Body Heat. Brenda Novak

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СКАЧАТЬ Find me their coyote, someone who saw them or knows them, anything you can. The more you tell me, the more I’ll pay. ¿Entendido?”

      “¿Cuánto más?” someone else called.

      They were asking how much more. Fifty dollars was peanuts compared to what they were paid for a successful crossing. But not every crossing was successful. “Up to two hundred dollars U.S.,” she said.

      The man who’d just yelled out wiped the sweat from his forehead. “And if we find nada?”

      “Then you get paid nada.” She had no choice. They’d lie to her if she gave them the slightest incentive.

      “Nah.” Shaking their heads, some of the men closest to her turned away. One addressed two women huddled next to a wheeled cart where an old man was selling drinks and corn. “Hey, you want a new life?” he asked her. “You want to go to America? I can take you there.”

      He spoke in Spanish but Sophia understood the gist of his message.

      One of the women, obviously older than the other, scoffed. “You think I’m a fool? It’s too dangerous.”

      “It’s safe,” he insisted. “And easy. I can get you there, no problem. My metal detector can find the sensors.”

      “And what about that?” She waved in the direction of the tall metal fence dividing the two countries, but everyone knew the fence was virtually nonexistent in some places.

      “You’re worried about three strands of barbed wire?”

      “I’m worried about being forced into the desert,” she cried. “Do you want us to die?”

      Sophia saw no reason he’d want them to die. He didn’t care one way or the other, as long as he got paid.

      He rolled his eyes. “You won’t die in the desert. I know a shortcut. It’s an hour’s walk.”

      “Don’t listen to him,” Sophia interrupted. “It’ll take much more than an hour. It could take days. And border patrol agents aren’t the only thing you have to fear. Someone is killing illegal aliens, shooting them in cold blood.”

      The woman didn’t seem to understand English. But she recognized the pistol Sophia made with her thumb and finger. Muttering something unintelligible, she grabbed her companion’s hand and scurried away.

      The coyote whirled around to confront Sophia. “Hey, you’re costing me money!”

      “Twelve people are dead,” she said. “Twelve of your countrymen and -women. If anyone gives a damn, it should be you.”

      The man who spoke the best English was openly scornful. “Why should we care? They’re just wetbacks.”

      “You make your living off those wetbacks!”

      He shrugged. “So?”

      “If this killer keeps going, people will be too frightened to cross. Even with a reliable coyote.”

      Flexing, he looked pointedly from one bulging bicep to the other, showing off for her. “I can get anyone across. For the right price.”

      Since the U.S. had strengthened security along the Naco border, coyotes had a much more difficult job. They had to avoid the stadium lights that were spaced every three miles and equipped with cameras and infrared sensors monitored by agents at central command. They had to figure out ways to circumvent or slip through the Virtual Presence and Extended Defense System, which included the feared ground sensors. And they had to escape the notice of an additional two hundred agents posted at various lookouts. The services of a knowledgeable guide had gone from three hundred dollars to eight hundred dollars. Smuggling undocumented aliens was becoming so lucrative that the Mexican Mafia was beginning to traffic in humans, as well as drugs.

      “Money is all that matters to you?” she challenged.

      “That and a good fuck,” he said, and everyone burst out laughing.

      Sophia refused to flinch at his crude language. She was hardly impressed with his attempt to shock her; thanks to Starkey and his friends, and her job, she’d heard much worse. “Good luck finding a woman who’s willing.”

      “Oooh…” his friends moaned, mocking him.

      Eyes glinting with a dangerous light, he swept his gaze from her head to her toes. “Maybe I won’t bother getting permission.”

      “You’re not worth my time.” Jerking the pictures out of his hand, she turned away as if he didn’t scare her in the least.

      She’d taken only two steps when a man from the same group hailed her. “I’ll see what I can find, señorita,” he said, and nodded respectfully when she gave him the pictures.

      “Puta,” the other man spat.

      Sophia felt like drawing her gun. The cocky, sexist pig deserved to have a woman get the better of him. But she wasn’t in Mexico to start trouble. She was here to get answers.

      She ignored him.

      “Two hundred U.S.?” The one who was taking the assignment asked. Short and stocky, with a jagged scar on his cheek and an elaborate snake tattoo on his arm, he appeared to be much older than the others, probably in his late forties.

      “If the information is accurate,” she clarified, and with another nod, he strode off.

      5

      It wasn’t a cheap system. What with all his money going to support his wife and kids—two households now—Leonard Taylor had had to sell his riding lawn mower and all his saws and power tools. That was the only way he could get enough to purchase the listening devices he’d found on the Internet. He’d spent nearly two thousand dollars at that spy site. But he was extremely happy with the quality of what he’d been sent. The UHF transmitter camouflaged as an outlet adapter looked just like the real thing. No way would Sophia or anyone else be able to tell it from any other adapter. And the two pens looked every bit as genuine. Even better, the receiver he’d bought, together with the transmitters, wasn’t very big. He’d easily be able to carry it in his pocket or his truck, where he could hide it under the seat if he had to. By the time he finished placing the transmitters, he’d be able to pick up anything Sophia did or said, as long as he was within range, and she’d never have a clue.

      He’d never dreamed he’d have such a golden opportunity to plant them. Detective Lindstrom had called him on her way home from work to complain about Sophia and to tell him she wished she could be working with him instead, and she’d mentioned that Sophia was going to Mexico tonight. The second those words were out of her mouth, he’d known that it was time.

      Under the guise of saying hello to Officer Lawrence, who was dating a distant cousin of his, he’d stopped by the station first. He’d had to sit around shooting the bull with Grant for more than an hour before Grant finally excused himself to go to the restroom. Then he’d stepped into Sophia’s office and set the pen on a ledge under her desk. Even if she found it, that pen would look as if it had somehow fallen out of one of her drawers.

      Bugging her office had taken all of five or ten seconds. He was back in his seat before Grant could flush the toilet. СКАЧАТЬ