“Not even his prints. Which means someone wiped down the inside.” Grim pressed his lips into a line. “This car is basically a dud.”
“Okay...so now we know why he pulled over where he did.”
“Basically, it was an ambush.” Grim mused. “From the blood in the car, we know he was hurt—enough to be bleeding.”
“They tested it?” I asked.
“Yeah. Got the results back this morning.” Grim shrugged. “Maia had them put a rush on it.”
I invited Grim out for lunch with us and after picking up enough food for the three of us, I drove them to my place. Grim and I checked the house then sat down to call Taz, Montana and Swede on video chat.
“What you’re saying is, there isn’t enough blood in the car to say he’s dead?” Ellie asked.
I nodded. “Precisely. I think they took out his tire to make him pull over. There must have been a struggle and in order to get him out of the vehicle, they had to hurt him.”
Ellie winced.
“Any idea whotheyare?” Grim asked while shoving a fry into his mouth.
“A sniper took a shot at us at the Big Timber sign.” I confided while pouring myself some scotch.
“What?” Montana asked. “Are you alright?”
“We’re still standing.” Ellie replied.
“Okay.” Swede cut in. “You keep saying, they. Are we any closer in finding out whotheyare?”
I set my drink on the table and found the picture I had taken of the sniper’s wrist and turned it to the screen.
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Taz said.
“Araña Tóxica,” Montana muttered. “Well, shit.”
“When the Sargents fuck up.” I picked up my drink. “They do it big.”
I sat, leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes. No one spoke. It seemed there had been an unwritten rule—survive a sniper, you deserve some peace to contemplate the fragility of mortality.
Someone cleared their throat and I sat up.
“Okay,” Ellie said. “I’m going to ask. What’s Araña Tóxica?”
“It seems.” Montana began. “Your father has managed to piss off Colombia’s biggest drug cartel. Now they want to wipe every trace of him off the face of the planet.”
“How do you know that?” Ellie asked.
Taz was next to speak. “The picture Cobra showed us is of a tattoo—only the Araña Tóxica has that tattoo on their right wrist. There is a saying from the bible that they use—si tu mano derecha te ofende, la cortas.”
“I…” Ellie looked over at me. “I don’t speak Spanish—that’s Spanish, right?”
“It means—roughly, if your right hand offends you, chop it off.” I explained.
“Wait—they don’t really—well, cut off the hands of those who goes against them, right?” Ellie wanted to know. She looked from Grim to the guys on the screen.
“The Araña Tóxica is dangerous.” Grim spoke up. “They’ve been known to cut out tongues—and they have chopped off a few right arms. They are brutal. The fact your father pissed them off will not end well. So, we’re going to need you to thinkrealhard.”
“I don’t know anything about Colombia or this gang.” Ellie stressed. “Dad never discussed business—not with me anyway. He is—er was always saying shit like,it’s need to know.”
I frowned. “They’ll just keep coming.”
