“Yes.”
Santino asked, “What caliber?”
5.56, looked like an AR from what I could see. The windows were tinted dark, and I was too far away.”
“I see some tinted glass over there on the road.”
“I shot out the driver’s window, put a few holes in the car body, too.”
“Hit anyone?”
“I don’t think so.”
Bobby said, “So, RL was there.”
“Yeah. He looked startled when Dario was shot.”
“What does that mean?”
“I think he didn’t plan on them killing anybody.”
Bobby put the stretcher near Hunter, “Lay Dario on this. We’ll put him in the back.”
She did, and gave his hair one last brush off his forehead with her fingers as Bobby and Santino loaded the body in the Suburban.
They closed the door and glanced at Hunter. She looked like a hundred miles of bad road, and the most lost person they had ever seen. Torn clothes, scratches, dust from head to foot, and a face streaked with tear tracks through all the dirt on her cheeks. Bobby said, “Come on. You can’t stay here.”
She rose from the caliche road and climbed in behind the driver’s seat, looking sad and forlorn. Another child killed while she watched. The kidnapped children from three months ago, and the shootouts on the ranches, one near San Angelo and the other in Mexico by the lake, and more kids buried in silent, lonely unmarked graves. Hunter felt more tears and didn’t know how much her heart could take.
Bobby said, “You want out at your vehicle, or one of us can drive it for you, we don’t mind.”
“I’ll drive, thanks.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Thanks, though.”
Bobby and Santino glanced at one another, both thinking the same thing, that Hunter was about to drop.
Santino said, “Okay. We’ll follow you back, just to keep watch.”
Hunter nodded her thanks, and Alicia came over to hug her. They talked, and both wept. Alicia gave H
unter back her phone, then got in with Bobby and Santino.
They reached her pickup and she exited without glancing over her shoulder at the body in the rear. She walked to her pickup like a zombie.
Bobby said, “I feel for her.”
“Me, too, Hermano, me, too.”
They glanced once at Hunter’s pickup as she drove away, then followed in behind her. Santino said, “Think she’s going home, or to the coroner?”
“I guess we’ll see. Marfa is thirty minutes from Alpine, so she might pass that up.”
“I think so, too.”
As they drove in silence, each with their own thoughts, Santino wondered about that guy, RL, that Hunter saw, and what that sonofabitch was doing right now. One thing was certain, he disappeared in a hurry. He said, “What do you think will happen if Hunter finds RL?”