Read Online Devil's Harbor by Alex Gilly - Free Book Online

door and threw her briefcase and handbag across to the passenger seat.
    â€œI wish you hadn’t heard that,” murmured Finn.
    â€œAre you kidding? I’m glad I was there. You’re lucky I was there. That was a set-up. They’re trying to build a case for prosecution.”
    Finn was puzzled. “Prosecution?”
    â€œThey’re looking for a scapegoat. If they think they’ve got enough evidence against you—and believe me, they want to have enough evidence—then they’ll contact a U.S. attorney and present the case for prosecution. The U.S. attorney then goes to a grand jury to get an indictment against you. Then they get a judge to sign a warrant, and next thing you know, you’re in jail awaiting trial.”
    Finn’s head was spinning. “Maybe you’re right. I should just resign.”
    â€œYou can’t now. They’ll use it against you. We have to clear your name first.” She looked at him and smiled. “Relax. It so happens you married one of the best lawyers in the nation. I think I may have mentioned once or twice that I topped my class at law school. They probably still speak about me in awed tones.”
    Then, in a different tone, she said, “You know you’re the first border agent I’ve represented? Usually I’m assisting migrants against the CBP. It’s … interesting and feels weird at the same time. Like sleeping in someone else’s bed.”
    Finn cocked an eyebrow. “So? Are we as bad as they say we are?”
    She smiled but her eyes didn’t. “Are borders necessary?” she said quietly.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œIt’s the title of a paper I wrote in college. Seeing this…” she tapped the Customs and Border Protection patch on his shirtsleeve, “made me think of it.”
    Finn was quiet for a while. Finally he said, “What do you think would happen if we opened the borders?”
    Now she had a twinkle in her eye. “We’d all move to Canada,” she said.
    He laughed. But he’d meant it as a serious question.
    â€œHey, why so serious? We’ll get through this, okay? Trust me, I deal with assholes like them every day—you find them in every government department. If you’re going to dig up dirt, you’re going to bring up the worms. But we’ve got the truth on our side, Nick. And truth stands by itself. Jefferson said that.”
    He smiled. “You’re quoting Jefferson to me now?”
    â€œI’m trying to school you, baby.”
    His mood lifted.
    She got into her RAV4.
    â€œI’m going to put out the word, see if anyone has anything on Perez,” she said through the window. “I’ll call you the minute I hear anything. In the meantime, see if the federales have anything on him. And keep your head down. Don’t say anything about the shooting to anyone without checking with me first, okay?”
    He nodded.
    â€œOne more thing,” she said through the car window.
    He turned back toward her.
    â€œI love you, baby,” she said. “And I can’t wait till Monterey.”
    *   *   *
    Before getting into his truck, Finn noticed a card under his windshield wiper. He pulled it out. Garrett Smith from the Times, a note on the back of the card: “Let’s talk.”
    Finn crushed the card in his fist and threw it onto the dash. With a sinking heart, he drove over to the cargo terminal and reported to the Office of Field Operations. He was about to do the most deadening thing he knew of: spend the day in front of a computer monitor. This particular monitor was in a cramped, airless cell built onto the bed of a special-purpose eighteen-wheeler. The truck was the much-trumpeted crowning glory of Homeland Security’s technological push against fake Vuitton bags and Golden Triangle heroin. Everyone in the CBP knew it by its acronym, VACIS—for Vehicle and Cargo Inspection