Garcia wasted no time on pleasantries. "I thought you should know that our mutual acquaintance from Tijuana is back in town."
"What?"
"Apparently, his sister-the one he lived with when he was here- is sick, and he's taking care of her kids."
"I thought you told him to lose himself."
"I did, my friend, but I can't follow him all over Mexico to make sure he stays down there."
"Do you have a number for his sister's house?"
"Got a pencil?"
"Shoot." Stone jotted down the number. "Call him and tell him to keep his head down."
"Will do, Chief." Garcia hung up.
Stone sighed. It was bad enough that Beverly Walters was going to testify, but if Cordova appeared in court, he might lend credence to her story. He called Marc Blumberg.
"Morning, Stone. Where'd you sleep last night?"
"None of your business," Stone replied.
Blumberg laughed. "You seemed to be hanging back when everybody else was leaving."
"We had dinner, and that's all you need to know."
"Okay, okay, what's up?"
"Our friend Cordova has turned up in LA. again."
"That's bad," Blumberg replied. "I filed a motion to dismiss this morning. I hope we can get a hearing scheduled before the police find him."
"The one thing we've got going for us is that the police aren't looking for Cordova, although he doesn't know that."
"Do you know where to find him?"
"Yes. I can get a message to him if the police suddenly get interested."
"You want to prep Arrington, or shall I?"
"You'd better do it; she's not speaking to me at the moment."
"Oh? What went wrong?"
"It's too complicated to go into. Let's just say that she got angry about something she didn't have a good reason to be angry about."
"Stone, you are the only man I know whose relations with women are more complicated than mine."
"That's not how I planned it, believe me. Will you call Arrington?"
"Okay, whatever you say."
"How are you planning to handle Beverly Walters?"
"I'm planning to shred her on the stand."
"She may have been sleeping with Vance; I'm still working on finding out."