Illegal

TWENTY-SEVEN

Tino checked their faces. Looking for disapproval, anger, horror.

But the lady cop looked like she was going to cry. And the lawyer smiled warmly at him. "You're a terrific kid."

"?Verdad?"

"You bet. Defending a woman is a high calling. If the woman's your mom, bonus points."

Tino told them the rest. El Tigre the coyote. The plan to reach a stash house in Calexico. The foul-up at the border, his mother making the crossing at gunpoint. Rey and the other two cabrones forcing him to carry cocaine.

The cop and the lawyer were quiet when he finished.

"Holy shit," the lawyer said, finally.

"My God, what you've been through," the lady cop said.

Tino finished his coffee, which had gone cold. "Now I can look for Mami."

"By yourself?" the lady cop asked.

"I have two hundred dollars now. Is that enough to hire a private eye?"

"For about forty-five minutes," Payne said.

"But who else would help me?"

Sharon had an idea, but before she could work it over, the phone rang. Detective Rigney. He was at Sunset and La Cienega. He'd be up the hill in ten minutes.

"Atticus, I have a deal for you," Sharon said.

"What?" Payne was wary.

"I'll let you go if you promise to help Tino find his mother."

"Okay!" Tino shouted.

But Jimmy was shaking his head. "I know what you're doing, Sharon."

"No time for your bullshit. Yes or no?"

"No. If you bust me, you figure I'll make bail and skip to Mexico. But you know I won't break a promise to you. If I say I'll help this kid, I'll do it. Bottom line, you're just trying to keep me from going after Garcia."

"Not everything's about you, Jimmy. Tino needs help. Your law practice is shot. You have no plans, except to commit mayhem. Why not do something positive?"

"I wouldn't know where to start."

"Find the stash house in Calexico."

"How? You think they advertise on cable?"

"We can do it, Himmy," the boy said. "We can find Mami."

"Don't bet on it, kid. In fact, don't bet on me."

"You know what I think, Atticus?" Sharon said. "I think you're scared to do something for someone else."

"I'm not scared. It's just less of a burden to screw up my own life."

"Your call. What'll it be? A late-night drive through the desert? Or a cement bunk at the jail?"

"What about Rigney?"

"I'll tell him you escaped again."

"You could get in a real jam, Sharon."

"I've been in a jam since the day I met you. Now get out of here."

"I gotta pee first," Tino said.

Sharon gave the boy directions down the hall to the guest bath, then hurriedly started emptying the refrigerator. Juice. Peaches. Apples. A box of pretzels from under the cupboard. She put everything in brown grocery bags. "Take this for Tino. You know how hungry boys get."

"He's not going to summer camp." Sounding grumpy.

"Can I count on you to take care of him?" Those maternal instincts again.

"He'll probably steal my car when I stop for gas. That kid is a ton of trouble in a hundred-pound body."

"He likes you. I can tell."

"When I can't find his mother, how's he gonna feel?"

"Where's that old confidence? Where's the fearless J. Atticus Payne?"

"You know damn well where. On a hillside at Forest Lawn."

That kept her quiet a moment.

They heard a car pull into the driveway.

"Shit," Sharon said. "Where'd you park?"

"A driveway up the hill, behind some jacaranda trees."

"Go out the back door. I'll get Tino."

"I'm here," the boy said, popping back into the kitchen.

Jimmy still hadn't moved.

"Go!" She brush-kissed him on the lips.

"What about me, chica?"

She kissed the boy on the cheek, then smacked his butt.

The doorbell rang. "Good luck, guys," Sharon said, shooing them out the back door.

As they crossed the yard at double time, hunched over like commandos, Tino whispered to Jimmy, "You play your cards right, Himmy, that chica caliente will be in your bed soon."

"Too late for that, kid. Sharon's moved on."

"Donde fuego hubo, ascuas quedan."

"Where there was fire… " Jimmy couldn't translate the rest. "Embers remain," Tino helped out.

"I don't know, kid."

"I do, Himmy. I could feel the heat."