One Grave Less

everything.”
    “Because there is a straightforward answer for all the questions you’ve asked me. You aren’t one of those people who thinks that someone with the right answers is suspicious and a liar, are you? Because I have no tolerance for that kind of illogic. It’s a pet peeve of mine and a conversation ender.”
    “No, of course not.” He smiled for the first time. “You will have to forgive me if I lapse into interrogation techniques. I’ll try to do better, Mrs. West. You put down in the register that you came from Río de Sangue. This woman”—he tapped the flyer—“was spotted near there.”
    An error to use that village , Maria thought. Hell .
    “That was my last port of call, so to speak, before I got here. I was originally in Río Branco. It was several miles from there that I was attacked and lost my things. I made my way with my daughter to Río de Sangue and finally here.”
    “You saw no one like this woman?” said Michaels.
    Maria studied the picture again. “No.”
    “It seems I must look elsewhere,” he said.
    He wasn’t convinced, Maria thought. He was going to be a problem for them. She was going to have to come up with a way to get from here to Tabatinga without him.
    “I need to go upstairs to Rosetta,” she said, not shying away from the name. “We’ve both had an ordeal. I hope you don’t intend to make it worse with false allegations.”
    “Of course not,” he said. “I am just looking for justice for all the men she has killed.”
    “All the men she has killed? Is she some kind of black widow?” Maria said.
    He shrugged.
    “Good evening, Mr. Michaels, or should I call you Agent Michaels?”
    “Mr. will do fine. I’m sorry to have troubled you. You see why I had to make sure.”
    “How did you light upon me, out of all the people here? Why do you think she is in Benjamin Constant?”
    He shrugged. “Anonymous tip.”
    Maria rolled her eyes.
    “This is a port city that leads to many other places. She was headed in this direction according to witnesses. I put up these Wanted posters and someone responded. They didn’t give their name.”
    Maria shook her head. “Of all the crazy situations,” she muttered and took her leave of him.
    She walked to the stairs and didn’t start bounding up them until she got to the second landing. She rushed to their room and knocked on the door.
    “Rosetta, honey, it’s Mommy. Open the door.”
    She waited.

Chapter 53
    It was the same paramedics Diane had seen earlier. That was a relief. After the Mayan Room attack it would be a while before she trusted paramedics to be who they said they were. The two of them, equipment in hand, stood looking around at everyone. Their gaze stopped on Diane.
    “You doing okay, ma’am?”
    “Fine,” she said. “As you can see, we have a situation here. Mr. William Dugal here will instruct you on how to proceed.”
    They looked a little confused. Diane didn’t blame them.
    “They just need to let me frisk him,” mumbled Gracey.
    He was smarting from having his gun taken and having Pendleton get shot with it. He was the policeman in charge and he’d lost control of the situation and didn’t know how to get it back. Diane hoped it wouldn’t make Gracey do something stupid.
    “Look, we are the police here,” Gracey said. “Who is this Dugal?”
    “Someone who apparently knows how to fight the ninja guy,” said Chanell. “It’s going to take a while if I have to go over your head, and it won’t look good for any of us.”
    “I need you to load a syringe with a strong sedative,” said Liam.
    “What?” said the one of the paramedics. “Who are we giving it to?”
    “The guy on his knees with his hands on his head,” said Liam.
    “We can’t just give sedatives without a doctor’s instruction. He doesn’t look like he needs one,” said the other paramedic.
    “You need him to have one,” said Liam.
    “Mister, we can’t just do that,” the paramedic said.
    “You know who Hannibal Lecter is?” Liam said.
    “Yes,” said the first paramedic cautiously. They both looked wide-eyed at kidnapper guy. “He’s like that?”
    “He wouldn’t do it for fun, but he can rip your face off with his teeth,” said Liam.
    Diane didn’t know whether Liam was exaggerating, but she was glad she didn’t try to bite the guy.
    “Look,” said Liam, “right now the main thing he wants to do is get away. And it may look to you like he doesn’t have a chance with all the