attract too much attention, but large enough to make RideWorks a nice fat supplementary income."
She raised her hands slowly off the table. "I - don't - know. I don't know anything about that."
I looked at the kids. They'd each gotten another plastic egg from the machine and were prying them open.
"You take it for granted," Ines said hoarsely.
I refocused on her. Her face was hard as copper.
"What?"
"That you can have a child like Jem someday," she said. "Raise him without seeing him shot in the crossfire, without having him go on lookout for the locos at age five. You can be in a place where they don't keep the needles and the baby bottles in the same cabinet, have a spouse who isn't in jail for murder or dealing. You take that for granted."
"I take it for granted you'd kill to protect Michael from your past."
"Oh, you're right. You're absolutely right. That's the difference between me and Sandra Mara. I would kill to protect my son."
"How's your batting average so far?"
Ines shook her head, as if she were disappointed in me. "I won't lie to you. I didn't feel guilty that Jeremiah Brandon got killed, or that Zeta had to flee the country. In fact, I was disappointed Zeta didn't get shot in that barroom, too. I can't say I care much if Hector and Del were moving heroin through RideWorks, either, if it bought me and my son some extra years of anonymity. None of that matters. But you think I killed my husband? Or had him killed?"
"That was my original question."
"You're wrong. Aaron was putting Michael and me in terrible danger - that's true. When Aaron wanted to move back here to San Antonio, I told him it was too much of a risk. Too many people here who might recognize me. Aaron insisted. He had all these ideas about challenging Del - getting back that damn company. He seemed to forget what Del would do if he tried. I was desperate, but I'd never - "
"You wrote those threats to the University."
"I - " She faltered. "All right. Yes. I wrote them. Aaron had brought the first letter home, the one addressed to Dr. Haimer. It wasn't hard. Before I knew it I'd sent six of them."
"You thought if things got unpleasant enough, Aaron would agree to move away again, out of San Antonio."
"There had been two other offers, Tres - one in Iowa, one in Connecticut. Not wonderful jobs, but we should have gone there. We would've been safe there. But Aaron was so damned determined to come home."
"And the bomb?"
"Hector's idea, before we even knew Zeta was back in town. Hector was sure the University police would discover the bomb before it ever went off, that they'd blame it on campus radicals. Hector just wanted to convince Aaron the threats weren't idle. He didn't intend for anyone to get hurt."
"Why were you away the weekend Aaron was shot?"
"We'd found out Zeta was back in San Antonio. Hector and I were both insane with fear. Hector told me to get out of town for a while."
" - so you couldn't be implicated. Hector was timing a murder."
"No," Ines insisted. The word was a little shrill. "He swore to me. He didn't shoot Aaron."
"Then who?"
"God damn you, Tres. Leave it alone."
"Paloma knows," I said. "She was the witness."
"Paloma wouldn't talk to me."
"You must've guessed she was lying about Zeta being at your house that night. But you haven't pressed her too hard on that point, have you?"
Ines flattened her hands on the Formica. "No. I haven't."
"You knew she was lying to protect you. You figured if somebody had to go down for Aaron's death, it might as well be your husband."
"Zeta isn't my husband anymore. Why can't you see that?"
The waitress came to our table, sensed the tension, took a step back. She asked skeptically if we were finished with our food. We said we were. She slowly loaded our plates onto her tray. She smelled of black-eyed peas.
"I'll bring y'all the check." Before leaving, she shot me a chastising look.
"Those are two cute boys over there."
The old couple at the next table had gotten up and were shuffling toward the door. The margarita-drinkers on the opposite side of the room kept doing their best to ensure prizewinning hangovers for the following morning.
Jem and Michael were making a pretty good dent in my quarter supply now. Their