“I want to be there,” Jim said. “There’s more I can do—I reviewed the necropsy report from Game & Fish and talked to their lead investigator. They have some new theories on water locations based on storm patterns during the months prior to when Emma found the birds, though I need more time and resources.”
“Whatever you can do from Dallas, that’s great, but I know this trial is important and that’s your first priority.”
Matt’s phone beeped. He had another call, so he said goodbye to Jim, then answered.
“Costa.”
“It’s Joe Molina.”
His voice was quiet. “You okay?”
“Monday afternoon. That’s when the truck is coming.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I have to go.”
He ended the call before Matt could ask him any more questions, but at least he had a date. He sent the information to Tony in DC, then, even though it was after six, he went back to work.
He felt like he was missing something important, but he feared they just didn’t have enough information to move forward.
* * *
It took Frank Block most of the afternoon to track Billy down; the kid finally agreed to meet him at a local college bar. It was late, and Frank wanted to leave at dawn, but he needed to make sure Billy was okay.
“I heard you were in Patagonia this week.”
“So?”
“The FBI is investigating Emma’s murder now. You need to let them do their job.”
Billy just stared at him. The waitress brought over two pints of beer. Frank didn’t touch his.
“It’s been two months since she was killed,” Billy said. “Two months is a lifetime in a murder investigation and they still haven’t found anything!”
“I know the FBI agent in charge, and he’s doing everything he can. More than I can tell you.”
“That sounds like a crock of shit, an excuse.”
“It’s not. They have a lead but it’s a delicate situation, and if you start asking questions, their suspect might get suspicious.”
Billy’s eyes widened. “They have a suspect?”
“I shouldn’t have said it that way.”
“Either they do or they don’t.”
“Emma got into something way over her head. I don’t think she realized...well, let me just say that the FBI has multiple people covering all angles. Agent Costa needs you to lay low. Please. I know you loved Emma—let them find out who killed her. They will.”
Billy drank his beer, looked at Frank. “I miss her.”
“I miss her too. I’m following up on a separate lead. I don’t know if it’ll help, but it’s all I can do.”
Billy’s eyes brightened. “Can I help?”
“No, son.”
“Dammit! Why not? I need to do something!”
“Finals—”
“Are over! I’m done, okay? I can’t just sit here and wait for the fucking FBI to figure it out. I need to do something! I’m going crazy sitting around just waiting for everyone else.”
“You have to sit tight, Billy. Give it another week, okay? We’ll know more by then.”
“It’s been two months. Now I have to wait another week...for maybe answers. It’s bullshit, and you know it. No one cares.”
“I care.”
“Really? If you cared, you would have listened to her!”
That hurt, because there was truth in Billy’s accusation. Frank had dismissed Emma because she came to him all the time, thinking she uncovered a major environmental disaster. Her theories never panned out. Her heart was in the right place, but she didn’t have the experience to know what was serious and what wasn’t.
“I did,” he said. “I listened. But she didn’t tell me what she was up to—”
“Because you never listened to her before. She made one mistake two years ago and paid for it ever since.”
Frank couldn’t explain that Emma’s mistake had caused a lot of problems and expense and nearly got her thrown out of the internship program. He couldn’t tell Billy that he’d covered for her, because that was something only he and Emma knew about. No one knew that it was Emma’s report that led to the original AREA investigation of Southwest Copper. She had been right about the contamination...but wrong about the source, and it cost Frank dearly—professionally and personally.
But her error was likely the reason she hadn’t confided in him more than she had about the dead birds. If she’d only told him her plans!
“You need to back off, or Agent Costa will be talking to you and he doesn’t know you like I do, okay? Please, Billy, listen to me.”
“Just...go. I’m not going to do anything stupid, okay? I just went down there because I wanted to...I don’t know, see if I missed something. If everyone missed something. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Emma. That I don’t miss her so much it hurts. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Now...fuck, I don’t know what I want to do anymore.”
Frank reached out to touch his hand, but Billy pulled it away, grabbed his beer and went to sit at the bar.
There wasn’t anything else Frank could say. He put ten dollars on the table and left, without touching his own beer.
Frank had to leave the investigation to Matt... Frank had no idea how to find a murderer. But he did know how to protect the environment, and he wouldn’t let his and Emma’s mistake two years ago stop him from doing that now.
Chapter 3
Thursday night
Fifteen miles north of Arizona-Mexican border
BIANCA DID EXACTLY WHAT her brother said, but that didn’t stop her heart from racing.
It didn’t help that it was the middle of the night and she was scared of the dark. Bad things happened in the dark.
In the dark, her papa was taken from their farm and never came back.
In the dark, her mama cried herself to sleep every night.
And in the dark, bad men came and burned down their little house for reasons that Bianca didn’t know or understand.
Her mama told her that her older sister, Juanita, had disobeyed and so they were all punished. Bianca hadn’t seen Juanita in over a year. Mama cried, and Bianca thought her sister was dead, like their papa. But she didn’t ask because she didn’t want her mama to cry anymore.