St Kilda Consulting 01 - Always Time to Die

opened. John grinned when he saw them. “Answered prayers. Your mother and Lucia are in the greenhouse talking about woman things.”
    “Carly is your answer,” Dan said, gesturing her into the house. “I need to talk to Mom.”
    John’s smile vanished. “It better not be about your great-grandfather.”
    “It isn’t.” This time.
    “Fresh coffee in the kitchen,” John said to Carly. “You want some, Dan?”
    “No thanks. This will be short and sweet.” I hope.
    Dan went through the kitchen to the attached greenhouse. The temperature was about that of the kitchen. The humidity was higher.
    “Hi, Mom,” he said, hugging her briefly. “Lucia. How are the kids?”
    “Healthy and in school,” she said, rolling her eyes in relief. “Your mother’s medicines are such a help.”
    “They can be.” Dan’s smile vanished as he looked at his mother. “Or they can hurt.”
    Diana drew in a sharp, shocked breath.
    “Who supplies you and Winifred with opiates for your medicines?” he asked. “Armando?”
    Lucia made a small sound.
    “What do you know of opiates?” Diana asked.
    “A lot more than you want to hear.” He glanced at Lucia. “Isn’t that right?”
    She flushed and looked away.
    “Armando told you, didn’t he?” Dan pressed.
    She nodded slightly.
    “What?” Diana asked. “What are you talking about?”
    “Part of my work includes tracking black money,” Dan said evenly. “Illegal money. The kind Armando Sandoval and his kin make butt-loads of smuggling Mexican brown or Colombian cocaine, depending on which branch of the family he’s working with on a load.”
    Diana shrugged. Everyone knew what Armando did. “So?”
    “So when I got too close, his Colombian kin put out a contract on me.” Absently Dan rubbed his left leg. “The story about a climbing accident was just that, a story.”
    This time Diana wasn’t the only one who made a shocked sound. Carly had been standing in the doorway, listening. Her eyes were wide and horrified.
    Lucia crossed herself and looked at the floor in shame. “Lo siento.”
    He knew she was sorry, just as he knew she loved her husband anyway. She had walled herself off from reality until she was able to see Armando only as her man and the father of her children.
    “It has nothing to do with you,” Dan said, touching Lucia briefly. “But it has everything to do with my question.”
    “Why?” John asked coolly. “Have you come to arrest your mother on drug charges?”
    “You know better.”
    “Then why do you care? She doesn’t use enough opiates to make a blip on anybody’s radar.”
    “I’ve been assuming that Carly was the target of the drugging at Sylvia’s memorial service,” Dan said. “But it could have been me. Armando could have figured this would be a good, clean shot at finishing the contract.”
    Lucia put her hands over her ears and shook her head. “No! He said nothing about that. He just laughed when I said you were hurt climbing. I hear that laugh before. I know it has to do with…business.”
    Dan looked at his mother. The darkness in her eyes made him wish he hadn’t opened his mouth. “You and Winifred share the same source for opiates.”
    “Yes,” Diana said. “Alma.”
    “She certainly would have had the opportunity,” Carly said from the doorway. “But she was sick, too, wasn’t she?”
    “ Sí. Yes,” Lucia said.
    “I never ask where Alma gets her medicines,” Diana said. “Ultimately, I suppose it is Armando.”
    “Medicines.” Dan’s lips turned down. “Hell of a name for it.”
    “The way I use opiates is medicine, just as it was before Anglo laws changed what was legal and what wasn’t, but didn’t change poverty and disease. Los curanderos exist because there is a need. We use what we have always used, the gifts of the land, poppy and peyote, morning glory and mushroom.” Diana’s dark eyes glittered with anger and impatience. “No Anglo law will change that.”
    It was an old argument, one that wasn’t going anywhere new, especially as Dan didn’t really disagree.
    “The point is that someone put an overdose of opiates in the cups we all drank at the memorial service,” Dan said.
    Diana’s hand went to her throat. “But I heard it was the food.”
    “No, it was an attempt to murder Carly or, maybe, me. Since no one has notified me about a new death threat, I have to assume Carly was the target. At least, until Armando tells me otherwise.” Dan looked at Lucia.