Hondo said, “We were at the courthouse, and when we came out, the Mayor, the Governor and our own Sergeant Vick Best were holding a press conference at the front of the building. Hunter and I went around the edge of the crowd and happened to walk by the Sergeant’s personal vehicle.”
“How’d you know it was his?”
Hondo said, “Remember the barbeque you threw for him last year, where he backed his Bronco into that orange Chevy?”
“Yeah, I told him the orange in the dent made it look like a Hook-’Em Horns brand.”
Well, he never got it fixed, so the orange still shows in the dent, and it still looks the same.”
“What’s that got to do with the chips?”
“I saw them in the front seat and took them.”
I rubbed my forehead, “You broke into a Deputy Sheriff’s car?”
“It’s not like we aren’t friends.”
“Wasn’t it locked?”
“That’s a relative term.”
Hunter said, “He picked the lock before I even knew what he was doing. He said, ‘Hey, look, there are Vick’s chips,’ and then he squatted down and pulled me with him and had the door open before I had time to wet my pants.”
“Wasn’t the alarm set?”
“Heck yes. It was wailing away when he snatched the stuff. He handed it to me and closed the door. Did it so fast it was like the door never opened. Then he told me, ‘How about some double-time duck walking,’ and he banged on a half dozen cars as we went, setting off their alarms, too.”
Hondo said, “Caused a little delay in the speech as people went to their cars and zapped them with the alarm buttons on their key chains. No big deal, they always blame it on kids, anyhow.”
I felt a headache coming on. “Are you going to eat them?”
“We could, I guess. What I thought is give them to Vick, that way you’ll only owe him one more bag and jar of salsa.”
“But it’s the same bag.”
“Not to him it isn’t.”
“You may have a point there.”
Hunter said, “You two are going to be the death of me.”
We put the chips and salsa away and Hunter said, “I contacted an investigator friend of mine at Immigration and he’s working on getting the woman in Durango to call me. He said he’ll call me and let me know when to expect her.”
“Is she going to call you on your cell?”
“Seemed like the best way.”
I nodded. “Any time frame?”
“He thought maybe today, for sure tomorrow. A friend of his works out of the Juarez office and is in Durango this week, not far from where the woman lives.”
“That would be good.”
Hondo said, “You should have heard Hunter talking to him, all sweet and saying ‘Doll’ this and ‘Sweetheart’ that.”
I felt a little prickle, “You got something going with this guy?”
“Don’t you even start, Ronny Baca.” She leaned over and whacked Hondo on the shoulder, “And you, Mr. Troublemaker, quit taking my words out of context.” Hondo rubbed his shoulder and grinned.