The Last King of Texas - Rick Riordan by Rick Riordan Read Free Book Online Page B

right lane nanoseconds before colliding with a
wide-eyed farmer in a Ford.
    "Have a nice day," Ozzie grumbled without
slowing down. I pried my fingers loose from the dashboard.
    The land flattened to field and fence, shacks and
farmhouses spaced farther apart. We left the dump behind.
    "When we get there," Ozzie said, "we
do nothing stupid. If we're the first, we sit on the house and wait
for backup. If it gets bad, you stand behind the passenger's door,
use it as a shield. Got it?"
    "What's the brother-in-law like?"
    "Hector Mara. West Side veterano like Sanchez.
They go way back."
    "Dangerous?"
    "Everybody's dangerous. Show me a wife in a
domestic disturbance call, I'll show you dangerous. But Hector Mara?
Next to Zeta Sanchez he's a big old pan dulce."
    Then we were on top of 11043 Green, and we weren't
the first. The property sat on the Y intersection of Green and
another, smaller farm road. Thick tangles of banana trees and bamboo
lined both sides. The only visible entrance was blocked by an SAPD
patrol car with both doors open and the headlights on. Two more cars,
unmarked blue Chevrolets, were pulled off the shoulder nearby. Four
people stood in the shade of the banana trees to the side of the
driveway—two SAPD uniforms and my good buddies from homicide,
DeLeon and Kelsey.
    We pulled in behind the SAPD unit.
    Through the break in the foliage I could see two
houses on the lot. The nearest, about thirty yards up the gravel
drive, was cinder block from the waist down and unpainted drywall
from the waist up, still decorated with the green tattoos of
different building-supply companies. The building made an L around a
covered cement porch that overflowed with mangled bicycles and broken
lawn chairs. Bedsheets covered the windows.
    Twenty yards farther out was a small mobile home of
corrugated white metal. The field around both buildings was overgrown
with yellow sticker-burr grass and swarmed with gnats. One car was
visible on the lot — an old silver Ford Galaxie parked under an
apple tree. No signs of life except for three chickens in a coop.
Near that, a well-tended garden patch of sunflowers, cabbages,
tomatoes. Ozzie and I joined the SAPD party in the shade. In the
afternoon heat the huge banana plants exuded sticky, bubbly goo at
the joints and smelled disconcertingly of sex.
    DeLeon had changed into new clothes — rust-colored
blazer and skirt, a fresh white silk blouse. She leaned calmly
against a fence post, gently slapping a folder full of paperwork
against her skirt.
    Her partner Kelsey had shed his coat. His baby-blue
dress shirt had half-moons of sweat around the armpits and his tie
and collar were loosened. In the sunlight I could see the fine red
network of capillaries in his nose. He glared at me as I walked up.
    "What the hell is this doing here?" He
looked at Ozzie Gerson. "You brought a fucking civilian?"
    Ozzie took a pack of Doublemint from his shirt pocket
and shook a stick loose, unwrapped it and put it in his mouth. "He's
with me, Detective. Don't worry about it."
    "I'm worrying."
    "Leave it," DeLeon ordered. "What's
the twenty on the other units?"
    One of the uniformed officers spoke into his field
radio, got an answer. "Five minutes, maybe."
    "Maybe?"
    The uniform stifled a yawn. Probably, like Ozzie,
he'd been pulling fiesta duty all last week. "Half the shift
called in sick at the substation, ma'am. We're covering the whole
South Side today."
    DeLeon sighed, turned to Kelsey. "I wanted SWAT
here. Where are they?" \
    "No point," Kelsey said. "I told the
lieutenant not to bother."
    DeLeon stared at him. "You what?"
    Kelsey put a piece of spear grass to his mouth. He
bit the end and spit it out.
    "This ain't that hard, partner. We going to bust
Sanchez or wait here all day under the poontang trees?"
    The second uniformed officer suppressed a smile.
Kelsey grinned at DeLeon, waiting for her response.
    "Probably be unwise to stay here," I broke
in. "Been so long since Kelsey's smelled the real