“Thanks for coming over, by the way. You said something about Leonora’s camera in your message? Did you find it?”
“It’s a little bit more complicated than that,” she said, holding the glass with two hands and peering down at it. “Leonora has gone missing, and I think it’s because of that camera.”
“What do you mean?”
“She hasn’t come home. I have reason to believe she had some pictures which would have been…compromising. Pictures of the Hawks.”
She looked up at him, trying to gauge his response. He didn’t appear surprised. “Did she talk to you about that?” he asked.
Rubén had told her not to mention him, so she nodded.
“What else did she say?”
“She only said that. Nothing more. I don’t know what it means. I’m worried, and I was thinking maybe you might be able to explain what’s happening.”
Emilio sighed and sat down on the velvet couch while Maite carefully sat on one of the bubble chairs, leaning forward, grasping her glass tight as she took a sip. She wondered if he liked her dress. Maybe it was too short. Maybe she looked like an idiot. She discreetly tugged at the hem with her free hand, attempting to pull it down a little and cover her knees.
“It’s hard to explain. Last week Leonora told me she was thinking of visiting a journalist friend of mine who lives in Cuernavaca. She doesn’t have a car, so she needed a ride. But I was busy and couldn’t take her, and in the end she didn’t truly seem interested in going, so I thought that was the end of that.”
“But then you went to see her last weekend and she wasn’t around,” Maite said.
“Yes. That’s when I realized she’d gone to see Lara after all. She must have obtained a ride from someone else.”
“You came for a camera. Did you know it had compromising photos?”
Emilio nodded gravely. “That’s why I wanted it. Because I was afraid of what Leonora might do with it. I was afraid she’d change her mind and visit Lara.”
“And she did.”
“She must have.”
“What’s so terrible about the pictures?”
“I haven’t seen them, she wouldn’t let me, and she was cryptic about them, but what she did mention worried me. It’s a dangerous climate out there, and Leonora…Leonora doesn’t understand how dangerous it is, and those friends of hers…well, they’re very dangerous too.”
“You mean Jackie?”
“You know her?” Emilio asked.
Maite traced the rim of the glass with her index finger. “No. I haven’t met her. But I know she’s an activist.”
“An activist. That’s a nice way of putting it. We have a problem in Mexico. You only have to look around for five minutes to see that. Poverty, instability, corruption. I agree with that. A lot of people do. We need change. Jackie and people like her want to solve these problems through an armed revolution. She’s read Guevara and Marighella. You remember a few months ago, they captured those terrorists who attacked a bank in Morelia? That’s what Jackie wants to do.”
“I’m not sure what that has to do with Leonora.”
“Leonora idolizes Jackie. It’s Jackie this and Jackie that. Leonora has an uncle who was in the military. He’s a well-connected guy. And I think through him she got those compromising pictures of the Hawks and wanted to give them to a journalist, to Lara. But I told her to reconsider.”
“Why?”
“Because it could get her into a lot of trouble. What if someone came after her? What if she was painting herself into a target? I said she needed to be ready for this. I actually worry about her. Unlike Jackie. She’d have Leonora go into a ring with an angry bull.”
She didn’t know what to say. She gulped down her water instead. Finally, she managed a few words. “Sounds like you don’t believe in Jackie’s cause…in…in this change.”
Emilio smiled charmingly and shook his head. He stood up and took her empty glass from her hands. Their fingers touched for a moment, then he was placing the glass back on the side table.
“Change should come peacefully. We need a more educated nation, we need to come to agreements. President Echeverría has said he is willing to have conversations. He’s different from Ordaz, he’s more open. Conversations can’t take place when you have folks like Jackie trying to kidnap businesspeople and rob banks. I don’t trust Jackie.”
Emilio leaned back against the table and crossed his arms, grimacing. “God knows what she might have told Leonora to do,” he muttered.
