David Baldacci - The Last Mile

“Never. She was very proper in that way.”

“But she used the word chocha ? Which could translate to ‘whore’ or ‘vagina’? That doesn’t seem very proper.”

Mars sat back down, looking confused. “Yeah, but she was upset. I told you that.”

“But it doesn’t fit the context of the argument she was having with your father. Where would a whore come in? Was she accusing your father of using a hooker or of being some kind of pussy?”

“No, my old man would never have cheated on her. And I don’t think anyone would call my father a pussy. And it wasn’t like she was angry at him. She was more scared than angry, really.”

“Which reinforces my point that the word doesn’t make sense. If you were using the typical Spanish translation,” he added.

“Is there an atypical one?” asked Mars warily.

“Spanish is obviously spoken in many countries. And other countries and other regions of other countries sometimes have very different translations for the same word.”

“And did you find one for chocha ?”

“I did.”

“What country?”

“Colombia. More specifically the Cali region. That location is the basis for the theory I’ve come up with.”

“Wait, you’re saying my mom was from Colombia?”

“I’m not saying she was from there for certain, but at some point in her life I think she ended up there. Maybe against her will. Which is where the slave thing comes in.”

“Who the hell in Colombia was in the slave trade?”

“The drug cartels in Cali. I did some research. Back when the cocaine trafficking was centered in Colombia, drug czars would threaten the families of people and use that as leverage to keep them in harness. Or they would kidnap people, especially women, and use them as servants in their households. They took people from other countries, including the United States. I think your mom might have been one, but I think she escaped. And she took that silver teapot with her as partial repayment for what they did to her. It really was a shot in the dark on my part, and I could have been wrong. But I thought she might have taken something with her, just to get back at whoever was holding her.”

“And you’re sure it was Colombia? But how can you be?”

“Because of the translation. Apparently it’s particular only to the Cali area.”

“But you haven’t told me what the translation was.”

“ Chocha in the Valluno dialect means ‘possum.’”

Mars stared blankly at him. “And why would a possum make any more sense than the other translations?”

Decker drew a long breath and then just said it.

“Principally, Melvin, because possums can play dead . Which seems to be exactly what your father did.”

So you think a cartel is behind all this?” asked Bogart.

Decker sat across from him, Milligan, and Jamison in Bogart’s room at the motel. Decker had filled the others in on his deductions and his conversation with Mars.

“I don’t know for sure, but one certainly could be. If Lucinda escaped and also stole from them, they could have come after her. She might have married Roy then and they fled to Texas together.”

Milligan shook his head. “So twenty years later they get seen on ESPN and the cartel comes after them again? According to you she was a house servant. Why would they care? And back then the cartel wars were going hot and heavy. Drug bosses were getting killed left and right or else put in prison. And now forty years after the fact they’re still coming after the Marses?”

“Unless she had something else on them,” said Jamison. “Something really damaging or valuable that would still be important all these years later, and the leaders today want it back. That could be what was in the safe deposit box.”

“Still a stretch,” said Milligan.

“It is a stretch,” conceded Decker. “But it can’t be discounted. Not yet. We have to follow it up.”

“How?” asked Milligan. “You’re talking forty years ago, Decker. The people involved are either dead or geriatric. And, since we’re talking cartels, most likely dead. There are all new players now. And Colombia has really cracked down on drug trafficking in the last two decades. Most of the business has moved to other places, like Mexico.”

“All true,” said Decker. “But one way to follow it up is to find Roy Mars.”

Bogart said, “We have people looking for him, but it’s a long shot. He hasn’t been seen in a long time.”

“You’re wrong there,” said Decker. “He was seen very recently.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Milligan. “Where?”

“In Alabama.”

“No one saw him in Alabama,” countered Milligan.

“Patricia Bray did. She saw the guy in the Avalon.”

“Wait a minute,” interjected Bogart. “Are you saying that the man who blew up Regina Montgomery was Roy Mars?”

“Of course it was. Right age. Right physical description.”

Jamison said, “Have you told Melvin that you suspect that was his dad?”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

“I don’t know,” said Decker. “What do you think?”

Jamison looked at the others and said, “I think he has more than enough on his plate right now. Until we know for sure, I say we tell him nothing.”

“Agreed,” said Bogart, and Milligan nodded.

“But, Decker, why would Roy Mars have killed Regina?” asked Jamison.

“She screwed up. She spent the money he paid her. We went back there a second time. That told Mars something was up. He was staying nearby for this very reason. To see how interested we were in her. Charles Montgomery was dead. The kid would have been told nothing. Regina was the loose end. Maybe Roy intended on killing her regardless. He had no trouble dispatching Reardon and burning up his body. The guy is a killer.”

Milligan said, “Do you think he might have worked for the cartel? Maybe as an enforcer for them? He could have met Lucinda that way.”

“It’s possible, although the cartels didn’t cast a wide net back then and kept their muscle pretty much homegrown, so bringing in a white guy from America was probably not in their protocols. But he could have been in South America and met Lucinda there. Maybe he helped her escape from the cartel.”

“But this is all still speculation,” countered Bogart. “We have no proof that any of this is true.”

Jamison said, “So Roy Mars paid off Montgomery to lie to get Melvin out of prison. But if Roy committed the murders for which Melvin was convicted, he framed Melvin. Why would he work so hard to get him out of prison now?”

Bogart said, “I was wondering the very same thing. That seems very inconsistent.”

Decker turned and gazed off.

“Decker?” said Jamison. “Can you explain that?”

He glanced back at her. “Maybe it all comes down to a promise made.”

“A promise made? To whom?” said Jamison.

“To Lucinda Mars.”

Bogart shook his head. “You’ve totally lost me.”

Decker turned to Jamison. “You remember that I asked Melvin when he was hypnotized if his father had ever told him that he loved him?”

“Yes. I was pretty shocked that you asked that.”

“I did it because I wanted to know the lay of the land.”

“The lay of the land?” said Milligan, looking supremely confused. “Come on, Decker, it’s like you’re speaking in tongues.”

“I don’t think Roy loved Melvin, but Lucinda did. I think Lucinda knew what Roy was going to do. Kill her to spare her from suffering with the brain cancer. They probably planned that part out together. Remember, this was twenty years ago and they were in a small town, with little money, and I doubt her end would have been painless. So they made that compact. Roy would kill Reardon, Lucinda switched the dental records to cover that end. Roy cleaned out the safe deposit box. He had an argument with Lucinda in which she used the word chocha . That told me she had spent time in Cali and learned her Spanish there. It also told me that she was aware that Roy was going to pretend to be dead — a possum, in other words.”