I grew up here.”
“Of course.” Lisa smiled at him apologetically. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I didn’t have time to fully acquaint myself with your history. When your cousin explained your problem to me, I thought it was best to come right over.”
“My cousin?” Benny’s expression changed to amazement.
“Yes. He hired me on your behalf.”
“Julio?” Benny’s voice rang with astonishment. “Julio hired you?”
“No. It was Enrique Garza who hired me.”
“Oh.” Something flickered in Benny’s eyes, and the surprise left his features. “I see.” He looked toward the table. “Well, let’s sit down.”
Lisa followed him to the table and sat down across from him, scooting forward to accommodate the immovable chair. She opened her briefcase and took out a yellow legal pad and pen, laying them on the table. “Now, Mr. Hernandez…”
A faint smile touched the young man’s face. “Benny. Everybody calls me Benny.”
“All right. Benny. Mr. Garza told me something of your circumstances, but I’d like to hear it from you.”
“Hear what?”
“All about what happened when Sheriff Sutton stopped you the other night.” She paused and turned her gaze significantly on Sutton, who was still standing a few feet away from them, watching them with narrowed eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. “Sheriff Sutton, it’s hardly a confidential talk with my client with you looming over us like that.”
He smiled, that same flashing smile of startling charm that he had used earlier in his office, and gave her a slight bow of his head. “Of course, ma’am.” She felt sure that if he’d been wearing his sheriff’s Stetson, he would have tipped it with old-fashioned courtesy. “The deputy will be right outside the door if you have any trouble.” His gaze slid over to Benny, one eyebrow lifting.
“No trouble, Sheriff,” Benny said, lifting his hands in an innocent manner.
Sutton nodded and left the room. He paused outside the closed door for a moment, frowning in thought.
“Everything all right, Sheriff?” Jerry asked finally.
Quinn looked at the man and smiled faintly. “I don’t know, Jerry.” The truth was something felt distinctly wrong, both with the case and with his own internal equilibrium. The arrival of Lisa Mendoza seemed to have thrown them both off.
“You ever hear of a fella named Enrique Garza?” he asked the deputy.
The deputy frowned. “Garza? No, not offhand. There are plenty of Garzas, but I don’t recollect an Enrique. Now, there’s a guy that works in Meltzer’s body shop on First Street who’s named Enrique, but I’m pretty sure his last name is Ochoa.”
Quinn nodded. “Well, take Benny back to his cell when he’s through talking to the lady. I imagine we’ll have to release him after that, but I’ll give Ms. Mendoza a chance to tell me off first. She looks like she’s bustin’ to do that. I’ll be in my office.”
“Sure thing, Sheriff.”
Quinn strode back through the maze of hallways and stairs to his office. Most of his staff, he found, were sitting waiting for him in the outer office, faces turned expectantly toward the door. He walked in and raised his eyebrows exaggeratedly.
“What’s this? All the crime in this county’s been settled? You folks need something more to do?”
With a martyred sigh, his secretary turned back to her desk and the others scattered.
“Say, Ruben…” Quinn stopped him as he walked back toward his desk. “Come into my office.”
Ruben followed him and closed the door behind him. “Hargrove’s right, for once,” he said with a grin, turning to face Quinn. “She is a looker.”
“Yeah, she’s a looker,” Quinn admitted, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Don’t think she’s too happy with me at the moment, though.”
Ruben grinned with a noticeable lack of sympathy.
“Do you know if Benny has any cousins named Enrique Garza?” he asked the deputy, who had lived all his life in the small town of Angel Eye.
“Garza?” Deputy Padilla looked doubtful. “I don’t think Benny’s related to any Garzas. ’Course, I don’t know that much about his real dad’s family. Why?”
“Because that attorney told him that his cousin had hired her, and he looked like he about swallowed his tongue, and he said, ‘Julio?”
“Julio?” Ruben repeated and began to laugh. “Julio Fuentes? My three-year-old’s about as likely to find an attorney and hire her as Julio Fuentes.”
“That was the impression I got from Benny’s expression. But then Ms. Mendoza told him that his cousin Enrique Garza had hired her. Benny recognized the name; I could see that. But he got this funny look on his face…You know anybody at all named that? Related to Benny or not?”
“Off the top of my head, no. But there are lots of Garzas. Could be from Hammond or someplace else, too.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m going to call Señora Fuentes and see if she knows who he is and what relation he is to her grandson.”
“You think Señora Fuentes knows about that attorney?”
“My guess would be no.” Quinn smiled ruefully. “I expect she’s going to give me holy hell about letting Benny go, too.”
“Better you than me,” Ruben replied, grinning. “I used to get enough of that for cutting across her lawn when I was a kid.”
“Listen, check around. See if you can find anything out about this guy Garza.”
“Sure. You think it’s somebody involved in what’s going on at old man Rodriguez’s place?”
“That’d be my guess.”
“You think Ms. Mendoza’s connected with them?”
“I don’t know.” Quinn frowned. “They hired her, if I’m right, but that ‘cousin’ stuff—I’m guessing she doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.”
Quinn didn’t want to admit, even to himself, how intensely he hoped that was true.
“He arrested you because you had a broken taillight?” Lisa asked, amazement sending her voice soaring upward.
“Well, no, not exactly. I mean, that’s why he stopped me. Then he looked at my license and walked around the car and all. Asked me questions.”
“Questions? About what?”
Benny shrugged, not looking at her. “Oh, you know. Where I been and who I was hanging out with.” He raised his eyes to meet hers. “Just general kind of sh—stuff,
