Page 47

CHAPTER 45

GARZA DROVE HIS vehicle at normal speed and took a left turn from 22nd into an alley that ran behind the row houses. He parked two blocks away, near a different row of two-hundred-year-old cupcake houses.

There was no traffic and no one in sight when Garza got out of his truck, unlatched the tailgate, and pulled several items from the bed: a hand rake, pruning shears, and a machete. He put the tools into a canvas bag.

After slinging the strap across his shoulder, Garza walked along the alley behind the row houses, avoiding a swing set, a trampoline, and a shed with a sign on the door reading GIRLS ONLY . Security cameras would pick up a bent, brown-skinned gardener in worn jeans, a hooded sweatshirt showing at the neckline of his blue peacoat, and a knit cap pulled down over his ears.

Garza stopped at the rear door of number 1848.

He listened for shouts, or the barking of dogs. Hearing only a distant sound of someone playing a 1980s hit music station, Garza removed a chisel from his coat pocket and popped the old lock on the ground level back door. The hinges creaked as he pulled the door open a few inches.

No alarm sounded. Sandy, Garza assumed, had forgotten to double bolt the doors or set the alarm. He stepped inside a dim, dusty utility space. Hefting the bag of tools, he closed the door and was in total darkness.

Within a couple of steps, Garza tripped over something like a metal pipe, the metallic clanking against the concrete floor sending a spear of panic through him as he fell to the ground. But he got his hands out in front of him, breaking his fall, and then he lay still. He listened until he was sure that no warning sounds were coming from inside the house.

Garza’s eyes adjusted to the dark. He moved the pipe out of the way and secreted the machete between two side-by-side shelving units. He thought about what the two men in his crew were doing, how his boy was making out, the number of hours until his target came home divided by how long it would take him to drive back to Guadalajara.

Tiago Garza peeled off his coat, tossed it to the floor, and, using it as padding against the cold concrete, settled in for a rest. It would be at least ten hours before his target came home and went through his nightly routine.