The Replacement Child - By Christine Barber Page 0,90
heroin—so therefore any deal struck with Detective Montoya is null and void. I also must inform you that we will be filing drug-trafficking charges against you based on that information.”
Morales had told them that Mrs. Baca bought heroin from him a few times a year. “Drug addiction runs in the family,” was all Phillips said to Gil as they left the interrogation room.
Gil got into his car and tried to wrap his head around what Morales had said. Did it make sense? Had Gil seen anything to suggest that Mrs. Baca did drugs?
Northern New Mexico is the heroin capital of the United States. And nothing done by any government agency had ever done much to cut away at its power. In tiny towns across the area, almost every family had lost members to drug overdoses. Some entire families had been addicted for four or five generations.
It wasn’t unheard of in villages like Española for the mother to be in charge of doling out the heroin for the family. He had heard story after story about addicts who’d been given their first shots by their mothers. It was common to hear addicted mothers say that since their children were going to do drugs either way, they might as well learn how to do it right. The mothers considered it part of their familial duty.
Gil pulled up in front of the Baca house and knocked on the door. Mrs. Baca opened the door in her bathrobe. She looked like she had been sleeping. The house was hot. He took off his jacket and went in search of the thermostat. It was set on ninety. He turned it down to seventy and followed Mrs. Baca into Melissa’s room. The bedcovers were messed up; Mrs. Baca must have changed beds during the night.
Gil was starting to lose his patience with her. While her pain was palpable, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was an act. Was all this confusion and helplessness just a cover-up?
“Why didn’t you tell me about the heroin?” he asked almost coldly. She said nothing. “Mrs. Baca, you have to be straight with me. I have to tell the state police about this,” he said, trying to keep from sounding frustrated.
Gil considered the possibility that Mrs. Baca had played a part in Melissa’s killing. Mrs. Baca was the only one who had said that Melissa left the house at eight P.M. the night she was killed. Melissa could easily have found out about Maxine’s drug use. Could Maxine have strangled Melissa after they argued about it? It was possible. This whole time he had been looking at Mrs. Baca as an alibi for Ron, but Ron was also an alibi for her. Pollack had interviewed the neighbor, who said that he’d seen Ron and his car but never mentioned seeing Maxine. The only person who could vouch for Maxine’s whereabouts was Ron. Was he trying to protect his mother by staying out of town?
Maxine started straightening the covers on Melissa’s bed. She was fixing the pillows when she said, “I did it so I would know what it had been like for him.”
“Like for who?”
Maxine continued. “He was mi hito. He was everything to me, and I let him die….” She trailed off. Gil understood—it was about Daniel.
“How often do you do drugs?” Gil asked.
She didn’t answer him. She stood still for a second, swaying, then walked past him, through the kitchen and out the back door. Gil quickly followed. She walked into the backyard, past a swing set and a small shed, to the corner of the property marked by a fence. She stopped at a small hill of sandy dirt and dropped to her knees. She started digging, the frozen dirt not giving easily under her bare hands. As Gil stepped toward her to pull her away, he saw a syringe sticking out of the newly dug earth.
Gil called the crime-scene techs out to the Bacas’ backyard. They unearthed a few dozen syringes, a half-dozen spoons, and hundreds of small plastic bags of heroin. Gil kept trying to get Mrs. Baca out of the cold, but she refused to go inside. She sat watching them with a strange look on her face.
Pollack showed up a few minutes later. He pulled Gil aside, saying, “Does she trust you?”
“I guess.”
“Good. Then you can go Magnum, P.I. on her.” Gil translated this to mean that he should be the one to interview Mrs. Baca.