The Searchers

Shot from a distance with a telephoto lens, the edges of the picture were grainy and out of focus but the center was clear as could be.

It was a photograph of her. Taken nineteen years before, the picture showed her holding an automatic gun and surrounded by men equally armed. Renaldo was not in the frame because he’d been behind the camera. Thrusting his weapon into her hands, he’d pushed her into the group and told her to smile. She stared at the photograph and felt her heart careen out of control, sweat breaking out on her forehead as heavily as it had that day in the jungle.

She hadn’t realized she’d said anything until she heard Shepard’s voice, coming from the phone she’d set down on the desk. “Maya? Maya? Are you still there? Hello?”

His voice triggered something and suddenly she understood. She grabbed the receiver.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Her voice was ferocious. “I tried to help you and this is the thanks I get?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play the innocent with me. I’m holding a photograph and you damn well know what it is. That’s why you called, isn’t it? Your timing was perfect but you can take your little warning and shove it up your—”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Explain yourself.”

His command was so forceful, Maya complied without thinking. “I just received a photograph of me,” she said tightly. “With Renaldo’s cadre.” Her voice went hoarse. “It won’t work, Shepard.”

She thought she heard a quick intake of breath, then knew she’d imagined it. “I have sent you nothing. This photograph must have come from someone else—”

“Say something I can believe.”

“I am telling you the truth.”

Anger washed over her. “If you think this will deter me, think again. You and your family can try all the dirty tricks you have at your disposal but they won’t work against me. Or my son, if he lives.”

She didn’t realize she was speaking Spanish until she stopped. And she didn’t realize how much she meant her words until then, either. Compared to the possibility her son might be alive, nothing else in her life mattered. Nothing.

She spoke again. “Are we clear on this? I am coming to Colombia and there is nothing you can do about it.”

“That is not a good idea.” He sounded alarmed but she knew he was faking it. “Please, Maya. Do not even consider coming here.”

Maya looked down at the photo in her hand. She’d smeared blood on it, darkening the edges and causing them to curl. “Your plan has backfired, Señor Reyes. Nothing could stop me now.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“HOW LONG WILL you be gone?” Patricia’s voice held more than a hint of disappointment when Maya stopped by her office the following morning.

“I’m not sure,” Maya hedged. “But I have too much going on here to be away long.”

Patricia’s fingers tapped the top of her desk. “Next Saturday night is the dinner for Senator Hayes. I wanted to introduce you to some people there.”

“I know, Patricia.” Maya shook her head. “I’d planned on attending but this came up and I don’t have a choice now. I have to deal with the situation. They’re asking for me.”

“This is the Sanchez case?”

Maya had resorted once again to the lie she’d told when she’d introduced Shepard to Patricia. She’d researched the case last night just to make sure she had the facts straight. “Yes, it is. We did the probate in ’97. I think you might have been in Switzerland at the time.”

Patricia frowned as she tried to remember but Maya rushed into her explanation. She didn’t want Patricia thinking about the case too hard.

“Sr. Reyes has located the missing son who left right after the Sanchez funeral. Obviously they haven’t been able to close the estate without him so now that he’s been found, the family wants me to fly to Bogota and wrap things up.”

“Well, it can’t be avoided, I suppose, but make sure you don’t get in too deep.” Patricia nodded then reached for a folder on her desk, looking at Maya over her glasses. “You really need to be back by the end of next week. The governor might come into town and if he does, we’ll want you in front of him.”

Backing out of the office, Maya clutched the file and made a promise she didn’t know if she could keep. “Of course. I’ll be back by then.” She’d made it to the threshold when Patricia spoke again.

“Maya?”

She stopped and so did her heart. “Yes?”

“If this trip was personal, it’d be fine, you know. You’re an adult and you have a right to your private life.”

A flood of guilt hit Maya as she understood. Patricia thought she was going to meet Shepard for a romantic tryst. “I know that, Patricia. And I would tell you if that was the case.” She paused. “But it’s not what you think.”

She fled, leaving her lie behind her.

The Avianca flight left Bush International the following morning at 6:30 a.m. Maya settled into her first-class seat and tried to stay composed. The plane would arrive in Miami around ten. She’d have a lay-over until one at which point she’d then board another 757. By 3:30 that afternoon, she’d be in Bogota.

Turning down the flight attendant’s offerings, Maya retrieved a report she’d brought and tried to read it. The airplane hadn’t even gotten off the ground before she gave up. Her brain was spinning as fast as the jet’s engines—there was no way she could concentrate.

They banked sharply and her papers slid across her lap. Maya grabbed them, the task jarring her and forcing her once more to question her sanity.

If her son had survived, she wanted to know—had to know—but something told her she might come to regret this trip…a thousand times over.

SHEPARD WAS SITTING on the patio having his morning coffee when his mother walked outside. Normally she wasn’t up this early and he should have been surprised to see her but he was too busy worrying about Maya to notice anything else. She had no idea what she was doing, no idea of the peril that faced her here. If Colombia had been dangerous to her before, it might be deadly this time. He wasn’t sure he could protect her and he didn’t know why he even cared.

But he did.

“May I join you?”

His mother’s soft request brought Shepard’s gaze up. He rose to his feet and pulled out her chair. “Of course. Please…” She sat down and one of the maids appeared, a tray in hand with Marisol’s herbal tea and two pieces of pan dulce. Shepard reclaimed his chair as Marisol reached for one of the sweet rolls. Instead of eating the bread, however, she crumbled it absentmindedly, her thoughts clearly troubled.

“Your sister is very upset,” she said after a while. “She thinks you are making a grave mistake with this idea of another store, especially one so far away.”

“Luisa doesn’t approve of anything I do.” Shepard shrugged. “I’m not surprised she’s unhappy.”

“She’s protecting her husband. She thinks Esteban should have more responsibility and authority with the company and she knows you would run the new shop.”

Shepard took a sip of his coffee and considered his mother’s comment. The information itself wasn’t important; what mattered was the fact she’d brought it up at all. Marisol, more than any of them, did Eduard’s bidding without exception. If she were using her daughter to deliver a message from Eduard it wouldn’t be the first time. But then Shepard reconsidered. He’d already heard his father’s opinion on this topic. Perhaps it was Marisol herself who was upset with the turn of events.

“Esteban’s doing as much as he wants to—and he couldn’t handle more authority.” Shepard put down his coffee, the cup hitting the saucer with a clink that mixed with the call of the macaws in the aviary behind the garden.

Marisol made no comment. They sat in silence then she tore off another piece of bread and spoke. By the tone of her voice, Shepard immediately knew her remarks about the store were not what had brought her to him.

“Do you ever think of Renaldo?”

Her question caught him off guard. His mother hadn’t mentioned her youngest son’s name in years. Why did she bring him up now of all times?

“Why do you ask me that, Mama?”

“¿Por qué?” She pursed her lips and touched the crucifix she wore. “He has been on my mind lately. Teresa says…”

Shepard almost interrupted her but for some unaccountable reason, he urged his mother on. “Teresa says?”

“Teresa says his spirit has been trying to contact her. She says he’s disturbed about some things that are going on right now.”

Despite his interest, Shepard’s distrust of the santera was too ingrained to consider the timing anything but coincidental. He teased his mother gently, trying to make her see how ridiculous the idea was. “Mama, please…do you really believe Renaldo is speaking from his grave? If he had something important to say, why would he use Teresa? He’d go straight to you.”

His mother’s expression immediately shifted, a sternness he’d rarely seen coming over her features. “You mock me.”

“It’s not you I mock, Mama. I simply don’t believe Teresa can take messages from the dead.”

Her eyes held his a moment longer, then she stood, her back as straight as iron, her gaze just as flinty.

“If you choose not to believe, that is your decision. But it wasn’t me she said Renaldo wanted to contact.” Her jaw went tight. “It was you.”

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