Four Live Rounds

“You two,” Javier said, his voice low, deliberately measured, “may be the bravest people I have ever met.”

“Why don’t you look at the photos in your lap again,” Kalyn said.

“My family, they’re alive? Unharmed?”

“For now.”

Javier nodded. “I would like to speak to them.”

“Not possible.”

“Then I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”

Kalyn moved into the middle seat so she could see Javier’s face. “Look at me,” she said. “I’m going to tell you something, so you understand how serious we are. So you have no doubts of what we’re ready to do to you, Misty, and Raphael. Those photos on the right? That’s Rachael Innis, Will’s wife, and Lucy Dahl, my sister. So please believe me when I tell you that if you continue on this track, you and your family will have a very long, very bad night.”

“And if I were to provide the desired information?”

“They live. We aren’t like you, Javier.”

“And me? Either way, whether I tell you, whether I don’t, you will kill me, no?”

“You tell us what we want to know, and I leave you here, handcuffed to a picnic table. Maybe someone finds you tomorrow. Doesn’t matter. By then, we’ll be gone.”

“I don’t know that I believe you. If the tables were turned around the other way, I would get the information I needed, and then I would murder you.”

“What’d I just say? We aren’t like you.”

He looked out the window again, said finally, “I am afraid you won’t be pleased with my information, as I am only a small variable in the equation.”

“Just tell us what you know.”

As he spoke, he watched the color of the desert move through darkening shades of purple, noticed the mist slithering up the mountains. “It has been the same way every time. A man named Jonathan calls me and says, ‘They want another one.’ And so I begin looking. There are parameters of course. Caucasian. Big dark eyes. Black hair with abundant curls. Beautiful. They like my taste, I suppose. Perhaps I have a counterpart somewhere who specializes in blondes or redheads. When I find her, I follow her for several days. I learn about her. Patterns, habits. Then, when I feel it is time, I call Jonathan, and I tell him. When she’s in my possession, I call Jonathan once more. The time and place are set.”

“Where?”

“I think I will wait to tell you that. Suffice it to say that a journey of considerable distance is made. We meet. Jonathan is a large man, a truck driver. The woman is put into a trailer, and that is the last I ever see of her. Anywhere from five to ten days later, a deposit is made into one of my offshore accounts. A larger deposit each time. I require this. I do not speak to Jonathan again until he calls and says, ‘They want another one.’ ”

Kalyn wiped her eyes. She could barely form the words, and they came as a whisper. “How many women have you taken?”

“Five. It is not my typical line of work, but the money is good.”

“How did Jonathan find you?”

“Various channels. The first time we did business, he mentioned an important name. The right name. I took a chance.”

“Are there other people like you, people who Jonathan uses?”

“I have no idea. Ours is not a relationship of questions.”

Will said, “Look at me, Javier.” The man looked at him. Will reached down, lifted the photograph of his wife. “I want to hear about the night you took her.” He was trembling with fear, rage, sadness.

Javier looked at the photograph. “That was some time ago.”

“Five years. My daughter misses her mother.”

“I first saw her coming out of a clinic in Sonoyta. That’s all I remember. And that it was raining and the sky full of lightning on the night I took her.”

“How was she?”

“Afraid,” Javier said. “They all are. I try to calm them. They’re drugged for most of the trip, but not mistreated, if that’s what you’re asking. Not by me at least. You don’t pay what I am paid for damaged product.”

Will swung. There was a pop. Javier fell back into the door and spit out a tooth.

“Easy, Will,” Kalyn said.

Javier licked the blood from a cut on his bottom lip, smiling, his eyes shining, and for a moment Will was convinced the man was mad.

“Did that feel good?” he asked. “I imagine it did.”

“Is Jonathan the man who’s buying these women?” Kalyn asked.

“I would think not. Like me, he’s just a well-paid mule.”

“Then who? Where are they being taken?”

“Maybe to Mexico. Maybe they’re shipped on boats to other parts of the world. Thailand. Eastern Europe. I am a blind appendage in the operation, and intentionally so.”

Will looked at Kalyn, his right hand throbbing.

“Javier,” she said, “that was the wrong answer.” She opened the door, stepped out of the car, opened Javier’s door. “Get out.”

Javier didn’t move.

Will leaned over, pushed him out of the seat. Javier fell onto the pavement. Will got out, walked around the hood, finished dragging him the rest of the way out of the car.

Kalyn said to Will, “If you want to wait in the car, I’ll understand.”

“I’m with you now.”

“Then drag him onto the trail. I don’t want blood on the pavement.”

Will grabbed Javier under his armpits and lifted him. The man was heavy, solid muscle. Twenty feet took almost a minute. Will finally collapsed in the dirt, sweating, out of breath.

The sky was now a dark, rich navy, with just a shrinking bar of red in the west, the saguaros silhouetted against it. Will surveyed the parking lot, the road. The only lights, a collection of them, emanated from the park’s campground, a mile away.

Kalyn said, “Roll onto your back.” Javier rolled, looked up at her, the right side of his face swollen, his jaw broken. “What would you do if you were me?” she asked.

“We would be in a warehouse in Tempe. Acid would be involved. There is also this thing I do with a soldering iron and a powerful magnet.”

“I only have this gun.” She aimed it at his crotch.

“One moment,” he said, though his voice completely lacked fear. “If you do that, I will be in no shape to make the phone call.”

“What call?”