“Leonard Taylor says he could’ve solved them by now.” This came from Paul Fedorko, which only proved her theory about his defection.
“If he knows something about these murders and he’s not coming forward, he deserves to be punished right along with the perpetrator,” she said.
“It’s not just the UDA murders,” Torres responded with that same disapproving tone. “We talked to Dr. Vonnegut, too. Everyone has issues with you. And now, one of our own is dead—God rest his soul.”
“You’re blaming me for that?”
“Of course not. But we can’t help wondering if we’d had someone who was taking the job more seriously—”
The ferocity with which Sophia shoved aside the empty chair between them surprised Liz into silence. “More seriously than working day and night?” she cried.
“You were hardly working last night, now were you, Chief?” The speaker was Neil Munoz, who’d stood by Leonard Taylor from the beginning. His smug smile told Sophia he’d been looking forward to this moment as much as Leonard.
“Unless Mr. Guerrero made some form of payment we’re not aware of…” he added as an aside to Schilling, who snickered.
“I had consensual sex with a man my own age and in the privacy of my own home,” she said. “I don’t see how that affects my job.”
Liz jumped back into the fray. “It doesn’t look good. You’re the chief of police, for crying out loud. Show some restraint. I mean, we’ve got naked pictures of you floating around, and…and rumors that you’re having a sexual relationship with your stepfather, and—”
“None of that is true! I slept with Rod. That’s it.”
Her expression remained pinched with distaste. “Still…”
“Still?” Sophia burst out. “None of us are perfect, Councilwoman Torres. Weren’t you kicked out of your church once upon a time for getting pregnant out of wedlock?”
Liz’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. Her shock and embarrassment were gratifying enough to make Sophia want to go around the room, naming something that would embarrass them all. But what was the point? These people held a great deal of power in Bordertown, and they felt it gave them the right to be judgmental and self-righteous whenever it suited their purposes. Obviously, the political winds had changed, and she was caught in the cross draft.
“How dare you!” Liz sputtered when no one else came to her defense.
“No, how dare you,” Sophia responded.
“Does that mean you quit?” Neil sang out, and it was then that Sophia realized she was destroying all hope for a career in law enforcement by letting her anger take control. She was also paving the way for Leonard to get what he wanted. She had to rein in her temper, get ahold of herself.
With as much dignity and calm as she could muster, she turned to confront Neil. “No, I won’t quit,” she said. “I owe it to the people of this community to protect them as best I can during the coming transition. Maybe you’ve forgotten what’s happening here, but I haven’t. We’ve got at least one killer on the loose. And, as far as I’m concerned, that killer could be Leonard Taylor. You might keep that in mind when you interview him for the position of chief of police, because he’s playing you. He’s playing us all.”
Pivoting once again, she stomped out and slammed the door.
25
Rod was waiting for Sophia when she returned home. Sitting in his Hummer with the seat back, he had his feet up on the dash and was reading the paper. It was getting fairly late—eight-fifteen, according to the clock in her cruiser—but the sun hadn’t yet gone down.
Sophia didn’t know how long he’d been parked in front of her house, but he was the last person she wanted to see. Twisting the rearview mirror toward her, she quickly checked her makeup. Would he be able to tell she’d been crying? Yes… Of course he would. Swollen eyes stared back at her from a splotchy face. Even her nose was red from the number of times she’d blown it since leaving that council meeting.
He opened her door while she took her time collecting her purse and other belongings. “I dropped by the station,” he said. “I thought you’d be starting at eight, as usual. But the place was locked up. What’s going on?”
Briefly protected by the curtain of her hair as it fell forward, she slipped her car keys in her purse. “The sheriff’s office is covering for me tonight.”
“Why?”
She found a pair of sunglasses and put them on before looking up. “We contract with them to patrol whenever we need the extra help. Unless someone dials the station’s direct line, all emergency calls go through their dispatchers anyway.”
“So you have the night off.”
“Basically.”
“But…what’s going on?” He hesitated. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You haven’t been answering your cell.”
“I turned it off.”
“What if there’d been a break in the case?”
“Which case?” They seemed to be piling up. Maybe the council had been right to fire her….
“Either case.”
“That would take luck. Something I don’t seem to have at the moment.” She attempted a laugh, but it didn’t sound very convincing.
“This isn’t over yet,” he said. “We’re going to find the son of a bitch who’s killing illegal aliens. And we’re going to figure out who shot Stuart. You can’t expect too much too soon. These things take time.”
That was the one commodity she didn’t have. Not anymore. In just four weeks someone else would take over. Where would she go then? What would she do? Until those poor victims in the desert had forced her to question her investigative abilities, she’d thought she’d found her niche in life. “We’ll see.”
Hoping to step around him and into the house before he could get a good look at her, she got out of the car. But he blocked her path and caught her chin, tilting it up so he could see her face. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
He removed her sunglasses. “Sophia—”
Grabbing the glasses, she pulled out of his grasp. “What does it matter to you? You’ll either solve these murders or you won’t. And then you’ll leave and go back to your other life, in which Bordertown will cease to exist for you. You’ll be able to go on, completely unaffected by events here and you won’t have to live with the aftermath.”