Page 81 of Ransom
I set my fork down and walked to the kitchen. Sierra handed me the receiver without a word and stepped back to give me space he didn't owe me.
"Valverde."
"Where you been, Winston?" Fuck. Of course it was my captain.
"Phone died last night, Cap. Hadn't charged it."
"Mm." A pause. His breath came through the line. "Got a call this afternoon from a sheriff out of Sierra County. Wanted to know where to send paperwork on a homicide case. Said one of my men signed off on the autopsy."
Rafe got up from the table, handed in his empty plate and headed for the back of the house, stopping to give Sierra a peck on the cheek and a pat on the rear end.
I closed my eyes.
"Couldn't help him much," Cap said, "seein' as I don't have a file. Don't have an authorization. Don't have a Ranger I sent to New Mexico, much less one working a homicide that's been signed and dated."
"Cap—"
"Don't say it on the phone, son."
I didn't.
"Drive on down tomorrow," he said. "Be in my office by ten. We'll have a talk. Just you and me. No paperwork yet. We'll figure out what kind of paperwork there's gonna be after you look me in the eye."
"Yes, sir."
"And charge your damn phone."
The line went dead.
I held the receiver for a second longer. The kitchen had stilled behind me. Sierra stood at the stove, wiping a burner that didn't need wiping. He'd heard the whole thing. Probably understood most of it. The man missed nothing and said less.
I hung up.
The receiver sat heavy in my hand. Cap had been a Ranger longer than I'd been alive. He could look at a man's face and read the last three weeks off it. He'd read Rex on me. He'd probably read Ransom, too. The question for the morning wasn't whether he was firing me. The question was whether I'd be escorted out in cuffs or not.
When I turned around, Ransom was watching me with no expression at all.
I walked back to my seat and sat down.
"I have to drive to El Paso in the morning," I said, low, just to him. "Ten o'clock meeting with my captain. He found out I'm not where I told him I was."
Ransom set his fork down. He pushed his chair back and stood. "Eat your dinner. I'll be back."
Ransom went up to Sierra, who was elbow deep in dishwater, and said something low to him. Sierra dried his hands on the towel at his hip. He asked Ransom a question in a voice that didn't carry. Ransom answered with a single, quiet word. Sierra nodded once, set the towel on the counter, and walked Ransom out of the kitchen. As they passed the dining room, he said, loud enough for the rest of the table to hear, "Take that hat off before you knock on his door, aguijón."
Ransom went after him with his hat in his hand.
Joe was scraping the last of his Frito pie. Mateo was watching me from across the table. None of them looked toward the back hallway where Sierra had taken Ransom. None of them needed to. They all knew what was happening back there, and they were giving him the room to do it.
The boys had cleared half their plates by the time Sierra came back. He went to the sink without a glance at the table, hands back in the water like he'd never left. Rafe came in behind him, crossed to the head of the table, and looked at me.
"Winston."
"Yes, sir."
"Ransom's going with you tomorrow. He'll drive."
"Yes, sir. Appreciate it."
