January Justice Read Online Free

pushing a grocery cart piled almost eight feet high with a collection of seemingly random items tied in place with a spiderweb of different lengths of rope and cord. I saw plastic garbage sacks overflowing with clothes, a boom box lashed in place, a table lamp with the shade crumpled, a pair of hedge shears, and many other unrelated objects.
    The woman could have been twenty, or she could have been sixty. It was impossible to tell beneath the grime; and the very large sunglasses she wore; and the purple hat with a wide, floppy brim; and the filthy pair of men’s penny loafers; and the red-and-white-striped leggings under a Lakers T-shirt, which hung like a dress to her knees. She argued with thin air as she pushed the cart along. A schizophrenic, probably. I recognized the symptoms. Where I had been lately, I had seen a lot of that.
    I noticed that the ropes and cords around her worldly possessions had begun to move. I watched as they writhed in and out among her things like snakes among a pile of rocks. I told myself it wasn’t true. The ropes weren’t really writhing. I looked away.
    I said to Vega, “It was a kidnapping gone wrong, if I recall. The kidnapper took Doña Elena. Her husband was killed when he delivered the ransom money, and they never caught the guy.”
    “It was not a guy, Mr. Cutter. It was a woman. Alejandra Delarosa, who was Toledo’s mistress.”
    “With a sex symbol like Doña Elena as his wife, he also had a mistress?”
    Comandante Valentín shrugged. “It is not uncommon.”
    Now that I had remembered some of the story, the rest began to come in bits and pieces. I remembered seeing pathetic videos that had been released by the police and posted on the Internet. Doña Elena begging for her life. Mascara running down her cheeks. Dried blood at the corner of her mouth. And her masked captor, in an olive-drab uniform, standing behind her, forcing her to state demands, pressing an old Colt automatic against her temple.
    I looked hard at Vega. “They said it was you guys. They said the URNG did it to get Toledo’s money back.”
    “They lied.”
    “The kidnapper claimed to be with the URNG.”
    “Our movement was not involved, Mr. Cutter. And we want to hire you to prove it.”

3

    I made the mistake of looking down the street. Down there, snakes were still writhing on a mound of treasures. I told myself it was only ropes and cords restraining a homeless woman’s worldly possessions. I forced myself to look back at Vega. I forced myself to speak normally. “There have been at least a hundred thousand unsolved murders in your country over the last three decades, and the drug cartels have taken up the killings where the military left off. It’s become so bad, even the coffee and banana growers are getting out. Why should you care about one old kidnapping and murder in the USA?”
    Comandante Valentín replied, “You have perhaps heard of Doña Elena’s second husband, Congressman Montes? Hector Montes, chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Central America? He has been building a career in the media over the last year, complaining about the war on drugs.”
    I said, “I’ve heard of him.”
    Vega went on. “Ever since URNG became a legitimate political party in our country, we have been assisting your Drug Enforcement Agency and standing for policies that make it difficult for the narcos. In return, we have been receiving dollars from your government. We need your money to win political campaigns and to influence public opinion. But your congressman Montes wants to reduce funding for the war on drugs. If he gets his way, there will be no more money sent to Guatemala.”
    I said, “You think the congressman is campaigning against more funding for Guatemala because he thinks his new wife was once kidnapped by the URNG?”
    “We are certain of it.”
    “And you think if you can prove the URNG wasn’t involved, the congressman will stop opposing the funding?”
    Vega shook his head.