The Ways of Evil Men Read Online Free Page A

back to speaking softly again. “You never heard that term?”
    “No.”
    Osvaldo motioned for her to take a seat on the bed and sank down into the room’s only chair. The Indian walked to the window, pulled the curtain aside and looked out. There wasn’t much to see, just the wall of the adjoining building, but he kept staring at it as their words flowed over him.
    “The Big Six is what people call Cunha and the five major
fazendeiros
in the region,” Osvaldo said. “If you take the next twenty landowners and add what they’ve got all together, it doesn’t come close to the amount of land just one of those guys has.”
    “If they’ve got so damned much already, why don’t they leave the Indian land alone? Why do they need more?”
    “They don’t
need
it, they
want
it. And they want it because they’re all greedy bastards. But I didn’t tell you that. I’ve got to live in this town.”
    “Fortunately, I don’t. Not forever, anyway.”
    “So you’re willing to take them on?”
    “I sure as hell am.”
    The room was small, and his chair wasn’t more than a meter from the bed. He was able to reach out and touch her arm. “Good for you,” he said. “What do you plan to do?”
    “I’m going to speak to Borges.”
    Osvaldo looked disappointed. “Good luck,” he said and leaned back in his chair.
    “Who else is there?”
    “That,” Osvaldo said, “I couldn’t tell you. But there’s one thing I
can
tell you.”
    “What’s that?”
    “You’re going to get zero help from Borges.”

Chapter Five
    D ELEGADO
F ERNANDO B ORGES
, the
man who headed Azevedo’s five-man Civil Police Force, looked more like everyone’s favorite uncle than he did a cop. He was friendly, had a ready laugh, and was considered to be good company, even by the drunks who regularly populated his jail. He was also considered—not only by the drunks, but by everyone else in Azevedo—to be as lazy as sin.
    He listened to Jade’s story in silence, then said, “Thirty-nine, eh?”
    “Yes,
Delegado
. Thirty-nine.”
    Borges made a scratching noise, running the nails of one hand through the stubble on his chin. “That’s terrible,” he said, “just terrible. But you don’t really have any proof, do you?”
    “I saw the graves.”
    “Ah.” He held up a finger. “But did you see the bodies?”
    “No,” she admitted. “But they’re there. I’m sure of it.”
    “Even if they are,” he said, “it could have been disease that killed them, maybe even a simple cold. Those Indians die like flies whenever they’re exposed to white men’s diseases.”
    He made it sound like catching a disease was some kind of conspiracy on the Indians’ part. “I need you to help me prove that the bodies are there, and that it wasn’t disease that killed them,” she said, striving to keep her voice level.
    “And how could I possibly help you to do that?”
    She took a calming breath. “By sending Doctor Pinto to examine the bodies.”
    Doctor Antonio Pinto was the town’s part-time medical examiner. Azevedo wasn’t big enough to need the services of one full-time.
    “Hmm,” Borges said. “Who’s going to pay for it? The FUNAI?”
    She shook her head. “I haven’t got the budget, and it’s not my responsibility. It’s yours.”
    Borges waved a negating finger. “No it isn’t, Senhorita Calmon. It’s not my responsibility at all. That’s an Indian reservation. Reservations are federal land. They’re outside of my jurisdiction.”
    “Come on, Delegado. What does jurisdiction matter? You’re the closest legal authority. We’re talking about thirty-nine people here. Human beings, just like you and I.”
    “Jurisdiction
always
matters, Senhorita Calmon. My brief is narrowly circumscribed. And, as to them being like you and I, I’m going to have to disagree with you. Indians aren’t
at all
like you and I. We’ve civilized. They’re savages.”
    “Do you really believe that?”
    “I surely do.”
    “So you’re