Rick Mofina - In Desperation

A young man was perched on the prayer rail of a pew with his back to the altar and his feet on the bench. Facing the arrivals, he waited calmly. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. A massive cross bearing the crucified Christ looked down on him and the world below.

“Are you Angel?” Luna asked.

The young man nodded but held up his hand, stopping them cold a distance away at the back of the church.

“Father Ortero sent me. I am Isabel Luna, a reporter with El Heraldo .”

Recognition twigged briefly and died in Angel’s eyes.

“And the others?” he asked. “You were instructed to come alone.”

“They are associates, here to bear witness to your legend and verify your account so police cannot lie. This is Jack Gannon. He is a correspondent with the World Press Alliance, one of the largest newswires in the world. Beside him is his assistant.” As Angel considered the situation, Luna reached into her shoulder bag. “Before we start, may I take your photo?”

Gannon stared in confusion at Luna. Cora was going to burst. She refused to believe Tilly was dead. She would never accept it, not while she could still fight to find her.

“Please,” Cora whispered, “let’s get out of here and go back.”

Luna ignored her. Gannon noticed Luna was trembling as if she were standing before a rattlesnake.

“A photo, Angel?” Luna pressed. “To verify this moment in history?”

Wary and exhausted, he nearly smiled before he turned slightly to indicate two large sports bags on the altar. Gannon saw Luna’s attention dart to the windows at the side of the church, then back to Angel.

“My donation to Ortero’s church is in the bags,” Angel said. “Two million dollars. I have made my confessions to him. You will tell my story, then go to police with my offer to exchange information for a deal.”

Light flashed as Luna took Angel’s picture without his objection. She stepped forward and took several more, licking her lips in nervous tension.

“Enough,” Angel said. “Let’s get started.”

“Certainly.” Luna opened her notebook, nodding to Gannon, who, not quite understanding, pulled his out as well. “First,” Luna said, “as the Norte Cartel’s number one sicario, how many people have you killed?”

“As of today, one hundred and ninety-five.”

Cora stifled a low cry.

“And you will confirm that you work under orders from the leader of the Norte Cartel, Samson Zartosa.”

“Yes, that is true.”

“And did he instruct you to murder the editor of my newspaper, El Heraldo? ”

Luna’s question exhumed a memory. His face confirmed what she knew: She’d found her father’s killer. The realization caught up to Angel, but he shrugged.

“Perhaps. I just told you, I had nearly two hundred jobs-”

Near and unseen a soft muffle echoed. Instinctively, Cora started toward Angel.

“Tell me where my daughter is. Where’s Tilly?”

In one motion, Angel reached down for the AK-47 assault rifle he’d kept out of sight and pointed it at Cora.

Gannon pulled her to him.

“You look familiar to me,” Angel said to Cora.

“I am the mother of the child your people stole and I want her back!”

“What is this?” Angel face contorted with rage. “I trusted the priest!”

Gannon noticed a shadow, a tremor of light outside.

In an instant, Angel yanked Tilly up from under the pew and locked his arm around her neck. Her eyes were filled with fear.

“Mommy!!!”

“Tilly!” Cora struggled against Gannon.

“Nobody move or I will kill her!” Angel said.

“Let her go!” Cora said. “I did not kill Eduardo Zartosa.”

“What?” Angel was confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Look at you!” Luna shouted. “Using a child as your shield in a church. You are a coward who will never see heaven!”

“Neither will you!”

As Angel steadied his gun to shoot Luna, Gannon saw a piercing sunray reflected from a window on the scope of a sharpshooter’s rifle as the muzzle flashed.

The sniper’s bullet smashed into Angel’s temple, tore through his skull and removed the back of his head. This was how Angel Quinterra-the sicario, the son of an alcoholic garbage picker from the shantytown near the Juarez dump-died. With his cranial matter splattered on the feet of the crucified Christ.

Tilly ran into Cora’s arms.

Luna and Gannon turned to the window where Esteban Cruz, Isabel’s stepbrother, lowered his rifle.

Numbed, the five of them moved to the front steps of the old mission.

They waited in the sunlight as Cora freed Tilly from her bindings and held her as she trembled.

“Mommy, he killed Lyle…he killed them all… I thought I was going to die!”

Cora hushed and soothed her as both of them sobbed softly.

Gannon called Hackett and told him what had happened. Hackett said they were already on their way.

“A priest in Mexico had called the task force. He was concerned about the safety of a reporter from Juarez, who he believed had key information on the case. Then we got a call from a Mexican cop on the case.”

Afterward, Gannon called Melody Lyon in New York.

“It’s over, Mel. We found Tilly. She’s traumatized but alive.”

“Thank God.”

“You can put out a story alert. I’ll file something over the phone later.”

“Thanks, but wait. Jack, how’s your sister doing?”

“She’s going to be okay.”

“And you?”

“It doesn’t matter about me.”

After hanging up, Gannon and Cora thanked Luna and Esteban and they looked to the horizon, saying little until they heard the sirens.

Arizona

It rained the day they buried Lyle Galviera.

The funeral was held about a week after the FBI and the County had processed the scene and the medical examiner released the remains to his family.

Cora and Gannon attended the service.

Mourners offered condolences and kind words to his mother. Later, at the funeral reception, they huddled in quiet groups and grappled with the tragedy, asking questions no one could answer.

“How the hell did he think he would come out ahead, doing business with a freakin’ drug cartel?”

Ed Kilpatrick, the operations manager, was among the last people to talk with Cora and Gannon at the gathering.

“How are you holding up, Cora?”

“Minute by minute, Ed. Thanks.”

“And Tilly?”

“She has nightmares and sleeps in my room. She wasn’t physically hurt, but the counselor said to expect stages of post-traumatic stress. He said that she might be able to progress through it all. Tilly told me she shut her eyes through the worst of it with the chain saw, but that she’d heard everything.”

Ed shook his head.

“Thank God you got her back.”

Cora nodded and touched a tissue to her eyes.

“Jack-” Ed turned to Gannon “-looks like the press had a big part in stopping the cartel. I see the police arrested quite a few people on both sides of the border. It’s a hell of a thing.”

“A lot of people, cops and reporters, worked on this and a lot of people got lucky when they needed to get lucky,” Gannon said.

“Forgive me, Cora-” Ed went back to her “-I know this may not be the proper time, but there’s a company out of Albuquerque that’s looking to take over Quick Draw, clear the debt, restructure but keep all the staff. In fact, they plan to expand. Looks like we’ll be okay.”

Cora patted his hand.

“Thank you, Ed.”

“Just don’t want you to worry about that.”

Cora and Gannon turned, surprised to find FBI Agents Hackett and Larson waiting to talk with them after Ed left.