“That’s the way I took it, all the same.”
De Cantis leaned forward over her desk, hands clasped before her and elbows resting on the desk wood. “You worked for the biggest crime family in the South. You did time in prison. Before that, you were a decorated war hero. Now you work unofficially for the Texas Rangers.”
“Just one Texas Ranger, ma’am,” Cort Wesley corrected.
De Cantis started to nod, then stopped. “That would be Caitlin Strong. Maybe we can find a solution to this, after all.”
“I’m listening, Julia,” Cort Wesley said, over the sound of the riding mowers retracing their path over the grounds.
“This situation with your son is a difficult sell to the board, but one I believe I could make, if the circumstances were right.”
“And how do we make them right?”
“I’m glad you asked, Mr. Masters,” she said, stopping again to let the engine sounds pass. “Since you’re well acquainted with Caitlin Strong—”
Cort Wesley felt his phone vibrate with an incoming call and eased the phone from his pocket. “You mind excusing me while I check this?”
De Cantis looked a bit perturbed, but she nodded anyway.
Cort Wesley recognized the number as a Brown University exchange. “It’s my oldest son’s college calling, Julia. Would you mind if I…”
“Please, Mr. Masters.”
The caller identified himself as being from the registrar’s office, said he just needed to confirm some details on the paperwork recently filed by Dylan.
“Wait a minute,” Cort Wesley said, interrupting him a moment later, “say that again.”
6
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
“You made one hell of a mess for yourself this time, Ranger,” Captain D. W. Tepper told Caitlin, after the San Antonio police were finally done with her that morning.
“Seems to me the mess was already made, and the way the powers that be intended to clean it up would’ve only made things worse.”
“Seemed to you.”
“That’s what I said.”
“The problem is nobody appointed you judge in the matter, and now they’re calling for your head.”
“You going to give it to them?” Caitlin asked, standing before Tepper’s desk, in a shady corner on the second floor of Texas Ranger Company F headquarters in San Antonio.
“It’s out of my hands, Caitlin. This is too big a pile of shit to sweep under the rug. You might have thought you saved the day, when what you really did was embarrass a whole lot of folks seated behind big fancy desks, who couldn’t save their own ass from a hemorrhoid.”
“I tried to explain it to Consuelo Alonzo, Captain. But she was too busy getting even with me to listen. What was I supposed to do?”
“How about nothing, like Alonzo ordered?”
“And what shape might the city be in right now if I’d done that?”
“I don’t believe those folks behind those big desks care about the might, only the is. And right now they’re trying to cover their collective asses, along with the truth.”
Tepper was old enough to have partnered with both Caitlin’s legendary grandfather and her father, stitching multiple generations of Texas Rangers together. Unlike many, he had proven adept at both relinquishing the old ways and methods and adapting to the new. He wore his experience on his gaunt face. Caitlin imagined there was a story behind each of the deep furrows lining his cheeks and brow. His thin gray hair looked glued to his scalp, dry patches evident amid all the sheen. He had youthful eyes that belied the smoking habit that had left him with sallow coloring and stained fingernails. Caitlin’s efforts to force him to cut back on his smoking had also cut back on the wet, hacking cough that one doctor said made Tepper a poster child for emphysema.
“What truth would that be, exactly?” she asked him.
“Let’s see, where would you like me to start?” Tepper said, tapping a Marlboro Red from its box but stopping short of lifting it out. “How about sticking your nose in somebody else’s jurisdiction? How about taking on the entire gang population of San Antonio, with a riot brewing a few blocks away? How about shooting at a police helicopter?”
“I was shooting at the spotlight.”
“Last time I checked, the two were connected. There’s also trespassing, damage to civilian property, and arresting a suspect without a warrant.”
“I had probable cause on Diablo Alcantara.”
“That probable cause entitle you to shoot four other men while dragging him off?”
“All in the leg. I thought you’d be happy.”
“Sure, jumping for joy,” Tepper said, forgetting he already had a cigarette out, launching it airborne when he tapped the pack again.
Caitlin crushed the cigarette with her boot before he could retrieve it from the floor, and he set about tapping out a fresh one in its place.
“As I was saying…” Tepper continued.
“As you were saying…”
“Hell, I don’t even remember what I was saying, you get me so ramshackled.”