An Inconsequential Murder (27 page)

She was about to leave his office when he called her back, “No, wait! That won’t do.” He had a sudden realization that Mexico City might be a dangerous place for him.

“
Do you have the number of that air taxi service we used about six months ago, Teresita?”

“
Yes, sir, I do.”

“
Well, call his cell phone number and tell him I need to fly to, uh, let’s see, Dallas tomorrow—first thing in the morning, say around eight o’clock in the morning.”

Teresita
made a note of his instructions although there was a worried look on her face as she wrote down the unusual, hurried orders.

“
And then, get me a first class ticket on American Airlines, direct flight, to Paris, from Dallas, OK? Call the frequent flyer number; you won’t be able to get a regular reservation person this time of night.”

“
Yes, sir,” said Teresita.

While
Teresita made the arrangements for his trip, Dean Herrera typed out his letter of resignation on his computer. He sent a copy by email to the Governor, and printed a copy, which he signed and put into an envelope, which he addressed to the Governor as well. He then made a third copy and addressed it to the Board of the University.

When Teresita came in to give him the details of the arrangements she had made, he gave her the envelope and told her he wanted it delivered to the Governor’s office first thing the next morning.

That following day, at 8 o’clock in the morning, as the Governor made some final corrections to his announcement, the Dean arrived at the Aeropuerto del Norte, the old city airport, which was now used exclusively by private aircraft.

The media started to gather in the
Governor’s Palace press room around 8:30. They had been informed the night before that the Governor would be making an important announcement.

At 9:30
the Governor entered the press room and after saying good morning to the members of the media and his staff, whom he had asked to be present, he began his announcement.

“
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my duty, as Constitutional Governor of the State of Nuevo León, to inform you that on the advice of my private physician and members of the medical staff of the University Hospital, I am resigning my position as Governor of the State of Nuevo León, effective immediately. In my judgment, as well as that of my closest advisers, this is the best course to take in view that my first loyalty is to the State and.…”

In other parts of Mexico, a couple of deputies asked for prolonged leaves of absence from the Chamber of Deputies, some liberal writers and University professors decided they needed a long vacation, and the heads of the various drug cartels, knowing that now there was no chance of drugs being legalized in Mexico, began to prepare for what they knew was coming—an all out war among each other and confrontations with the Mexican Army.

As the Dean’s rented plane landed in Dallas’s Love Field, he wondered if anyone had informed Leobardo Contreras, the presidential candidate, of what was going on.

Chapter
32: Lombardo Confronts His Boss

Lombardo sat at his desk in the Investigation
s Department’s office, a rare thing for him. He was waiting for the Director to come back from the press conference. His cell phone rang; it was Lupe Salgado, the computer guru.

“
Have you heard the news? The Governor resigned and I hear that Dean Herrera has left town. The rats are leaving the sinking ship.”

“
I knew about the Governor; I didn’t know about Dean Herrera.”

“
I was talking to some of the people I know at the Computer Center a few minutes ago, including your friend David. The rumor that the Dean has left is all people can talk about in the main campus of the University.”

“
Do they know where he’s gone? Any speculation about that?” asked Lombardo, knowing full well that Lupe Salgado had his own intelligence network well in place at the University and elsewhere; after all, he
is
a consultant.

“
Well, don’t let anyone know your source but, Teresita, his secretary told me she had arranged for a private plane to take him to Dallas and he also asked her to get him a first-class ticket to Paris.”

“
The man has always done things with style,” said Lombardo.

“
I’ll say; have you ever been to his house?”

“
Yeah, a little Greek temple. Did he take his
friend
with him?”

“
Hmm, she didn’t say. Why is that of interest to you?”

“
Because if he left him behind, I might want to talk to him later; he probably knows more about the Dean than anyone else. You know how wives are!” said Lombardo. “And, if anyone wants to find the Dean, they should keep an eye on this guy. I’m sure they’re not going to resist being apart.”

“
You’re getting bitchy in your old age, my friend,” said Lupe laughing.

“
I gotta go,” said Lombardo, “the Director has just arrived.”

Not five minutes had passed when Lombardo’s desk phone rang. “The Director wants to see you,” said the secretary.

When Lombardo walked into the Director’s office, he saw that there were piles of papers on his desk, and folders neatly tied up and placed in cardboard boxes.

“
Going somewhere?” Lombardo asked glibly.

The Director ignored the sarcasm nodded toward the copy of Victor Delgado’s case file and said, “You’ve been doing a lot of work on that case.”

“
That’s what we’re supposed to do when there’s been a crime committed.”

“
Listen, Lombardo, you’re messing around with dangerous stuff, stuff you don’t understand.”

“
Oh, you would be surprised how much ‘stuff’’ I understand.”

The Director stopped looking through the papers on his desk and asked,
“What do you mean?”

“
I mean that I know why the Governor quit and the Dean of the University has left town.”

“
The Dean?” asked the surprised Director.

“
Yeah, the Dean. And, I know who killed Victor Delgado and why.”

“
Well, if you are so damned sure, why haven’t you filed an investigation report so charges could be…”

“
Because you and your pals would just dump my report into the pile of unsolved cases and let it go at that. Look, Mr. Director, I don’t give a damned about the power struggles you and your kind play, or how many of you get killed at game time, but I do care when little people get hurt, ground up, as you people fight for the right to ruin this country.”

“
I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“
Yes, you do. You know that the Americans and some of our most ‘loyal’ citizens are trying to thwart those who want to legalize drugs in this country. I also know that the Governor, the Dean, and a bunch of federal Deputies and Senators were being led by someone very close to the President, and that they were pushing to have the presidential candidate put drug legalization as the first item on his agenda once he is elected.”

Lombardo took the
CD out of his pocket and continued, “I know that you know that your group is financed by ‘foreign’ money and that your enemies are being financed by drug money. The cartels would pay anything to see drugs legalized, and the people that finance you and your group would do anything to see that they are not.”

“
These are very dangerous accusations you are making.”

“
I am not accusing anyone, and I don’t intend to accuse anyone. I couldn’t care less if you and your rivals all kill each other.”

“
What are you after, then?”

“
I’m after the guys who killed Victor Delgado. I want to see them in jail, rotting away for twenty years. That’s what I want.”

“
And how do you propose to do that if you don’t file an investigation report and hand it over to the Public Ministry?”

“
Because, as I’ve said, that would go nowhere. What I want is for you to call your pals and tell them they have to give up the three men who were involved in Victor Delgado’s murder.”

“
Supposing I knew who I should call—what makes you think that they would be turned over to you or anyone else?”

Lombardo waved the
CD he had taken from his mackintosh pocket and threw it on the Director’s desk. “There’s a lot of interesting material on that CD: documents, policy drafts, and so on. But most importantly, a lot of emails between Senators, Deputies, a Governor or two, and even someone, euphemistically put, very close to the Presidency. It also provides insights on how a foreign power has been meddling in our internal affairs. Can you imagine what the media, both domestic and foreign, could do with that? In fact, it could be worth a lot of money on the media market.”

“
People have been killed for less than that,” said the Director threateningly.

“
Don’t bother trying to scare me.
I am no Victor Delgado.
And, anyway, do you think that there are no more copies just waiting to be released upon my most lamentable death?”

Lombardo got up and went to the door but before he opened it he said to the Director, “I repeat, I don’t give a damn what happens to you and your pals or anyone else on the other ‘team.’ I have filled in a request form for a ticket and money to fly to Guadalajara. I hope you will be so kind as to sign it authorizing the expenditure. I want those three guys.”

“
What makes you so sure they are in Guadalajara?”

“
I have a copy of a passenger list in my pocket that a friend gave me. It has the name of three gringos on it. I know they’re there.”

As soon as Lombardo left his office, the Director picked up his cell phone and called a number in Guadalajara.

“
Yeah?” John Wayne answered.

Chapter
33: The Director Is Directed

The Café Florida is located directly in front of the main entrance of Cintermex, the large convention center in Monterrey. It is a favorite place to have breakfast meeting
s for politicians and government officials, so, it was no surprise to anyone when two black SUVs stopped at the entrance of the Café and the Director of the State Judicial
Police, Alejandro Peniche Saldivar, got out of one of the vehicles, and Lombardo’s boss, the Director of Investigations for the Public Ministry, Hermenegildo Gutierrez Zavala, descended from the other.

Gutierrez Zavala had recently been informed that he was going to be named Head of the Federal Criminal Investigations Department reporting directly to the Federal Prosecutor. He knew that the job meant going after the heads of the Cartels so he would need a tough man to serve the arrest warrants.

That morning, he was going to offer the job to Peniche Saldivar, whom he trusted and had known since they were both rookie prosecutors fresh out of law school, and from when they had both been at the Judicial Police Academy.

As the two men walked through the Café, they were greeted heartily by the politicians and officials sitting at various tables. Word about the appointment had gotten around. These were two rising stars in the tough, dangerous world of law enforcement. They were now men to be respected and feared because they were credited with having played a big part in breaking up the pro-legalization “conspiracy,” as it was now being called. Losers always get the pejorative epitaphs.  

Several of the politicians rose from their seats and greeted them with an
abrazo
, the embrace, accompanied by back slapping, which is a sign of friendship and respect among Mexican men.

Outside of the Café, two of Peniche Saldivar
’s bodyguards stood on either side of the main entrance to the place, while two of Gutierrez Zavala’s covered the back entrance. They told the cooks who were taking a smoking brake to go inside and to tell everyone in the kitchen that they were to stay inside until their boss left the Café.

The two SUVs were parked on the curb by the Café’s main entrance, their motors going and their air conditioning on. A traffic cop parked his motorcycle in back of the first SUV. He turned on his turret lights and proceeded to wave the heavy, early morning traffic past the parked vehicles.