Read Online Body Heat by Brenda Novak - Free Book Online Page A

were killed crossing the border, eh? Like the others?”
    It was no surprise that he knew. The previous murders had been in the papers, and Naco was right on the border, only ten miles from where some of the shootings had occurred. “Yes.”
    â€œWho are you?”
    The insolence in his eyes unsettled her, but she steeled herself against it. She’d hung out with enough Hells Angels to know better than to reveal vulnerability. “A friend. At least to them.”
    He rubbed his fingers together in the classic sign that he wanted her to grease his palm. “How much you willing to pay?”
    In a town where men rushed to hold parking places or dashed into the street to wash car windshields, hoping for tips, she’d expected this and planned to use it to her advantage. “Fifty U.S.”
    â€œFor…”
    â€œ Información. On either one of them. Or anyone you feel might’ve had something to do with their deaths.”
    â€œYou pay first?”
    She laughed as she shook her head. “Sorry, I’m not estúpida, eh? I’ll wait in the cantina across the street.”
    â€œWhat do you want to know?”
    â€œWhere they came from, how and when they crossed the border, who they were with before they died, if anyone’s seen or heard anything strange or out of the ordinary lately that might be related to their murder.”
    â€œThat’s a lot, no?”
    â€œYou gotta start somewhere.”
    He thought for a moment. “Job like that could take all night, señorita. In the end, I might have nothing to show for my time. How can you be sure they came through here?”
    â€œI’m willing to bet on it. They didn’t die far away. Find me their coyote, someone who saw them or knows them, anything you can. The more you tell me, the more I’ll pay. ¿Entendido? ”
    â€œÂ¿Cuánto más?” someone else called.
    They were asking how much more. Fifty dollars was peanuts compared to what they were paid for a successful crossing. But not every crossing was successful. “Up to two hundred dollars U.S.,” she said.
    The man who’d just yelled out wiped the sweat from his forehead. “And if we find nada? ”
    â€œThen you get paid nada. ” She had no choice. They’d lie to her if she gave them the slightest incentive.
    â€œNah.” Shaking their heads, some of the men closest to her turned away. One addressed two women huddled next to a wheeled cart where an old man was selling drinks and corn. “Hey, you want a new life?” he asked her. “You want to go to America? I can take you there.”
    He spoke in Spanish but Sophia understood the gist of his message.
    One of the women, obviously older than the other, scoffed. “You think I’m a fool? It’s too dangerous.”
    â€œIt’s safe,” he insisted. “And easy. I can get you there, no problem. My metal detector can find the sensors.”
    â€œAnd what about that? ” She waved in the direction of the tall metal fence dividing the two countries, but everyone knew the fence was virtually nonexistent in some places.
    â€œYou’re worried about three strands of barbed wire?”
    â€œI’m worried about being forced into the desert,” she cried. “Do you want us to die?”
    Sophia saw no reason he’d want them to die. He didn’t care one way or the other, as long as he got paid.
    He rolled his eyes. “You won’t die in the desert. I know a shortcut. It’s an hour’s walk.”
    â€œDon’t listen to him,” Sophia interrupted. “It’ll take much more than an hour. It could take days. And border patrol agents aren’t the only thing you have to fear. Someone is killing illegal aliens, shooting them in cold blood.”
    The woman didn’t seem to understand English. But she recognized the pistol Sophia made with her thumb and finger. Muttering something