Jorge Laquidera was getting quite impatient.-It had been almost three weeks since he had sent out the nine men to try to locate Ramon and they still hadn’t found a trace of him.-If they didn’t find him by the end of the week, he would take some more drastic measures.-He wasn’t sure just what, but he wanted results not today; not even yesterday; but last week.-If his men found out that they could just up and quit whenever they wanted to, he’d soon have nobody working for him any more.-His boss wouldn’t like that either.-And making him unhappy was not an option.-Carl Forrester would soon be telling him if he couldn’t do his job, he would find someone who could.-His boss had sent one of his men, Faron Whitehead, up to check on things so he knew he was getting impatient, also.-Whitehead was traveling in style, too.-He had driven up to Owensboro from Houston in a long, black Lincoln Town Car.-It almost looked like a limousine as long as it was.
Gabbert had called the day before and said they had made numerous inquiries in and around Dundee; but neither he nor Matthews nor Perez had even a hint that Mendez was anywhere in the area.-Likewise, Rojas, Sanchez and Mendoza had nothing positive to report from the Hartford area.-Garcia reported that he and Norton had checked all around Fordsville and they seemed to be the only Mexican workers around anywhere.
“You didn’t mention Alvarez.-What did he report?”
“Well, Boss, it’s like this.-He worked with us for about a week or ten days for a man named Frank Tinsley in the logwoods.-And we haven’t seen him since.-We’ve been kinda looking for him, too, but he seems to have disappeared, also.”-Garcia hated to inform on Alvarez but he knew he would catch the brunt of the boss' anger if he didn’t report it.-He had already waited longer than he should have to tell Laquidera about Alvarez’ absence.
“Listen to me!-I want both of them found.-We’ll have to make examples of both of them.-They know too much; if we don’t find them and shut them up, we could all end up in jail.-Find them!-Now!-You hear me?”
Garcia was sure glad he had reported on the phone instead of in person.-Even from thirty miles away, he could almost see how angry Laquidera was and how red his face was.-The boss sure didn’t like to be crossed.-
“I guess we’re going to have to ask some more pointed questions, Norton,” he told his buddy after he hung up the phone.-“The boss is even angrier that Alvarez is missing than he is about Mendez, I think.-Come on, we’ve got another load of lumber to take over to where that guy, O’Reilly, is building his new house.-Then we’ll need to think of other ways to look for both of them.”-Garcia would have been even more concerned if he could have seen the hotel room after Jorge had finished having his temper tantrum.-He had put his booted foot through the glass-topped coffee table.-He had thrown both end table lamps against the wall and a pretty mantel clock and a beautiful vase full of roses lay in pieces on the floor.-His stream of curse words ranged from Spanish to English and back to Spanish.
Faron Whitehead sat unconcernedly as Laquidera vented his anger.-He had seen fits before and he recognized that a lot of the display was for his benefit so he could report back to Forrester that he had shown "power and leadership."-He also recognized that Laquidera was in enough control of his faculties to avoid causing any harm to Whitehead.-So he had sat quietly until the demonstration was finished.
"I hope you're not expecting the boss to pay for your destruction here," he said evenly.-"And, I certainly hope you can manage to accomplish more with your men than you have here toward solving the problem."
Jorge realized he may have overdone it a bit and he assured Whitehead that the damages would be taken care of without any cost to the drug lords.
Back in Fordsville, Norton had been thinking.
“You know, I think I know why Alvarez cut out," Norton said.-"He asked me one time what I thought the boss would do when he found Mendez.”
“What did you tell him?”-Garcia had wondered too.
“I told him I’d be surprised if Jorge didn’t kill him.-He seemed surprised and upset and the next day was the last time I saw him.”
“Well, there’s no doubt now what he intends to do.-Laquidera told me he would have to make examples of both of them.-He said if they talked, we’d all go to jail so we couldn’t afford to take that chance.”
“The heroin smuggling business is fairly profitable but sometimes I’d be just as happy working at something that paid less if it was safer.”
“I wouldn’t say that in many places nor very loudly, if I were you, Norton.”