Deadly Games - Cate Noble [24]
Gena wasn’t going to mention the jobs Lupe worked with other potentially illegal aliens. She was certain Agent Ramirez would ferret that out from other sources.
“Did she ever mention family?”
“A grandmother who lives in Mexico. She raised her. If she had other family, she never mentioned them,” Gena said. “I, um, understand the police are searching for her ex-husband.”
“Juan Carlos Del Fuego.” Ramirez flipped through his notes. “Did you ever meet him?”
“No.”
“Lupe came to the shelter seeking refuge from an abusive husband,” Helen interjected. “One of our goals is to keep the abuser away.”
“Do you know if Lupe told her grandmother where she was staying?” Ramirez shifted his gaze back toward Gena. The implication that Lupe’s grandmother then told Carlos went unsaid.
“I don’t know,” Gena said. I hope not. “All shelter residents are warned about the dangers of disclosing their locations, to protect others as well as themselves.”
The two agents exchanged doubtful glances. Then Ramirez handed Gena a photograph.
She had expected the subject to be Juan Carlos Del Fuego. But the person in the grainy black-and-white mug shot was Lupe. Tears stung Gena’s eyes as she realized Lupe would never look like that again.
“Can you confirm that this is the burn victim currently in ICU?” Ramirez asked. “The woman you know as Guadalupe Del Fuego?”
“That’s her.” The mug shot most likely meant Lupe had been picked up and deported before.
“Were you aware she was in the country illegally?”
“I never asked,” Gena answered honestly.
“Of course not.” Agent Ramirez’s voice had an edge, which he quickly covered. “Tell me what happened last night. When did you and Lupe arrive at the shelter?”
Gena recounted—for at least the fourth time— how she’d found the shelter vandalized early yesterday morning. “Lupe came by around eight last evening and began cleaning. She also painted several doors I had replaced.”
“Did she leave at any time? Or receive any phone calls that you know of?”
“She didn’t have a cell phone. She left about midnight, but she wasn’t gone long. Maybe a few minutes.”
“Did she say where she was headed?”
Don’t ask. Don’t tell. “No.”
“So she returned a few minutes later. Then what happened?”
“I was still in the kitchen when I heard the front door open. Lupe came in and said she saw two men near my car. She was concerned they were vandals.”
“Did she indicate that she recognized them? Or give a description?”
“No. I went to get my cell phone to call the police, while she went to make sure the front door was locked.”
Lupe, wait.
“So she was in the front part of the house when it caught fire?” Ramirez asked.
The memory had Gena shutting her eyes. The force of the blast had knocked Gena backward, onto the rear porch. She’d dashed back inside and found the kitchen engulfed in flames.
Lupe had crawled across the floor, screaming.
Gena had used her bare hands to extinguish Lupe’s clothes. Then she half dragged, half carried Lupe out the back door. To the yard.
Another explosion sounded. The propane tank next door. Gena huddled over Lupe to shield her from the debris. A fireman came up and yanked her away. “You’re hurt! See the paramedics.”
But Gena had refused to let anyone treat the minor cuts and burns she’d suffered. “Save her! Save Lupe!”
Gena became aware that Helen offered a tissue. She took it and blew her nose, ignoring the closed look on Agent Ramirez’s face.
“I believe that covers it for now.” Agent Ramirez tugged out his vibrating cell phone. “Excuse us.”
No sooner had the two agents moved away than there was a flurry of activity at the nurses’ station. Beepers and buzzers sounded in ICU.
“Code Blue.”
Gena overheard the medical emergency code. Lupe!
She rushed to the double-door entrance to the ICU. Already the corridor beyond was filled with nurses and techs, rushing to Lupe’s bedside. What was going on? How bad was it?
Suddenly Gena was being