made a dismissive sound. “The landlines are down, probably destroyed like the rest of the city.”
“Border Patrol is monitoring scanner traffic. They set up defensive positions at the main points. They’re preparing for a mass crossing.”
“They aren’t stupid. The cartels won’t cross tonight.” Sergio’s voice caught. “Thirteen people murdered. One police officer in critical condition. It’s territory and drug routes. Always what it comes to.”
Josie listened in silence as Sergio went on, listing one horrible act after another. She stared down at the river and wondered how long before the chaos spilled over the banks and into the U.S.
After Sergio calmed somewhat, Josie called Otto, dialing his cell phone to keep the radio frequency clear. “Where are you?” she asked.
“Intersection of River Road and Scratchgravel.”
“Any noise?”
“Nothing. It’s too quiet now.”
“Everything’s shut down,” she said. She raised her binoculars again and scanned the city, almost deserted at an hour when third-shift and first-shift workers should have been passing in the streets. An underground system of communication, neighbor to neighbor, spread information throughout the city when trouble started. Lights went out; windows and doors shut. Piedra Labrada went into lockdown.
The radio on Josie’s belt hissed. Lou Hagerty said, “Forty-two twenty-two, location check.”
“Rio watchtower,” Josie replied.
“Mayor Moss requests all units to the Trauma Center, stat.”
* * *
Josie hooked her backpack over her arms and took the wooden stairs that zigzagged down the fifty-foot descent as quickly as she could. Lou had not been provided any details, and Josie dreaded to find out what lay ahead. She shoved her department-issued jeep into four-wheel drive and sped toward the center of town via a dried-up arroyo that also served as a county road. The smell of baked earth and desert scrub blew in through her open window.
The radio forecaster said the overcast sky held no hope for rain and little chance of lowering the record-breaking temperatures. Looking in her rearview mirror Josie noticed the wall of dust she stirred up, and ran her tongue across her lips, tasting the layer of fine sand that coated her skin. The heat had the locals wishing for the monsoon season, but it would be dangerous when it hit. The ground was so hard and dry, the water would wash down arroyos like this one to the Rio, flooding everything in its path.
* * *
The Artemis Trauma Center was located south of the center of town, near a neighborhood of small cinder block homes. As she pulled up, Josie saw the mayor’s white pickup truck enter the empty lot, dingy under the charcoal-colored sky. He parked in front of the center’s entryway, climbed out of the truck, and approached Josie like a drill sergeant. He was a short stocky man with an underbite like a bulldog’s.
“An ER surgeon from El Paso is on his way. He was already on call in Marfa, so he should be here within a half hour. Two scrub nurses should be here any minute. They’ll start setting up for surgery.” Moss’s voice was clipped and too loud for the silent parking lot.
“What’s going on?” Josie felt her face flush in irritation.
He pointed toward the door. “Let’s get inside. We shouldn’t be out here.”
Josie grabbed his shoulder as he turned from her. “Has someone been shot?”
He glared at her and turned back toward the building, forcing Josie to follow behind him.
* * *
The Trauma Center was a one-story brick rectangle with a glass front door and green awning above it. The building housed the town’s Health Department and a one-room surgical unit that had been paid for with a Homeland Security grant the previous year. Artemis supported one family doctor and now a trauma unit, thanks to the drug cartels pushing north.
Using a key from a silver ring with at least a hundred other labeled keys, Moss unlocked the door and pushed it open, flipping on the entry lights to the left of the door, obviously familiar with the building. For the past ten years, he had micromanaged every agency in town, down to the bid orders for paper towels and toilet paper. He ran Artemis like a city manager, at times using authority he did not officially have. Moss and the city council appointed the chief of police, and he had the authority to fire Josie: a fact Moss was not above reminding her. Running unopposed gave him the type of unchallenged power that Josie worried was not in the best interest of the city.
Moss turned on a second set of lights, and fluorescent