Page 82 of The Texas Murders

I smack my forehead and say, “Shit. I forgot to call you back.”

“When I heard on the scanner that there was an explosion and fire on the Pueblo,” he says, “I thought for sure you all were dead.”

He says he arrived at the scene and got word that we’d been there and left with a suspect. He headed to the station to check to see if we were here, and he heard a gunshot as soon as he opened the door.

“What the hell did I miss?” he asks.

“Let’s get you caught up,” Carlos says, waving for him to follow us.

Thirty seconds later, we’re all standing outside the interview room, looking in at Llewellyn Carpenter’s dead body through the one-way glass. Carlos stops the video recording.

I tell Ryan what happened at the community center, then about our interview with Carpenter.

“Sorry we didn’t wait to involve you,” I say. “Time was of the essence.”

Ryan, who doesn’t seem the least bit angry at us for doing what we did without his authorization, says that he’ll call in a crime scene team to look at the interview room. And he’ll have someone check out the van in the parking lot next to the burning building. Maybe there’s something useful in there.

“How long before you can get a raid together?” Carlos asks him. “We need to go after Zebo.”

“It’s not something you can just throw together,” Ryan says. “A few days at least. I’m not sure the word of a dead man is going to be enough to get a warrant.”

Carlos points to the camera and says the interview is recorded, but Ryan still looks skeptical.

“That’s not going to work, Ryan,” I say, preparing for an argument. “Zebo is probably looking at the TV right now, waiting for reports of Texas Rangers killed. Or if anyone’s been arrested. If he doesn’t hear from Carpenter—and if he doesn’t hear about any dead Rangers—he’s going to know he’s compromised.”

“We don’t even have twenty-four hours,” Carlos says. “This time tomorrow, he’ll be in the wind.”

“And,” Ava adds, “we’ll never find Marta Rivera.”

I’m afraid Ryan is going to feel ganged up on, but as he looks back and forth between us, he genuinely seems interested in our arguments.

“What do you think we should do?” he asks.

“Let’s go after him,” I say. “Right now. We do it ourselves.”

Ryan has an expression on his face like he can’t believe what we’re asking him to do. But then he looks in at the dead body of Llewellyn Carpenter. It feels like we could end this thing once and for all—today—but if we don’t, if the so-called Mr. Z slips through the cracks, we might never bring this case to a close.

Ryan takes a deep breath.

“Rory, our approaches to law enforcement have been at odds since you joined the task force,” he says to me. “Maybe it’s time I give up the fight and try it your way.”

CHAPTER 73

GARRISON ZEBO WATCHES the news coverage of the fire on the seventy-seven-inch television in his spacious living room.

Zebo is wearing a Neiman Marcus cashmere robe, with a pair of Dolce and Gabbana house slippers. His exposed legs are shaved clean and are orange from the tanning bed he has in his bedroom. He sips from a lemon-carrot-ginger drink as he flips through the local channels, trying to find one that has any new information.

So far, the news coverage hasn’t revealed much. He settles on one station simply because it has the best imagery: a helicopter view of firefighters hosing down the building while a huge column of black smoke rises into the sky, the haze blotting out the view of Mexico in the distance.

The reporter narrating the coverage doesn’t know anything: how the fire started, if anyone was inside, what thebuilding even was used for. All he has to work with are colorful descriptions of the scene, which the camera captures better than he can.

Impatient, Zebo picks up his cell phone and calls Llewellyn Carpenter.

No answer.

He sends a text and asks for an update. He’s starting to feel antsy. He’s been looking for Carpenter’s van in the aerial footage but can’t find it. The existence of the fire suggests he was successful, but it’s always possible he blew himself up in addition to that Texas Ranger he was after. Zebo doesn’t care if Carpenter is dead or alive—as long as he hasn’t been arrested.

The anchor explains that the FBI plans to make a statement, and then there are a few moments of discussion between the anchors about why the FBI would be involved at all. Why isn’t the fire department making the statement?

---