Soon after Lydia sat us down in her shop, the last remaining customers in her store dwindled out as it approached the 3PM closing time. We had two fresh pieces of apricot blueberry pie in front of us. That, combined with the steaming cups of coffee and the vintage posters of farm life on the walls, did work as a wonderful front. Who would ever believe that sweet, patient Lydia had a knack for nabbing America’s Most Wanted?
Yet, after she’d flipped the sign to Closed on the front door and locked it, sliding down into the booth with us, she took out a small netbook and slipped on a pair of glasses, ready to get down to the point.
“So you’re hunting Javier Bernal, is that right?” she asked. I could see her flicking from website to website in her glasses’ reflection.
“You know him?” I asked.
She snorted. “I know everyone. If I’m not keeping tabs, I’m not doing my job.”
I leaned forward eagerly. “Is he wanted for something?”
She shook her head. “Nah, not yet. The police have ideas but then again half the force is corrupt anyway in Mississippi. You think the New Orleans PD is bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” She took her eyes off the screen and tilted her head at me. “I like to know what the baddies are doing so when they do finally do something to get them in trouble, and believe it catches up to all of them, I know their next step. I was watching this one guy for years before he slipped up and was wanted for a DUI. Considering the guy’s unofficial rap sheet, I knew the reward would be a big one. I knew where his safe house was and I nabbed him the next day. Cops were already on the way.”
“How do you do it? I mean, you’re not frail but …”
She smiled slyly in a satisfied way. “I’m a woman. And that’s the secret. I’ve been around the block. You’d be surprised what a retiree can get away with. Ain’t that right, Gus?”
Gus scratched at his beard and I could have sworn his cheeks turned a shade of pink. That was something to ask him about later, even though I knew his answer would be a glare and a grunt.
He cleared his throat. “So where is Mr. Bernal now?”
“Ocean Springs, Mississippi,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “Are you boys going to eat your pie or what?”
“I’d love to but we really need to get a move on,” I said apologetically. I got up but Gus’s arm shot out and he planted me back down
“Relax, Camden, we’ll get there,” he said. “A town isn’t enough. We need a plan.”
I shook my head. We can plan in the car. If he’s in Ocean Springs and that’s where Ellie lived with him, then I have no doubt that he’s living in the same house he was six years ago.”
“Who is Ellie?” Lydia asked, eyes wide and shining.
I shot Gus a look to keep quiet but he ignored me. “Ellie Watt. She’s Bernal’s ex-girlfriend and is, we think, being more or less held hostage.”
“Ellie Watt,” she said, tapping her pink fingernails on the table. “Ellie Watt. She’s no innocent, is she? She wrapped up in the cartel?”
“No,” I said quickly and probably too defensively. I cleared my throat. “No, she was never involved in that.”
“But she’s not innocent. She’s a con artist,” Gus supplied
“Was a con artist,” I corrected him.
He gave his head a shake. “A tiger doesn’t change their stripes, Camden boy.”
“Ellie’s better than a tiger,” I shot back.
“Either way,” Lydia voiced slowly, “Ellie Watt has been wanted for something before. She was on my radar, briefly.”
Gus and I both looked at her. “For what?” I asked.
She pursed her lips, flamingo pink like her nails, a color I’d used many times in my work, and began scrolling through her files again. After a few tense moments, she shrugged, giving up.
“I’m not sure. This was like three years ago. It wasn’t anything major, maybe just twenty grand, or I would have gone after her.”
“But her name was Ellie Watt …” I reinstated. “Not Eden White or Ellen Williams or anything like that?”
“Nope. Ellie Watt. I remember because my sister’s name is Ellie.”
Now that was troubling. Ellie hadn’t been Ellie since high school. Whoever had placed a bounty for her was someone from a very long time ago. I glanced over at Gus and his furrowed brow told me he was thinking the exact same thing.
“Well, if you do think of anything else, please let me know, I’ve got my cell,” Gus said. “About Ellie that is. Everything about Bernal, we’d like to know now.”
She nodded. “I can tell you he’s got several bodyguards around him at all times.”
“Raul,” I said.
“And that he’s very careful, almost to a point. He never slips up, at least not enough for me to act on. The man has patience and is ruthless and that’s a mighty terrible combination.”
“Tell us something we don’t know,” I said under my breath.
It was loud enough for her to shoot me a sharp look. “Tell me what your plan is when you find her?”
I looked at Gus but he was staring at the wall now, eyes drifting over a pastoral landscape, too green field, bright red barn.