A Matter of Trust by Timothy Zahn

Author:Timothy Zahn [Zahn, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novela, Ciencia ficción
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2015-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

*

Kim was cooking her morning egg on the hotplate when Mauricio and Simon arrived from the rectory. “Good morning,” Mauricio greeted her. “I hope you slept well.”

“Mostly,” Kim said. “Some weird dreams. I see you got home safely. Keys are by the laptop.”

“Thanks,” Mauricio said, stepping over to the desk and picking them up. On the laptop’s screen, he saw, was a picture of a sullen-looking man, his dark eyes staring accusingly. “Jackson Tarbell?”

“One of them,” Kim said. “I put together a slideshow of every Jackson Tarbell in the L.A. area, or at least the ones in the DMV database.”

“Thanks.” Mauricio caught Simon’s eye and gestured to the desk chair. “Simon? You’re up.”

“Just a second,” Simon said, peering at the neat row of bacon slices Kim had set to drain on a folded paper towel. He chose one and stuffed it into his mouth, snagging another paper towel and wiping his fingers as he headed for the desk.

Kim watched in silence, her eyes following him until he sat down and started scrolling through her slide show. Then she shifted her attention to Mauricio. “I presume you heard the news this morning?”

“You mean the border-tightening announcement?” Mauricio asked. “All the more reason we need to get our railroad up and running.”

“No, I mean someone setting off the smoke alarms at the club last night,” Kim said.

“Oh. Yes. Yes, I did.”

“Crazy, huh?” she persisted. “And weird timing. You know — right after Simon and I left?”

“God works in mysterious ways,” Mauricio said, forcing himself to meet her gaze. His initial relief at not seeing any bodies on the floor last night had been tempered somewhat by the morning’s reports of bruises, lacerations, and a few broken bones.

Still, no one had died, and the injuries were for the most part minor. And there was nothing on the news about any Evos being nabbed.

Though of course there wouldn’t be any such reports, whether it had happened or not.

“It’s not God’s timing I’m worried about,” she said. “Let me put it another way: are they going to find your fingerprints on the fire alarm?”

“No, of course not,” Mauricio said, putting some offended dignity into his voice, relieved that she’d phrased the question in a way that didn’t require him to lie.

“I hope you’re right,” Kim said, clearly not convinced. “I’ve got enough people sniffing at my rear without adding the city’s arson squad to the list.”

“We’ll try to keep it that way,” Mauricio assured her. “Simon? Anything?”

“Only Jackson Tarbell,” Simon said, gesturing to the screen. “Orale!”

“That’s him?” Mauricio asked as he and Kim walked over.

“That’s him,” Simon confirmed. “Corona, huh? How far away is that?”

Mauricio leaned over Simon’s shoulder for a closer look at the screen. “About forty-five minutes in good traffic,” he said, making a quick mental calculation. “Maybe two hours in bad.”

“If that’s really his address,” Kim warned, peering over Simon’s other shoulder.

“Why not?” Simon countered. “This vato’s clean — trust me. Placas won’t be looking for him. Just maybe his partner.”

Behind his back, Mauricio caught Kim’s eye and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

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