The Terror of Tijuana by S.J. Varengo

Author:S.J. Varengo [Varengo, S.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

O U T O F N OW H E R E

The village of Uruapan was small. There were no plans for making it a major metropolis like Palm Valley, clearly. In fact, it was small enough that as J.J. pulled into town from the west, she

was able to spot Neal’s Kelly-green Land Rover parked in front of a small cantina at the opposite end of the town’s main street. The last time she’d seen these two, they were significantly more than half in the bag, and she hoped the proximity of the car to the bar didn’t indicate that was how she was going to find them now.

Happily, when she walked in, they were just finishing some food, although they both had frosty mugs of cerveza which, were, like their plates, just about empty. She hoped against hope they’d only had the one, although she had to admit that the beer looked very enticing. The air temperature was in the mid-nineties.

Neal noticed her first. “That chick that just walked in looks a lot like your daughter,” he said.

Definitely not Neal’s only beer, she thought.

“Jayj! Thank God you made it safely.”

J.J. could instantly tell that Dan was sober, and now that she looked more closely, she saw he hadn’t really eaten much of his food either. He’d just redistributed it on the plate.

“Yeah, Papa. I’m fine. So, um…” She hesitated, not knowing how much her father had told Neal, and based upon that, how much she could say now. There wasn’t a lot of time for dancing around the subject.

“It’s okay. We can talk in front of Neal. I’ve told him what I think.”

“Oh, excellent,” J.J. said. “Now tell me.”

“American executives are a prime target for kidnappers. Unless they travel with their own security, which your mom decided not to do this time…” Dan paused for a moment, looking for an indication that J.J. was following what he wasn’t saying as well as what he was. She gave a curt nod, so he went on. “So I’m thinking that’s what happened.”

J.J. quickly began putting the pieces together. Going with that, the fact that they might have to do some unsavory things to get her mother back could be covered by the umbrella of Dan’s lie.

“No police, obviously,” J.J. said.

“What?” asked Neal. “Some police. Not many, but…”

“No, Neal,” J.J. said, a little more impatiently than she’d meant to. She took a quick breath to re-center herself, then in a less edgy tone, she went on. “I meant we obviously won’t be calling the police.”

“What?” asked Neal again. J.J. was now guessing he’d had considerably more than one beer.

J.J. took a chair from an empty table and sat at the end of the booth her father and his friend occupied. “Okay, Neal. Here’s the thing. I don’t know how much you know about the police south of the border, but the safest thing to assume about them is that they’re corrupt. If you start from that assumption and find one that isn’t, then you’ve gotten lucky.

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