Chapter Forty-three
“You’re Daniella, Iris’s friend?” Judy asked, incredulous, and Daniella clasped Judy’s hand, covered it with her other hand, and held it for a moment. She looked younger than Iris, in her late forties, and was tall, about five-seven, and slim. Her large brown eyes stood out in a long face, and her shiny black hair was pulled back in a long ponytail. She had on a jeans jacket over a white sweater, with baggy jeans and black sneakers.
“I’m very sorry about what happened to you, from Carlos. They say on TV that your car, it blew up. He is very crazy man, very crazy. And Father Vega, they say on TV he was with them! I can’ believe that!” Daniella’s dark eyes flared in disbelief. “I know him. He know my family. We are from the same town. I tell him everything, is all my fault!”
“I understand,” Judy said, though she didn’t, not yet. “Daniella, I’m just happy you’re alive. I was worried about you, so are the police. Where have you been?”
“I’m sorry, so sorry.” Daniella shook her head. “I feel so terrible, so sick in my heart, in my soul. I was hiding. I get on the bus and go out of town, to Wilmington.”
“Why were you hiding? From Carlos?”
“Yes, from him, from Father Vega, from everybody.” Daniella nodded, agitated. “That why I take the money, to get away from Carlos.”
“What money?”
Aunt Barb motioned for attention. “Daniella saw on the TV news that Father Vega had been arrested and Carlos and Roberto killed, so she came out of hiding. Iris had told her about me, so she knew where to find me.” Aunt Barb’s eyes filmed with new tears, and she held the Kleenex to her nose. “Daniella, tell Judy what you told us. I … don’t want to tell it. I can’t.”
“Judy, Carlos and Roberto, they kill Iris. They murder her.”
“I know,” Judy said, sinking onto the bed.
“You know?” Aunt Barb asked, shocked. “How did you find out? Did they try to kill you? What happened?”
Judy’s mother interjected, “Judy, how do you know? How did you get so involved in this? Why didn’t the police handle it? What’s going on?”
“Ladies, please.” Judy waved them both into silence, focusing on Daniella. “Why did they kill Iris, do you know?”
“Yes.” Daniella pursed her lips, which were thin.
“Please, tell me.” Judy eased down onto a corner of the bed, across from Daniella.
“Iris and me, we mee’ Carlos when he and Roberto come to Mike’s. He is new and his friend Roberto. I like Carlos and he’s liking me, so we date, you know?”
“Yes,” Judy answered, trying to be patient.
“Carlos drink, all the time, too much, and he is mean, ugly. I know he sell heroin. I want to get away from him, but I cannot. He hit me, all the time. He say I am sleepin’ with everybody, the men, the bosses, everybody. He don’ want me to work at my job no more. He say he will marry me, give me money. He say he has so much money. He tell me where his money is.”
“Where was it?”
“At Mike’s. In the shed. He tell me there is a door in the floor.”
Judy realized it must have been a second stash. “I don’t understand something. Why did he tell you that?”
“When he drink, he tell me. He is out of his mind. He get so angry, he yell at himself. At me. And God.” Daniella shook her head, with a deep frown. “Crazy, he get.”
“So then what happened?”
“So then we have a big fight and he hit me, here.” Daniella pointed to her lower chest. “He break my rib. He say he will kill me. I know I have to get away. I tell Iris, we should get his money. We can take the money and I can go away. Get away from him. I have to do it.”
Judy could visualize the two desperate women, best friends trying to help each other.
“But I tell Father Vega, my priest. My priest. He help me all the time, with Carlos. He tell me to pray, but he lie.” Daniella shook her head, agonized. “I don’ know Father Vega is with Carlos. I don’ know.”
“I’m sure.” Judy’s heart went out to her.
“Carlos drink one night and he fall asleep, from a pill I put in his rum. Iris bring me the sleeping pill, from Barb’s house.” Daniella winced, gesturing at Aunt Barb, who listened, dabbing her eyes. “Then we go in her car to the shed at Mike’s. We find the money and we take some. Iris hide the money at Barb’s house.”
“Okay.”
“So Friday, they move my shif’ at work. The boss call me up. He tell me, no afternoon shif’ with Iris. Somebody on mornin’ shif’ call in sick. The boss tell me to come in.”
“What’s the boss’s name?”
“Roy. I worry, it isn’ right.’ People get sick, Roy don’t care. He don’t change shif’. He don’ bother. I don’ tell Iris, I know she worry too much.” Daniella paused, with a pained sigh. “I go early, I hear Roy and Carlos talk, they say Father Vega tell them everything I tell him. They know we take the money. I run away. I don’ have no money. I don’ need no money. I…” Daniella made a hitchhiking motion with her thumb, then her face fell. The lines in her forehead formed fissures of deep grief. “I call Iris, I tell her. I leave a message to call me.”
“You called her Saturday? Was it around two?”
“Yes.”
Judy realized that Daniella had been the one who’d called Iris, in the rose garden.
“I don’ know what happen. I hear she die and I know they kill her. I feel terrible, so terrible about Iris. I pray and pray for God to forgive me. I don’ forgive myself. I don’ know how they kill her but they do.”
“You’re right, they did.”
“How? How do you know?”
“Before we discuss that, let me ask you something. Why did you come forward now?”
“I don’ know what to do. I am safe now Carlos is dead but I no feel safe. Other bosses know we take the money. They wan’ the money, so I come to Barb to ask her for it.” Daniella’s eyes turned pleading, and she faced Aunt Barb in bed. “Please, give me the money so I can give it to them. So they will not kill me or my family at home.”
Judy held up a hand, interjecting. “Daniella, I don’t think it works that way. If you show yourself, they’ll kill you. Whoever else is in the conspiracy, they’ll kill you. They can’t let you live, even if you give them the money back.”
“Wha’ can I do?” Daniella’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Wha’ can I do? They will kill my family!”
Judy’s thoughts raced ahead. “Let’s go to the police. I’ll go with you. We can make a deal.”
“No, no, never.” Daniella shook her head. “They will kill me. You see how they do.”
“Let me try to get you a deal.” Judy dug in the pocket of her sweatpants and pulled out the array of business cards from the various government agencies. “Look, I just met with all of these cops. FBI, ICE, too. Let me make some phone calls and talk to them. I’m a lawyer. I won’t tell them where you are.”
“No, I no go to the police.” Daniella shook her head again, frightened.
“You can and you should. You have something to trade for a visa. You know about the other stash. There’s probably a lot of things you know.”
“No, no, no.”
“What else do you know about the cartel? Did Carlos ever talk to you about the cartel or his business, when he was drunk?”
“Yes, okay, he did. He brag, all the time. He wan’ to be the boss, the top.”
“Did he say who he’s in business with?”
“Yes, I know, he tell me.”
“Are some of the mushroom growers in on it? Mike’s? And the treatment plant?”
“Yes, yes.”
“What about the police in East Grove?”
“Yes.”
“Great,” Judy said, then realized how wrong that sounded. “The point is, the government will trade for that information. They want names. That’s how they make their case.”
“No, they kill me. They kill my family. The cartel, they do what they want.”
“What if I could make a deal to protect your family, Daniella?”
“They will find them. They will kill them.”
“Let me call. Let me see if I can get a deal to protect them. I won’t tell the government where you are until they agree.” Judy spoke from the heart. “Daniella, won’t you take a chance, for Iris?”