Today, when I passed the Bistro’s threshold, the place was unrecognizable. The bar counter was littered with half-empty jugs of beer and countless shot glasses. Beer pitchers and mugs were scattered everywhere, and the smell of homemade cigars overpowered the place. A cloud of smoke drifted in circular patterns near the ceiling.
What the heck had happened here? I looked around the room, scanning the place for a bullet hole from the gunshot I thought I might have heard last night after Xavier forced me out of the building. When I didn’t find one, I let go of the stress in my shoulders. It was just the backfiring car after all. I couldn’t help searching for a puddle of blood on the floor, though, just to make sure. Although I didn’t find that either, my gaze caught the skeletal remains hanging on the wall and the gold Rolex I remembered Ben and Xavier playing for last night. It was hanging around the wrist bone and shone from across the room, reflecting the light of a nearby candleholder.
So Xavier lost?
I gasped on the inside, and my heart raced. While I knew that the skeleton couldn’t be Xavier’s, because it had been hanging there yesterday, I was more afraid for him now than ever.
Ben pulled out a chair at the same table we’d sat at last night, gesturing for me to sit beside him. I ignored his offer and chose the one next to John as they set up the chess set.
My head was spinning. What if Xavier was locked up in one of the rooms in the back? What if I was just sitting here, doing nothing, when I could have been looking for him? A stupid game of chess at the request of a soulless maniac was pointless.
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t sit here and watch as John gambled over information without knowing if Ben would be truthful in the first place.
“I’m going to the washroom.” I stood up and walked away from the table. The sound of the screeching wooden legs over the floor sent goosebumps to my arms.
“Just don’t disappear like you did last night or your boyfriend will stay here forever,” Ben warned.
“I would never leave John.” My words didn’t feel as convincing as I wanted them to be.
Ben smirked, and choosing not to meet his gaze, I turned toward the back. I didn’t breathe until I disappeared around the corner and then proceeded down the dark hallway.
A few of the doors had their light on. Was Xavier behind one of them? And if so, was he there of his own free will? I started peeking through each keyhole. All the rooms where the lights were on were empty, except for the last one, where Ben’s brother, Mateo, was talking to their cousin, Pablo.
“You send this payment today and we’ll have double that in six months,” said Mateo.
“How do you propose we transfer twenty-five million without alerting the authorities? We’re already on their radar,” Pablo replied.
Twenty-five million?
My heart was beating so hard against my chest I was afraid it would rip from underneath my ribcage. I took a deep breath in, slowly released it, and lowered my eye back to the keyhole.
“I’ll think of something. You just make sure you’re ready to load when I say so. I wish Father would decide to leave this joint. It’s too small, and there are too many eyes.”
“You can’t get more remote than Pace.”
“Not unless we get our own place. Somewhere secluded up in the mountains.”
“That’s crazy. Father would never agree. Do you seriously want to be stuck up in the mountains? Don’t you want to live?”
“You have a family to think about now, Mateo.” Mateo’s youngest boy was one. I knew his mom; she’d gone to my high school and fell to Mateo’s charms as soon as the family moved to town. His other one was four already. “We’ll have our fun in due time, but we need to keep a low profile. It’s more crucial now with the new technology the police have. It seems that everyone has a television set now. When we were kids, there was one box for the whole town. Now, imagine our faces up on all those screens.”
“Who the fuck cares? Everyone knows who we are, and we shouldn’t have to hide,” Pablo replied.
“You’ll sing a different song when you’re facing life without parole and your only form of entertainment will be watching someone drop a bar of soap in the shower.”
“Whatever.” Pablo shrugged. “All I know is that I’m tired of the old man running the show. What’s the point of living if you’re confined to a shitty little town? It’s time they gave us a chance. Do you know what we could do with this money?”
“We’ll get our chance, Pablo. But for now, the money stays here. Keep your head low. My brother stirs up enough trouble for the three of us as it is.”
As soon as I saw them shift in the room, I gently stepped away from the door, and then ran on my toes to the disgusting bathroom. I didn’t even bother peeing. I was pretty sure all my bodily functions were afraid to let go, just as I feared that the information I just heard could one day get me in trouble. I couldn’t tell anyone about the illegal money. Besides, no one, with the exception of perhaps John and Xavier, would ever have enough courage to stand up to the Cortez family.
Xavier. I wondered whether he was all right. Had he lost his watch in that game, or had it been removed from his wrist by force?
I left the bathroom and went back to the table, where only a few chess pieces remained on the board. John and Ben were each concentrating on the game and seemed to be moving much more quickly than Xavier had last night. Fresh sweat stains appeared on Ben’s shirt as he wiped his forehead. I didn’t know much about chess, but I’d seen John play enough with the youth at church to know that he had the winning position. Two more moves and he could call out a checkmate. He had Ben’s king cornered by two bishops. All John had to do was get help from his own king, but he didn’t. Instead, he opened his secure position on the other side of the board, and Ben called out a check. Another move that John shouldn’t have made, and the game was over.
“I won!” Ben threw his hands up high in the air. Pablo, who came out from the back room, let out an apathetic cheer of support.
“Fuck you, Pablo! I won!”
Pablo stopped and crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me, cousin. What did you win? A thousand bucks? A new watch or a car? It must be a big prize that made you so happy.”
Ben’s joy disappeared as he looked down at the basket of tomatoes John had picked up from the floor.
“A fair deal is a fair deal. Here are your tomatoes, Ben. Enjoy them.”
Ben frowned and took the basket. When he gazed at the fruit, his look of satisfaction faded, but not for long. He smirked, strolled over to the large garbage bin by the bar, and dumped the entire contents.
“Those were good tomatoes,” I said, through gritted teeth, and John gently squeezed my arm to keep me from rushing toward the container.
“Want to come and pick them out, chiquita?”
My urge stopped as fast as it began.
“I hope you choke on them.”
“Pick some more tomorrow and come to my house. We’ll make sauce, or whatever you want. Or maybe you’d prefer to have me come over?”
“The only time I’ll come over to see you willingly is when you’re in a casket.”
I didn’t seem to upset him but he moved closer toward us, his possessive body language, unsettling me further. “I’ll remember that you like bodies in caskets, Anna. And I’ll make sure to invite you the next time I put one in.”
His warning brought on the nausea again.
“Is that what you did to Xavier? Did you stuff him in a casket too?” I spat back.
“I think that’s enough.” I heard Father Francis from the front door.
“Padre.” Ben bowed his head. “Come to have a tequila?”
“Am I going to see you at church on the Lord’s day, Benjamin?”
“Of course, Padre.”
“Then you better begin praying he lets you pass through the front door. What are you doing, keeping these two here? The fiesta is starting.”
I knew that John wouldn’t admit to gambling for information, but I didn’t care.
“There was a visitor driving through Pace yesterday. His name is Xavier, and the last place I saw him was here.” I paused, ignoring the feeling of being a tattletale or the fact that my little confession could later get me in trouble with Ben. “That watch on the skeleton belongs to him, and Ben won’t tell us where he is.”
“I don’t follow everyone around, Anna.” Ben shoved his hands in his pockets, playing the role of an innocent man.
“What did you do with him? He was staying at the motel.”
“He must have left sometime during the night,” Ben explained.
“Was it the fella driving a blue Dodge?” Father Francis asked. “Because I saw someone driving through the farms at about four this morning.”
“Yes, he was,” I confirmed. “Are you sure it was him, Father?”
“I don’t know who else it could have been.”
“See, Anna? I’m not the criminal you make me out to be. Xavier must have left,” he smirked.
“Why do you play these games, Ben? Why would you agree to a game of chess for information when you didn’t have any? Or maybe you’re lying. Maybe one of you killed Xavier and took the car to dispose of it.”
“Now, Anna. Do you think that accusations of murder are going to give you a special passage to heaven? If you’d like to see heaven, come to my bedroom.” He winked, and I felt disgusted.
Father Francis cleared his throat and shot him a warning look. “When was the last time you confessed, Benjamin?”
“But Padre, my heart and soul are both clean.”
They were probably as clean as the toilets in the back.
“Then I shall see you at church this Sunday.”
“Yes, Padre.”
“Stay in peace, then, and stop hustling the town. God sees all and hears all.”
Ben didn’t say anything again, and we left the Bistro with Father Francis.
“Now, what were you two kids doing in that bar?”
“I’m sorry, Father. We were afraid for Anna’s friend,” John replied. “I wish they would just leave this town alone and take their life of crime elsewhere.”
“You two shouldn’t be worrying about that family. The Lord doesn’t discriminate – remember that. He has a path set for everyone, including the Cortez family. We’re all lost sheep at one point in our lives.”
“Yeah, but the Cortez family is like a lost herd.”
“We have to keep the family we have at the church strong and full of faith. One day, the Cortez family will be part of our community as well, and we’ll all be able to have a pint of beer at the Bistro without fear.”
“Father, I don’t mean to be rude, but you’re talking about the impossible,” I said.
I watched how John was listening to Father Francis, his attention catching every word.
“Try to think of them as lost sheep. One day they’ll be found.”
“I wish they were lost elsewhere, then,” I mumbled, wondering whether Xavier was one of those lost sheep. I hoped he was the one who’d been driving through the back roads earlier this morning. I hoped he’d gotten away from Ben and would never need to come back to Pace again. He’d sacrificed his own safety by pushing me out the door. In the few hours that I’d known him, Xavier had managed to stir a new feeling in my heart, one I didn’t recognize, and as much as I wished for him to be gone, I yearned to see him again even more.