“Are you saying there’s a connection between this drug shipment and the balloon fiesta?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You tell me.”
“You sonofabitch!” she flared up. “You don’t suppose for one minute that I—”
She looked into his unflinching eyes and stopped short. Then she pulled back slowly, let out a soft breath. Sonny knew her past; a lot of people knew her past.
“It’s not fair,” she said, her shoulders sagging. She lowered her gaze.
“So tell me what you know,” Sonny said.
She shook her head and walked to the window, which looked out on the field.
“You think because I used to buy the stuff that I’m still in the game.”
“Just tell me what you know,” he whispered.
“Maybe you’re right.”
He saw her nod. He walked to her, started to reach out to touch her, waited.
“You know about John Gilroy,” he said, and she turned to face him.
“He applied to fly in the fiesta. The board rejected him. His past came up, so some of the board members felt uneasy, but Jerry insisted Gilroy should fly. It was a battle royal, won by Jerry when suddenly a large piece of land was donated to the fiesta board. For our new field.”
“Gilroy?”
She nodded. “Anonymous donor as far as the public is concerned. Gilroy has a lot of money.”
It fits, Sonny thought. Gilroy needs the cover of the fiesta.
“I know one thing for certain,” she said. “We’re not connected to the dope deal. If I knew anyone was using us, I’d be the first to call Garcia.”
“You knew Gilroy had flown dope from Central America?”
“Yes, I knew. Everybody there knew about the Panama pipeline. It was so obvious it was a joke. When the Cali cartel expanded, Juárez bought from them.”
“And you bought from Juárez,” Sonny finished.
“My husband, my ex-husband, used to buy his stuff in Juárez. Used to,” she repeated. Her eyes were wet with tears. “I’ve never been a crybaby, but if you think I—”
“I have to know what you know,” Sonny said. “Two people are dead!” And they almost got me, he thought.
“I’m leveling with you, Sonny. We’re not involved. With all I’ve got going for me now, would I be so stupid?”
She paused and gathered her resolve, tossed her head back. “If there’s anything we can do to help, we’ll do it. But Jerry’s right, you know. We don’t mean to be shitheads, but we just don’t have much time left.”
“Yeah,” Sonny replied. “If anything comes up, call me.”
“And you call me.”
Ah, he thought, a lot of people have a stake in this game, and it all began with the bundle that fell from the sky. Lorenza Villa loomed in his mind. She could see into things. Could she help?
At his truck he punched his answering machine’s number. Garcia’s voice message told him to call Rita’s home number as soon as he could.
Garcia? Call Rita? He felt goosebumps on his skin. It didn’t sound good. He dialed her number and Marta answered.
“They’re gone!” she cried. “They’re gone! Mi’jita! He took her! He took Rita! I can’t find Diego! I can’t find Diego!”
“Marta, calm down,” Sonny answered. He couldn’t make sense of her cry for help, but he was already peeling rubber out of the lot, leaving behind a cloud of dust. Marta’s frantic voice frightened him.
“What happened?” he shouted into the phone.
“A man came!” she cried. “He took Rita and mi’jita! He tied me up! I can’t find Diego! The police are here! Dear God, what am I going to do!”
“Be calm,” Sonny answered. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Let me talk to someone.”
Garcia came on the line. “He took Rita and the little girl, Sonny. Get here!”
“I’m on my way!” he shouted, and raced to Rita’s.
Raven had wasted no time, he had gone for Sonny’s soul. If he had Rita, he called the shots.
When he got to Rita’s, the place was surrounded by police cars and television vans. Francine Hunter rushed up to him, followed by Peter with his camera.
“I understand Rita Lopez has been kidnapped,” she said. “Does this have anything to do with the balloon fiesta murders?”
“I don’t know what happened,” he replied, and hurried into the house. Chief Garcia met him at the door.
“What happened?” Sonny asked. He could see a distraught Marta sitting in the living room, her head bent over, crying.
“You know this woman?” Garcia asked.
“Just tell me what in the hell happened!” Sonny cried, grabbing the chief’s arm.
“She says someone kidnapped Rita and her daughter. The description fits Raven. I don’t know—”
Sonny pushed past the chief to Marta. She rose and hugged him. “Sonny! Thank God, you came! What are we going to do? Why would they take my daughter? Why Rita? It was horrible!” she cried. “Mi’jita, mi’jita.”
Sonny made her sit down and held her hands. “Calm down. Tell us what happened. The police can help, but you have to tell us exactly what happened.”
He got her some water to drink, and she quieted down. “We were ready to take Cristina to school,” she said. “A man broke into the house. Oh, he was frightful. His face was so horrible.”
Sonny clenched his fists. Raven had taken Rita, and finding Cristina with her, he had also taken the girl. He left Marta to call the police and describe him. It was stupid and it was desperate, but now Raven was holding a shield, his protection.
“I’ll find her, Marta, I’ll find your daughter and Rita. I promise you. Diego will be here any moment. He was downtown. Do you understand?”
Marta suppressed a sob, nodded. “Sí.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Garcia said. “He knows I’m turning the city inside out looking for him, and now this. The man’s crazy!”
“Maybe,” Sonny said. “He likes to play games. Deadly games.”
He took Garcia aside and told him about his trip to Juárez. When he was done, Garcia cursed.
“And those bastards at the DEA expected me to believe the burned warehouse story!” he sputtered. “They and the FBI still think we’re small-town cops who can’t be trusted with their info. Damn!”
“At least we know what we’re looking for,” Sonny said.
“Stolen UPS vans,” Garcia said. “And Raven and dope and Rita.” He looked at Sonny. “I want you to know my number one concern is for Rita and the girl,” he said. “That’s what my boys are gong to work on first.”
“Thanks,” Sonny replied. He watched the chief turn and walk out of the house to his car.
The phone rang and Sonny answered. It was Lorenza Villa. “Sonny,” she said in a tremulous voice, “Rita’s in trouble!”
“What?”
“I had a dream last night. I didn’t call Rita because I didn’t want to believe my vision. I didn’t want to frighten her. I saw Raven take Rita.”
“You saw him?” Sonny asked, and held his breath.
“Yes.”
“What do you mean?”
“In my vision Raven was flying in a balloon. He grabbed Rita, and some other person, but when he landed, I could see the streets very clearly. I know where he landed,” Lorenza said.
Sonny explained what had happened.
“Madre de los dioses,” Lorenza whispered.
“But Raven wasn’t in a balloon when he took them,” Sonny said.
“No, he wasn’t in a balloon, but my vision is real. Don’t you see, I know Raven can fly, so in my vision I see him in a balloon. I know where Raven took Rita. I saw the streets as the balloon flew over them.”
“Do you think you can find the place?”
“I think so,” she whispered. “I saw the streets so clearly, and the roof of the building. It’s a warehouse, and the Zia sign is painted on the roof. Somewhere on North Edith. I saw the
railroad tracks clearly, and the name of a street. The street name has something to do with the devil.”
“Can you hold a minute,” Sonny said as he reached for the telephone directory. He flipped to Zia and ran his finger down the long list under Zia. Zia Animal Clinic; Zia Elementary School; Zia, Pueblo of … four dozen Zia listings, but not a one had a North Edith address.
“You sure the street was Edith?”
“Yes.”
Okay, Sonny thought, she saw the place in her vision, but the only way to find it was from above. She had to look down on the building with the Zia sign, somewhere along North Edith.
“If you were up high, flying over the warehouse, could you recognize the place?”
“From a balloon?” she asked.
“Yes,” Sonny answered.
“Yes, it makes sense. In my vision I was flying, so if I was in a balloon, I could recognize the streets. And the Zia warehouse. Outside was a van, a large van, dark colored, like UPS.”
“That’s it!” Sonny cried. “I’ll be right over!”
He hung up the phone. She had described the van Raven was using. But was it possible to spot streets seen in a dream? It was a slim lead, but he had to follow it. Madge would lend him a balloon, but in the balloon they would be at the mercy of the wind.
A helicopter? he thought. Fiesta Control has a chopper, an R-22 Robinson, and Sonny had flown it. Three years ago Tim Lewis, the officer in charge of security at the balloon fiesta, had taught him to fly the two-seater.
He called Madge Swenson and told her what had happened. He explained there was a possibility a woman could spot Raven’s place from the air. Yes, she replied, the helicopter would be waiting.
As Sonny hung up the phone, Diego came running in. He gathered his wife in his arms. Peter followed him.
“Mi hijita,” Marta cried again as she repeated the story of the man with the grotesque face who came to take Rita and Cristina. Diego calmed her and turned to face Sonny.
“Kidnapped mi hija, Sonny. The man’s crazy and now he has my daughter.”
“Diego, I’m sorry. I’ll find them, I promise.”
“In the river we had nothing,” Diego said with bitterness. “No hot water, cold nights, no school for my daughter. But we were safe …” His voice cracked, his shoulders sagged.
He had thought the danger in tracking Raven would be directed against him or Sonny, and he could deal with that. He had never thought the danger would be turned on his daughter.
“I’m sorry,” Sonny repeated. “It’s my fault.”
Diego shook his head. “Maybe I have done something so wrong that God punishes me.” He turned and looked up, and in an agonizing voice he cried out, “God, punish me, not my daughter!”
“Diego, Diego,” his wife soothed him, “you haven’t done anything wrong. We have to trust in God.”
“Trust in God, how can I?” He turned to Sonny. “I’ll trust in you. What can we do?”
“Find him,” Sonny answered. “Find him fast.”
“How?”
“I’m going up in a helicopter with Lorenza Villa.” He didn’t have time to explain. “Did you talk to Armando?”
Diego nodded. “Three UPS vans were sold at auction last week. In El Paso. Your brother Mando was there. Vans don’t interest him, so he didn’t bid. But he knew the man who bought them. He used to have a junk car lot on North Edith. Along the railroad tracks.”
Zia junked cars, Sonny thought. Maybe that’s what Lorenza saw on the roof of the warehouse. North Edith was full of warehouses, small businesses, small car lots.
“I’m on my way,” Sonny said.
“I’ll go with you,” Diego volunteered.
“No, stay with Marta. She needs you.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Pray Lorenza can spot the place from the air,” Sonny said, and hurried out. “North Second or North Edith,” he called to Garcia as he ran for his truck. “I’ll be flying the fiesta chopper!”
19
Lorenza Villa was waiting by her front door when Sonny arrived. She wore jeans, a white huipil blouse, and a bright, embroidered Guatemalan jacket. Her long dark hair fell around her shoulders; her face was drawn. Sonny thought she looked thinner, her eyes dark and focused.
Was she summoning her guardian spirit’s strength now? Sonny wondered. What animal from the primal world was working in her blood, her soul, her eyes? He sniffed the air, felt a tingle along his spine and in his guts as her aroma filled the truck.
His adrenaline was flowing, he felt aroused, the chakras from head to sex were strangely alive.
“I feel … strange. The coyotes?” he said.
“Yes,” she replied.
That’s it! He felt as he had when he ran with the coyotes during the limpieza.
“You have learned to summon them at will. That’s good. Now it will be like that, a steady flow of energy.”
She said no more, but as they drove to Fiesta Control, he told her about Juárez and the kidnapping. She listened attentively.
“Raven always seems to be one step ahead of me,” Sonny said. “I had the premonition, but I did nothing. He knew I didn’t go up in flames, didn’t he?”
“He’s been ahead of you because he uses his raven power,” she said. “But you’re catching up.”
No, not catching up, Sonny thought, not if Raven has Rita.
But he said nothing.
When they approached the balloon field, Lorenza turned to him. “Since your limpieza my dreams are about flying. First the falling body, then Raven lifting Rita away. I know about the flight of the soul, but I’ve never flown in a helicopter.”
The woman wasn’t invincible after all, Sonny thought. “You’ll be all right,” he said.
He turned into the balloon grounds and gunned the truck past the empty food and souvenir tents toward the waiting helicopter sitting in the middle of the field. Madge, in flying fatigues and helmet, was standing by the chopper’s door; beside her stood her assistant and Jerry Stammer.
Sonny stopped the truck fifty feet from the helicopter, reached into his glove compartment, and took out his pistol. He checked to see if it was loaded, then stuck it under his belt. He jumped out and opened Lorenza’s door.
“Ready?”
She nodded and stepped out. The blast from the helicopter’s blades swept around her and swirled her long dark hair like a mare’s mane.
She reminded Sonny of a woman he had known, a woman in a dream. She seemed familiar and strong, like his mother had been to him when he was a child.
Lorenza paused. “Who’s the woman?” she asked.
“Madge Swenson. She directs the fiesta. It’s their chopper we’re using. She volunteered to fly us.”
Lorenza shook her head.
“What?” Sonny asked, puzzled.
“It won’t work,” she said.
Sonny looked at Madge, motioning for them to come forward. Everything was ready.
“It won’t work if she flies with us.”
“Why?”
“I saw this woman in my vision. She will disrupt my power to see,” Lorenza said, without further explanation.
“Do you know her?” Sonny asked.
“Only in the vision,” Lorenza answered cryptically.
“Okay,” Sonny shouted, grabbing her hand and pulling her across the tarmac to the helicopter, shielding her against the blast of the rotors.
“Who’s your friend?” Madge shouted above the roar of the chopper’s engine.
“Lorenza!” Sonny replied. “She thinks she can spot the place!”
“How?” Stammer interrupted.
Sonny didn’t have time to explain. Besides, how could he explain that he was going up with Lorenza because she thought she could recognize the streets from a dream of warning?
Stammer shook his head. “It’s crazy!”
“This thing won’t fly three people.” Madge frowned.
“I’ll fly it!” Sonny said.
&
nbsp; Madge paused. “You don’t have a license.”
“I’ll take a chance,” he replied.
“But—” Madge paused, looking from him to Lorenza. “You sure?”
“It’s the only way!”
“Okay. Suit yourself.”
She removed her helmet and handed it to Sonny. “Try this on for size.”
Sonny put the helmet on, adjusted the microphone, and gave a thumbs-up signal. He helped Lorenza aboard, then climbed in beside her. He wished he was flying a Bell Jet Ranger with all its power, but the old Robinson would have to do. It was the same one he had flown before. Good. He shut the door.
“Strap on your belt!” he shouted at Lorenza, showing her how he was snapping his on. She nodded and did as he said.
Once the door was closed, the noise inside the plastic capsule lessened. There was no blast of air or dust. Sonny checked the instrument panel. Yeah, he could handle this baby.
He looked at Lorenza. Go, her look said. We have to move fast. Raven will not wait.
She was right. Raven held Rita and the girl; time was working against them.
Sonny drew a deep breath and gunned the chopper, feeling its vibrations, sensing its internal rhythm. He looked out the window and gave the thumbs-up signal to Madge. She returned the signal, then she stepped away.
The chopper lifted as Sonny pulled on the stick, rocked forward, then rocked backward as he overadjusted.
A little rusty, he thought, as he guided the chopper up. He relaxed, getting the feel of the foot pedals, leveled out, felt its lightness and compensated. He lifted it straight up, pushed it forward, and went swooping away, skimming toward the tops of some anchored animal balloons at the far end of the field. He pulled the stick up, and they cleared the balloons by a few feet, then he rolled it sideways and away.
He breathed a sigh of relief; beside him Lorenza whispered a silent prayer.
“Airborne!” Sonny shouted, and headed the chopper toward North Edith.
Lorenza relaxed. The sudden lift had made her stomach queasy. Her ears rang with the roar of the motor, but as they climbed, an inner peace replaced the anxiety. They were going to rescue Rita.
Sonny pointed and she looked out the window.
To the west the Río Grande was a green serpent with golden scales. The river was her main reference point. For her it was like a snake, a symbol of genuine intuitive energy, guidance, clear wisdom.