Down Among the Dead Men

62

Beth wasn’t quite sure she’d heard him right.

“How could you possibly know who shot me? The police can’t even figure it out.”

“Until yesterday, the police didn’t know what I know. So why don’t we sit back down and I’ll lay it all out for you.”

Beth had half a mind to suggest he go fuck himself, but what if this wasn’t a ruse? What if he was telling the truth?

There was a time when she could spot a lying witness with very little effort. But when she looked into his eyes, she saw nothing there that gave him away one way or the other.

Moving back to her chair, she sat and crossed her arms in front of her, feeling much like she did when she took a seat at the prosecution table, challenging a defense attorney to a courtroom duel.

“All right,” she said. “Make your case.”

Vargas returned to his chair and sank into it, keeping his right shoulder still as he moved. The source of his pain.

He was quiet for a moment. Seemed to be searching for a place to start.

“A couple months ago,” he said, “I was watching the news on Channel Z. You know it?”

Beth nodded. They covered events relating to the local Hispanic community but also broadcast news from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

“There was a report that never got much traction up here,” Vargas continued. “About an abandoned old house near Juarez, where several women were found shot. A couple of them had slit throats. They called it the House of Death.”

He waited, as if expecting a reaction, so she gave him one. “Sounds like a run for the border gone wrong.”

“That’s exactly what the local policia thought. And as much as I hate to admit it, it’s the kind of story I usually forget about five minutes after I’ve seen it. But for some reason this one resonated. Maybe I was feeling sentimental that day. My parents were illegals when they first came here.”

“This is fascinating,” Beth said, “but what does it have to do with Albuquerque?”

He looked at her. “None of this sounds even vaguely familiar to you?”

She looked right back. “Two months ago I was in a coma. So, no, it doesn’t sound familiar. Should it?”

“You really don’t remember, do you.”

Okay, she thought. She’d given him enough slack. It was time for him to get to the point or get the hell out of here.

“What I know is that I’ve got a gap in my brain about the size of the Grand Canyon that seems to have swallowed up everything that’s happened to me for the last ten months. So if you know something that might help me fill that gap, I wish to Christ you’d get to it, because I’ve got some important magazine reading to do.”

He studied her with those unapologetic eyes again, then found his backpack and unzipped it, pulling out a small netbook computer.

“My brother was pretty much a mess after his injury, and one of his biggest problems was his long-term memory. He had gaps, just like you.”

He lifted the lid of the netbook, pressed a key, and the computer began to hum, its small screen coming to life.

“I know every brain injury is different,” he said, “so this may not work in your case. But we discovered that we could sometimes help him with visual cues. A photograph of the family at Christmas might be enough to bring on at least part of the memory, like putting a piece of a jigsaw puzzle in place.”

Beth gestured to the laptop. “So I assume that’s what you’ve got there. A piece of the puzzle?”

“Right,” Vargas said. “But what I’m about to show you is pretty shocking.”

“I’m sure I can handle it.”

“These aren’t family photos. I doubt your doctor would approve.”

Beth sighed. “I’ve prosecuted rapists, pedophiles, and murderers, so there isn’t much I haven’t seen. Now, are you going to keep me in suspense forever or are we gonna get on with this?”

Apparently satisfied with her response, Vargas ran his finger along the touch pad, put the pointer over an icon, and clicked.

A photograph filled the screen. A black-and-white shot of two dead women on a mattress soaked with blood.

Beth had seen enough crime scene photos in her time to know exactly what she was looking at. But what she’d never seen was herself in a crime scene photo, and one of the women lying on that mattress was surely her, USC sweatshirt and all.

The sight of her inert, bloodied body rendered her momentarily speechless.

Vargas tapped the touch pad again, showing her a new photo, shot from a different angle. Then a third, more distant shot that included most of the room and three more dead bodies.

“These were taken right before they realized you were still breathing,” he said.

Beth struggled to find her voice. “Before who realized? I don’t see a head wound, and this sure as hell isn’t a Taco Bell parking lot. What’s going on here? Is this where I think it is?”

“The House of Death,” Vargas said. “You were one of the victims.”

“That’s impossible. How could I…”

But it wasn’t impossible, was it? The evidence didn’t lie. She was no expert in Photoshop manipulation, but she was pretty sure these were genuine.

But how had she gotten there? And why?

Beth reached across and tapped the touch pad, going back to the first photo. She stared at it, trying with everything she had to summon up the memory. But no matter how hard she concentrated, nothing came. It was a dark shape in an even darker room, and she’d need a much brighter light than a few photographs could provide.

“Please,” she said to Vargas, “tell me everything you know.”

“It’s not all that much. Most of it happened after these were taken, not before. With a lot of rumor thrown in for good measure.”

“I don’t care,” Beth said, feeling a sudden urgent need wash over her. A need to know. “Tell me what happened to me. Tell me how I got here.”