“Someone took her out.”
“Why her?”
“To get to Rinaldo,” I say simply. “He’s close to her. Was close to her.”
My initial use of the present tense is intentional.
“You gonna call him?”
“Not yet.” I rub at my chin for a moment. “I have to see her—know for sure.”
“I gotcha.”
Nick comes back with the shovel, and all three of us take turns digging. I even get down on my hands and knees at one point when we’re close. The grave isn’t very deep, as far as graves go, and it doesn’t take too long before we find her.
“Shit,” Nick says as the body is revealed. “Rinaldo’s going to go ballistic.”
“You think he was that close to her?” I ask.
“Dude, don’t you pay any attention?” Nick eyes me up and down. “He was all over her all the time.”
“No shit, Evan.” Jonathan leans against the shovel and lights a smoke. “I thought you saw everything.”
“Guess not.” I shrug, realizing I shouldn’t have said a word about it. Hopefully the one slip up won’t cost me too much. “Shall we get her out?”
“Probably.” Jonathan tosses the shovel down, hot-boxes the cigarette, and throws it in the dirt before jumping into the hole.
He pushes some of the dirt around to get under her shoulders, and I lower myself into the hole to reach her feet. As we get her out of the loose ground, the gun falls from her body to the bottom of the hole.
“Hey! Give me that.” I point at it, and Jonathan lowers the body long enough to reach for it and hand it to me. “It’s a Ruger.”
“Like the missing ones?” Nick asks.
“Yeah,” I say as I turn it around in my hands and rub some of the dirt away, “same type and everything.”
“Damn, brotha.” Jonathan shakes his head and reaches to the dirt again. He pulls out a filthy, orange shirt. “Check this out.”
“There’s blood on it,” I say.
“How could Junko be so stupid?” Jonathan asks. “He’d made peace with Rinaldo, and now this?”
“I don’t want to jump to conclusions.” I toss the gun out of the hole and grab for Felisa’s legs again. “Let’s get her out and see if we find anything else.”
We get back to work, and soon the body, the gun, and the shirt are all stacked in the dry leaves near the hole. I sit at the edge of the makeshift grave and smoke a cigarette while Jonathan heads back to the truck with the shovel.
“You got an extra?”
I toss Nick the pack and the lighter.
“Damn,” Nick says as he lights up. “I can’t believe it.”
“It’s right in front of you,” I reply.
“I know, but fuck. I still can’t believe it. Felisa was so sweet. Why would anyone do this to her? I mean, there are a lot of potential targets…”
“It’s all about what kind of message you are trying to send.”
“What message is this?”