An Easy Thing by Paco Ignacio Taibo II

Author:Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: 2012-07-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” asked the girl. “I believe in confusion,” said Paul Newman.

“Hi,” said Belascoarán from the doorway.

The girl smiled from where she lay in the bed under the blue comforter.

“What’d you do to scare them like that?”

Héctor shrugged his shoulders.

“They sure were surprised. They kept asking me who you were, who’s that son of a bitch who shot at us the other day, who kicked me in the jaw…I just told them you were my guardian angel, and they only got more pissed off.”

“Did they hurt you?”

“They hit me a couple of times when they kidnapped me. It wasn’t bad. After that they were just trying to scare me…Threatening to rape me, lock me in a room with a rabid dog, burn the soles of my feet…Just a lot of talk.”

She looked extremely fragile, with her arm in its cast resting on the comforter, her hair falling across her face, a Margarita Gauthier smile. The soft morning light filtered through the blue curtains and fell at the foot of the bed.

“Sit down,” she said.

Héctor sat on the rug, stretched, and then lay down. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and set fire to it. The girl handed him an ashtray.

“Are you okay?”

“Just tired.”

“Were you really going to blow up the hotel?”

Héctor nodded.

“They sure were scared all right. They’re not professionals, you know.”

“What are the professionals like?”

“Oh, I don’t know. More efficient, I suppose. Meaner. Those guys didn’t believe what they were saying.”

Héctor smoked quietly, watching the columns of smoke rise toward the ceiling. He could have lain there for hours, watching the rising smoke, resting, letting the soft morning sink into his veins, maybe have drunk a cup of coffee or a soda pop.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked suddenly.

“Not yet.”

“What do you think about going to take a little vacation where those guys can’t find you?”

She said she’d like it.

“Come on, then.”

The girl jumped out of bed.

“Can I go like this or should I change first?”

“It’s up to you.”

“Close your eyes.”

Héctor did as he was told. Luxuriating in the softness of the rug, he started to drift off to sleep. There was the sound of drawers being opened and closed, the rustle of cloth against skin.

“Okay, I’m ready. Isn’t Mama going to be angry?”

“Let her,” said the detective, as he lifted himself slowly from the floor.

***

The pressure was off for the moment in the race to find the fifty-thousand-peso-whatever-it-was, and with the added certainty that Elena was safe in his sister’s hands, Héctor was able to turn his attention back to the search for Emiliano Zapata.

Using a geologic map of the state of Morelos he tried to isolate the areas where caves were most likely to be found. He began by ruling out the zones where Zapata had enjoyed his strongest influence. If Zapata were there, the people would have found him on their own, and wouldn’t have needed Héctor’s help. If Zapata’s cave existed at all, it would have to be somewhere outside his traditional stomping grounds.

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