Pipeline (20 page)

Susan
nodded and dove back into her book of statutes, whatever those might have been.
I followed Cate out of the conference room and down a longer hallway that led
to her office. On the way, we passed a partially open office door with Susan's
name on it. Cate opened her office door and walked straight to her desk,
sitting down in a comfortable-looking chair that I hadn't noticed before.

"God,
I hate research!" she said.

"Then
you'd make a lousy reporter."

"When
did you get in town?"

"This
morning. Just doing a little research," I answered with a smile.

"About
Kyle's story?"

"It's
becoming more interesting by the day. I can see why he'd want to go after it,
and he doesn't know half of what I know."

"Can
you tell me about it?"

"I
thought I might do that over lunch unless you've already eaten."

"We've
been buried in law books all morning. I am a little hungry."

"You
might want to take a little longer than an hour. It'll take me a while to catch
you up on the story. Right now it's mostly bits and pieces, and I thought you'd
be able to see an angle I hadn't found yet."

"I
doubt it, Jo. You're closer to it than I am."

"You
know what they say about the forest and the trees."

"Just
let me tell Susan I'm leaving," she said as she got up and pulled a small
handbag from a desk drawer.

I
walked with her toward the conference room. As we passed Susan's office, the
door was open all the way, and Susan was parked behind her desk writing on a
legal pad. When Cate saw her, she stopped and tapped at her door.

"I'm
going to lunch, Susan. Can I bring you back something?"

"No,
thanks, I'm fine. Can you spare one more minute before you leave?"

Cate
looked at me, and I shrugged. I wasn't being nosy, but I walked into Susan's
office behind Cate and leaned against the doorframe to wait for what I was sure
would be longer than a minute. Susan's office lacked the little feminine
details of Cate's office. No plants, no color-coordinated furniture. The
carpeting throughout the offices was the same, but her office was almost
Spartan compared to Cate's. There were a number of prints and family pictures
hanging on the walls of Cate's office, while Susan seemed to be more into
official-looking documents, matted to make them look bigger than they actually
were. Out of boredom more than anything else, I glanced at a few of the plaques
and framed documents. There was a diploma from the University of Oklahoma
granting her a degree in business administration in 1978. Under that was a
larger, more ornate sheepskin announcing that she was a graduate of the
University of Texas Law School. Texas-OU football weekend must be a real
dilemma for good old Susan, I thought. To either side of her diplomas were
citations for editing the law review and a Certificate of Recognition for her
service as President of Delta Delta Delta Sorority while at Oklahoma. Glancing
back at her law school diploma, I searched for a date. Graduated June 1981.

While
I was absorbed in processing what I had just read, Cate tapped me on the
shoulder. "Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah,
sure," I smiled. "Uh, listen, maybe Susan would like to join us. Get
away from the books for a while, you know. Clear her head."

"Would
you care to join us, Susan?" Cate asked.

"No,
I don't think so, but thanks for asking," she replied.

"Come
on, Susan," I said as I slipped my arm around Cate's waist. "All work
and no play makes for a dull woman."

It
was the dumbest remark I could ever remember uttering, and Cate looked at me
like I had gone completely around the bend. But I now wanted desperately to get
Susan involved in a conversation. I was hoping that my arm around Cate would
show her she didn't have a clear field to Cate's affections and drive her to
protect something I knew she wanted. She looked at me for a moment, and I saw
her territorial instincts kick into gear.

"Maybe
I could use some time away from this," she finally said with a smile.

"Great!"
I said. "Where do you two suggest? I'm not up on the good Austin
restaurants anymore."

Susan
looked at Cate and then back at me. "How about the Eighth Street Bar and
Grill? It's not very far from here, and we haven't been there for a
while."

She
wasn't speaking to me but was letting me know I had trespassed into an area
where she had staked a claim. If Cate was aware of any of this crap, she didn't
let on.

"Would
you like to go in my car?" Susan offered.

"Why
don't we follow you? You know where you're going, and after lunch I need to
speak to Cate alone," I said. "Unless that's a problem, Susan."

"Of
course not, Jo. I'll get my car from the parking garage and meet you out
front."

I
opened the door of my car and waited for Cate to get settled before I went to
the driver's side. I started the engine and turned on the air. I was
preoccupied with my own thoughts when I heard Cate say, "There she
is."

I
watched as a familiar looking blue-gray Mercedes 380 SL nosed into the street
and waited as several cars went by before pulling out of the garage exit. There
was no doubt in my mind that this was the second vehicle I had photographed at
the ABP plant.

"Nice
car," I said.

"Too
small," Cate replied. "You can fall into it, but it takes an ejector
seat to get out gracefully if you're dressed for an evening out."

"I'll
bet there's not a lot of room to maneuver in the backseat either," I said
with a chuckle.

"I
wouldn't know." She laughed. "It's been a long time since I spent
much time in the backseat of a car."

Susan
swung into a parking space in the alleyway next to the Eighth Street Bar and
Grill. It had a French cafe look about it. Round, linen-covered tables behind a
wrought iron fence lined the wide sidewalk on either side of the main entrance.
It was after one, and most of the tables were already in partial shade. We
found a table close to the building and sat down. A bored-looking young man
approached us with glasses of water and menus. We all selected something light
that wouldn't take long to prepare.

While
we waited, Susan unbuttoned her jacket and leaned back, sipping her water. She
frequently looked at Cate, and I would have sworn she winked at her. Cate
looked uncomfortable sitting between us, and I was sorry that I had put her in
that situation.

"Cate
told me what happened to your housekeeper, Jo. Terrible thing."

"Yes,
it was. She was a fine woman and a good friend. When I find out who was
responsible, I might not be able to wait for the criminal justice system to
hash it all out."

"But
those things are better left in the hands of professionals, don't you
agree?"

"I
am a professional."

"Not
a professional detective though."

"You'd
be amazed what a good reporter can uncover, Susan. There are things I can find
out and places I can go where the police wouldn't be welcome."

"And
people actually talk to you?"

"Tell
me things they wouldn't tell their own priest. Surprisingly, twenty bucks can
buy a lot of information, as long as whomever you're talking to needs a fix bad
enough."

"As
an attorney I can tell you that kind of evidence wouldn't be considered very
reliable in court."

"I'm
not interested in going to court, Susan."

"Ah,
yes, revenge. I forgot," she said as she wrapped both hands around her
water glass and held it in front of her face.

"If
revenge means justice is served, then I'm for it. A lot of cases are never
solved because the cops don't have a vested interest in digging deep enough.
They're in a hurry to clear as many cases as they can. I, on the other hand,
have all the time in the world, and I'm extremely patient in tracking down even
minor leads."

"Still,
you must admit that some cases are unsolvable."

I
shook my head. "For every crime, there's someone somewhere who knows
something. Hell, they might not even know they know it. For example, I was just
reading about an old case that happened a couple of blocks from here."

"Really,"
Cate said. It was the first time she had spoken since we sat down.

"Yeah.
Some sorority girl whose body was found in an alley behind Sixth Street. Raped,
murdered, and dumped. I was drawn to it because it happened not long after you
and I met. Back in November of nineteen eighty."

"And
the case has never been solved?" Susan asked. "I'd think that proved
my point, Jo. A twenty-five-year-old murder case. Whoever did it could be on
another continent or dead by now."

"Or
he or she could be living within spitting distance of the crime scene."

"This
is beginning to sound like one of those debate cases we argued in law
school," Cate said.

"Personally,
I think it's a snipe hunt," Susan said over the top of her glass.

"Maybe,"
I said with a smile. "But I'll bet the boys at Kappa Alpha really sweated
for a while."

"Kappa
Alpha?" Cate said.

"She
went to a party there the night she died. She was a Tri-Delt."

"Wasn't
Tri-Delt your sorority, Susan?" Cate asked.

"When
I was at Oklahoma," she answered, putting emphasis on the Oklahoma part as
if to distance herself from the crime.

When
our food arrived, Susan seemed relieved to have some other way to occupy
herself. I was halfway through my sandwich before stopping to speak again.

"By
the way, Cate, we've dug up a couple of interesting things for the illegals story,"
I said.

She
looked quickly at Susan and back to me without speaking.

"We've
been tracking someone who might be involved in bringing them in. A guy named
Camarena who works for American Beef and Pork. Seems this Camarena has a
cousin, Escobar, who might be bringing illegals in for him. It's not all tied
together yet, but it shouldn't be long."

"Is
this the story Kyle was working on?" Susan asked, wiping her mouth with a
napkin.

"Yes,"
I answered. "I suspect that either Camarena or Escobar might have been
involved in the murder of my housekeeper."

"It
sounds like you have a lot of mights and maybes."

"It's
just a matter of getting lucky and tying it all together."

I
couldn't tell from Susan's demeanor whether what I said had rattled her. If she
knew anything incriminating, she certainly wasn't going to tell me about it.
And she didn't know where I had gotten the information about Camarena or ABP.
To a total stranger, there was nothing unusual about Cate's demeanor either,
but her eyes were saying volumes to me. I hoped Susan didn't know those eyes as
well as I did.

Susan
finished her lunch, and, shortly afterward, excused herself, saying she needed
to get back to work on the case at the office. I wouldn't let her pay for her
food, and we parted with a handshake. On her way out, she whispered something
to Cate and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, undoubtedly for my benefit. I
smiled as she left, but a swift kick to the shin from under the table abruptly
interrupted my smile.

"What
was that shit all about?" Cate demanded.

"Which
shit?" I asked, rubbing my shin.

"That
stuff about a murdered sorority girl and Camarena. It sounded like you were
interrogating Susan."

"No,
I wasn't. But I've run into too many coincidences in the last few days. Just
thought I'd see what kind of reaction I'd get from good old Susan."

"Surely
you didn't expect her to divulge any information about ABP or Felix Camarena to
you. They are her clients, and she doesn't owe you any explanation about
them."

"She
doesn't know where I found out about them either. I haven't given away your
midnight file search."

"What
could you possibly have hoped to accomplish with that conversation, Jo?"

"Truthfully,
I'm hoping that she'll contact Camarena, and he'll come after me to find out
what I know. Of course, if Susan is totally in the dark about what Camarena is
doing at ABP, I don't have anything to worry about."

I
spent another half-hour telling her what I had found out about Camarena from
Professor Evans and Freddie Escobar. Although she was mildly impressed with the
information, she defended Susan to the bitter end. I had tried to shake her up
and had come up with squat, not even rapid blinking or a hard swallow. Cate had
always been an excellent judge of character and not easily snowed by a polished
demeanor. She trusted Susan implicitly, and I hoped, for her sake, that she was
right.

I
paid the bill and drove her back to her office. My Godsent parking place was
long gone, forcing me into a few trips around the block before I spotted a car
pulling away from the curb a block from her building.