high when he walked but his shoulders remained slumped.
“A contact of mine pointed me in your direction,” Aiden explained, cleaning closer to prevent anyone listening in on their conversation. “See, my friend who died, he was connected to the Caulerone brothers and my contact said you’d been investigating them.”
“Ha!” Javier laughed and pulled his cigarette from his mouth.
“What’s so funny?”
With his free hand Javier pushed his sunglasses up onto his head, revealing his dark-brown eyes which were framed by deep, dark circles. But it was the harsh scar which ran clean across his left eye which caught Aiden’s attention. He had not noticed it back at the station but now in the sunlight it was painfully obvious and impossible to ignore.
“No one investigates the Caulerone brothers,” Javier insisted, putting his cigarette back between his lips and taking a swift drag.
“If you value your life, Aiden, wasn’t it? I suggest you don’t say their name again in this town.”
Aiden didn’t understand. Guy had been quite clear during their phone call. Officer Javier Santo, based in San Migeno, was investigating the Caulerone brothers and the cartel they were running out of the town. Guy basically listed Javier as an FBI informant.
“Please,” Aiden pleaded. “I’m not looking to land the brothers in trouble. I just want to know what happened to my friend, why they killed him.”
Javier put a hand up to his left eye and rubbed it wearily.
“Pick a reason.” Javier shrugged nonchalantly. “Perhaps they didn’t like how he dressed, or maybe he gave one of them a funny look once. The brothers, how you say in American? They kill without conviction.”
Aiden was beginning to despair. He’d come all this way to learn that Justin possibly died because the Caulerone brothers didn’t approve of his leather jacket?
“I just…” Aiden gripped his glass of soda in his hands, needing something to hold on to. “All I need to know is if he was working for them. If he ever came to this town.”
“Sounds like you want to know a lot,” Javier raised his eyebrows at him.
“I owe it to him to find answers,” Aiden admitted, trying not to sound defeated.
“Ten years is a long time to wait for answers.”
“I only recently learned the truth about what happened to him.” Aiden felt a fresh wave of guilt break across his back as he thought of all the years he’d lived under the illusion that Justin had died in an accident.
“In America, the truth will set you free,” Javier nodded. “Here, the truth will get you killed.”
“So there’s nothing you can tell me?” Aiden asked desperately.
“Whoever this contact of yours is…” Javier once more plucked his cigarette from his lips and used it to point across the table at Aiden. “They are wrong. I don’t rat on the brothers, no one does.”
“But you did once,” Aiden glanced briefly at the deep scar across Javier’s eye. It was then that he noticed how the policeman’s left eye had remained motionless throughout their conversation. Aiden had tried not to stare at the scar out of politeness but now he realized with a chill that whatever had happened had left Javier with more than an unsightly scar; it had robbed him of one of his eyes.
Javier blinked and lowered his sunglasses, his mouth set in a tight line.
“My friend was just a young man when he was killed,” Aiden continued. “He was the kindest, most outgoing person I knew.”
“Yeah, well he wasn’t the smartest,” Javier stated, taking the last of his cigarette and stubbing it out in a nearby ash tray.
“Smart guys don’t get involved with the brothers. You look like a smart guy. You want my advice, turn around and go back to America and don’t look back, you got it?”
Javier tossed down a few dollars and began to leave the café. Hurriedly, Aiden dropped a few dollars from his own wallet and followed him.
“Javier, please—” He reached out and touched the policeman’s shoulder. He could feel the tension building up within Javier as he spun around and exhaled sharply in annoyance.
“You can’t bring your friend back,” Javier confirmed grimly. “Coming here, all you can hope to do is bring about your own death.”
“Can you seriously not tell me anything?” In his mind Aiden was frantically replaying his conversation with Guy Chambers. Had he misunderstood something? He’d thought Guy was being perfectly clear when he said he had a lead which Aiden should follow. A lead which had taken Aiden to Mexico but now he felt like he was standing at a dead end.
“Things don’t work here like they do for you back home,” Javier sighed. “You think I run things because I wear this badge?”
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