still shook as she described her wild ride. “I can ride with the tow truck driver. Can you recommend a garage?”
Jack was surprisingly calm after hearing what had happened. “Bosque Tire and Brake on Coors Boulevard. Call me before you get there and I’ll pick you up.”
“See you soon.” She hung up and let Officer Soso shepherd her into the Sky City lobby, where she sank onto a couch to wait for a tow truck. The pall of cigarette smoke and constant dings of slot machines would normally have sent her back outside. At that moment, stinky air and casino noise didn’t bother her. She was just grateful to be alive.
***
The tow truck rumbled away with a belch of diesel smoke as Cait entered the repair shop to make arrangements for fixing the jeep.
Back outside, she didn’t have long to wait before Jack pulled up. She hopped in and threw her arms around him. “That was fast.”
“Tell me again what happened. You’re sure you’re ok?” Jack hadn’t gotten much sleep, judging from the bags under his eyes.
“Nothing some down time can’t fix. I just want to forget it all, but my brain won’t stop processing.” Cait laid her head on his shoulder. “At least Julius is all right.”
“Thank God for that. And your parents?”
“Fine. Mom’s in Phoenix and my dad hasn’t seen anyone suspicious. But I must have been tailed. Maybe they were watching my parents’ place. I didn’t expect it at all. This big black SUV started tailgating, and it all happened so fast. I called my dad from the casino afterward and of course he’s freaking out.” Cait eyed the traffic behind them.
Lines deepened in Jack’s forehead. “Maybe I missed a tracking device under the Jeep. But you could be right about someone watching your family’s house. These people are slick. They’ve probably been hanging around Zuni, and your dad has no idea.”
“What can we do?” Cait blew out a breath.
“Stay alert, keep our guard up.” Jack turned onto his parents’ street. “I’ve been trying to get hold of Jason Gonzalez, ever since the warehouse fiasco. I’m worried about that man who worked for Sonny Para. One reason Julius was kidnapped was that Para wants that old guy. When I met him, he was too scared to introduce himself. I think his name is Como Rico. His house recently burned down, and I don’t think it was an accident.”
“Do you think Para stopped distributing drugs out of Albuquerque because of that raid?” Cait asked.
“I think he’s working from somewhere around here. He’s too hardnosed to quit.” Jack braked and aimed a remote at his parents’ new gate. It slid open, and he drove in and parked in the circular driveway.
“Where does Para live?” Cait asked.
“Here and there. He moves around, doesn’t stay in the same place for long. It’s not just the cops he’s hiding from, but his enemies. We’ve trailed him to a townhouse near Old Town, a home off of Fourth Street in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, and a tract house in Taylor Ranch. There’s also a ranch his grandparents owned east of Los Lunas. It used to be a working ranch before most of the acreage was sold off. I’ve been wondering about that place.” Jack rubbed his temples.
“Who are his enemies?” She arched an eyebrow.
“Besides yours truly? The Juarez cartel. They’re rivals of the big Sinaloa cartel, who he’s allied with. Sinaloa is involved in much of the New Mexico drug business. Juarez has a toehold in southern New Mexico, and they’re trying hard to expand. They’re gunning for metro areas like Albuquerque and Santa Fe. From here, they can distribute along the I-40 west to California and east to Texas and beyond, up and down the coasts. From Santa Fe, they can hit Denver and the Midwest cities.”
“Don’t you wonder how Para knew that warehouse was going to be raided?”
Jack looked glum. “Of course. It might not even have been anyone in Albuquerque PD. Could have been a sheriff’s deputy or someone with the state police.”
“Or FBI or DEA,” Cait said.
“Anyone.” Jack glanced at her. “I’m curious about that ranch down by Los Lunas. It could be a dead end. Or not.”