Paralyzed by fear was something Jack thought was only an expression. It wasn’t. Slater stood as rigid as a mannequin. I wonder how he can do that without falling over? He spoke a moment longer to Natasha and then hung up.

“Okay,” said Jack, turning his attention to Slater. “Where were we? Oh, yeah, I was going to tell you whether or not you live is entirely up to you. Like I said, we have a proposition for you. If you want to go into business with us, everything will work out great. If you don’t, well, I think you get the picture. Where you’re standing is the experience I said you needed to have. Talking about it isn’t the same. Don’t you agree?”

Slater gawked up at him, but didn’t reply.

“You listening to me?” yelled Jack.

Slater nodded and slowly put his foot down.

“You can start by telling me all about your organization,” said Jack.

“It’s not really mine,” Slater heard himself say. “It’s the Mexicans. I only work for them.” He thought his voice sounded far away and wondered if he was having an out-of-body experience. Am I already dead? “T-O is the real boss,” he heard his voice say. It was as if his words were coming out independently of his brain. “Earl and I run the money back,” his voice continued.

“Back where?”

“To El Paso. T-O’s guys come across the border from Juarez and take it from there.”

“And the coke?” asked Jack.

“Earl and I never had anything to do with that. We were to stay clear of the coke and strictly handle the money. T-O likes to keep it separate.”

“And who is T-O?”

Slater worked up the courage and nervously looked down at his feet, then gave a sigh of relief and started to cry.

“Why the fuck are you looking in the bottom of the hole? Don’t even think about trying to whack me with that shovel!”

“I wasn’t … I was afraid … I thought I might see my body laying there.”

“What the fuck? How could your body be laying there? You’re standing! Are you stoned?”

“No, I just —”

“Shut the fuck up and tell me who T-O is!”

“I’ve never met him!” he cried.

“Quit your fuckin’ bawlin’! It pisses me off!” Jack waited a moment for Slater to regain his composure. “Tell me how you know T-O.”

Slater wiped his face with his sleeve. “I met the guys who work for him. I’ve heard one of them mention his name whenever he calls him. I can tell T-O’s the boss by how respectful the guy sounds when he talks to him.”

“And how did you meet his guys?”

“Some of T-O’s other guys approached Earl and me at a nightclub in Vancouver. At first we thought they were bullshitting about paying us to make trips, but then they offered us half the cash up front for the first delivery.”

“And you think T-O whacked Earl?”

“Yes, well, his guys did.”

“His guys from Canada?”

“No, I know they were sending a couple guys up from Mexico. Professionals.”

Professionals? thought Jack. Professionals don’t sneer into the cameras. More likely they were expendables …

“They didn’t want to risk drawing any attention to the guys who are already settled in Canada,” continued Slater.

“So they whacked their own mule,” noted Jack. “What did he do, steal their money?”

“Not intentionally. Earl has … had a gambling problem. While he was waiting in El Paso for T-O’s guys to show up, he hit some casino, lost his own money, and dipped into theirs.”

El Paso! Please don’t tell me the asshole took Lily to El Paso …

“Things went from bad to worse and he ended up losing most of it,” continued Slater.

“So then what, he just came back to Canada?”

“Not right away. He switched motels and then went back to the casino hoping to make a million out of about twenty grand. He lost that and then called me from the casino in a panic. When I was on the line with him, one of T-O’s guys called me, as well. I put Earl on hold and well, you know, I had to look after myself.”

“What the fuck do you mean?”

“I know better than to fuck with the Mexicans. I told Earl to go back to his motel and everything would be okay, that I would help him straighten it out. I then told T-O’s guys where Earl was and what motel he was staying at with his girlfriend.”

His girlfriend … he did take her there. Jack resisted the urge to jump in the hole and take out his frustration by choking Slater around the neck and shaking him the way a pit bull shakes a rat. He knew if he was to play his role properly, he would have to pretend he was not particularly interested in any girlfriend Porter would have had. “Was this motel right at the casino?” Jack asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

“No, I don’t think so. I can’t remember the name of it.”

“So you ratted out your friend … you’re a real stand-up kind of guy.”

“I had no choice. If they ever found out I lied to them, I’d be dead, too. I knew Earl was already a dead man … whether he knew it or not. Guess he figured it out when he drove into the motel parking lot and spotted T-O’s guys waiting for him. He spun a donut and fucked off back to Canada.”

“What about his girlfriend?”

“Oh, I’m sure T-O’s guys killed her, too.”

You’re probably right … “Didn’t want to leave any loose ends.”

“Yeah, for sure.”

Was Lily as straight as Marcie thought she was? “Guess nobody told her if you fly with the crows, you should expect to get shot.”

“Well … she didn’t really know what was going on. Earl had given her some bullshit story they were going to Texas to party with some business associates and then stop in Vegas on the way home and get married.”

Aw crap … the poor kid. “He was going to marry her?”

“He told me it was the only way he could get in her pants. I don’t think he planned on being married long.”

“Sounds like a great guy,” said Jack, bitterly. “Wish I had gotten to know him on a personal level.”

“Well, he couldn’t risk going to the cops or they might have busted him for being a runner.”

“So you sold out Earl and his girlfriend both,” said Jack, eyeballing Slater’s throat while subconsciously tightening the muscles in his fingers.

“It’s not my fault. I had no choice. I feel bad about it, but a guy has to look after himself.”

“Yeah, for sure. Now start digging again.”

“What! I thought we had a deal?”

“Shut the fuck up and dig.”

“Please let me talk. I could make you rich. I’m supposed to make a trip down there within the next two weeks. You can take the cash. I’ll say I was robbed. Beat me up or something …”

“Oh, believe me, tearing you to pieces does appeal to me,” replied Jack. He took a deep breath, slowly exhaled and said, “How much cash we talkin’?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s over a million.”

“What do ya mean, ya don’t know? You’re the one who delivers it.”

“Besides my car, I have a pickup truck they gave me. The paperwork makes it look like I bought the truck in the States, but it didn’t cost me a dime. In it is a secret hiding spot. If you adjust the knobs on the dash a certain way, a hydraulic system raises a fake deck up in the back of the truck.”

“So the truck has a duplicate deck in the back … a fake one over top of the original one?”

“Yes, exactly. I haul a minimum of a million with each trip. Sometimes more. I’ve never had the nerve to count it all myself, but I’ve seen them unload it at the trailer.”

“At the trailer?”

“Before, in El Paso, we used to have to drive the money way to hell and gone out into the desert to some mobile trailer where they would unload it. I don’t think they use it anymore. On this last trip they told Earl to stay at some motel outside of El Paso and call them. Then T-O’s guys were to come and take him and the truck to someplace in Juarez.”

“When do they put the money into your truck?”

“The day before I go, one of T-O’s guys borrows it from me for a couple of hours and then brings it back. My job is to drive it down to El Paso. I get paid forty grand a trip. I’m supposed to go in another week or two. I haven’t been told an exact date yet.”