“I’m a world famous super sleuth.”
She ignored my comment. “You think Rakes or Mortay can track me to my aunt’s place just like you?”
“You’re lucky, your fellow performers at the club don’t seem to be telling their bosses everything they know. I think you’ve got a little time, but eventually Rakes will find you.” I could hear her breath shudder.
She said, “If we meet, how will I know you?”
“We’ve already met. I’m the one who asked you if you were from Durango.”
“That’s you?”
“Uh-huh. So where do you want to meet?”
Blanca said, “You know the Tar Pits?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll be there in an hour, by the entrance. I’ll wait fifteen minutes and if you don’t come, I’m going to Mexico.”
“I’ll be there.” I heard a click and then handed the phone to the woman. “You think that Rosetta Stone course, The One Minute Brain Surgeon, would work for me?”
The woman said, “Somebody already operated on your crazy head, pendejo.”
I walked to the car, sure my charm had won her over. Pendejo was probably the Spanish word for handsome.
**
I reached La Brea in forty minutes and saw Blanca standing by the entrance. I walked to her. “Looks like we’re both early.”
“I’m scared, this is too open here.”
I pointed at the Yugo, “Let’s get in and drive somewhere less vulnerable.”
“You drive that thing?”
“Doing what I can for the environment. It gets a gazillion miles per gallon.”
“So do roller blades.”
I drove south on La Brea and turned east on Santa Monica, reached Vine and took it to Hollywood. I pulled into a parking building and drove us to the top level where I eased into a space and we looked out over the three-foot high retaining wall at Hollywood and LA. It was as safe as I could make us on short notice.
“Now,” I said. “How would you like to start?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got all the time you need.”
Blanca looked out over the city, took a deep breath and let it out, “I started dancing at the Caspian Diamond a year and a half ago. Mortay ran the Diamond and Carl Rakes came in often. I think he owns part of it too, or is some kind of partner or something. After six months, they approached me and asked if I knew anyone who was good at smuggling people across the border. When they said that, I knew the phones at the Diamond were tapped, because I’d called some people about smuggling my sister and some cousins into the US. Since they knew anyway, I didn’t deny it, so I set up a meeting for them. I told them I wanted my family brought too, and Simon agreed.
“Anyway, next month I hear the people I knew had vanished off the face of the earth, and Simon and Carl had other people of their own doing the smuggling. I guess, once they were taught the route, they didn’t need anybody else doing it. My sister and cousins were still in Durango, too. They didn’t bring them until much later.”
I said, “Do you know what route they used?”
“No, only that they crossed east of San Diego through the hills and met a van that drove them to somewhere near LA.”
When did your relatives come?”
“Less than two weeks ago.”