Tears And Blood

....

Emilio walks down the stairs, carrying a shopping bag until he comes to a Laundromat. Emilio loads laundry from the shopping bag into a machine, puts in the coins, then sits down on a bench to watch the cycle. It looks like he is talking to himself.

"Safe?" And then we see he is talking to...

"On my end. You?"

"Safe. What do we have?" Emilio takes a manila envelope out of the bag. Places it on the seat next to him and Cat picks it up, looking through it.

"You remember the guy who was in the news for running that Ponzi scheme about a year ago?" The cover features WILLIAM WOOGARD, 45, the most unassuming, baldheaded, pudgy faced man, a nerd. Under the headline: He disappeared fifty billion dollars. The money was never recovered. Skipped out and bought himself citizenship on some shit hole of a Caribbean island that calls itself a country with no extradition laws. Lot of very pissed off people lost everything.

Cat goes to get up, about to leave.

"There's something else." He slaps the newspaper down with Rizzo's picture on the front page. "How long has this been going on?"

"Not long." Cat says, shrugging as if it was nothing and sitting back down.

"The paper says twenty two. All like this. Tell me why."

"No reason."

"Since you're a kid, you don't do anything for no reason. Don't play dumb, it insults me."

"I've got to get ready." As she goes to rise, Emilio grabs her hand.

"It's not just you in this. It's me, Mama."

"Tio. You're removed. You book the work, you collect the fees..."

"I watch your ass. Each and every job, I vet, I double vet. For every one I book you, I turn down five, ten. I promised to keep you safe. I KEEP YOU SAFE. Cataleya. It's a full time job, no matter what you think. Those pictures...they freaked me out. OK? I didn't realize..."

"I come to you at nine. I say I want to be a killer. What kind of kid makes a career choice like that unless they have something on their mind. I live for the day that the blood of the son of bitch who did my parents drips in the gutter."

"Stop playing the innocent with me. You know this. Forever. Sure. Of course. But the way you're playing it. They even have a name for you. The Tag killer. I would have stopped it a long time ago. Had I known about this. Why? Because I love you." Cat smiles. A smile that could melt ice in winter. But a knowing smile. A 'Don't bullshit a bullshitter' smile.

"If you do, you would never have let me get involved in the first place." The truth of her words deprive him of his. She kiss him on the forehead, "I love you too." And she exits, leaving Emilio more concerned. He looks down at the picture.

□□■■□□

Ross is at his computer, staring at the screen and the orchid, alongside a map of Colombia and the specific region where the Cataleya is found. He thinks.

"OK. Let's try...organization..."He types. Data comes up. And what he sees stuns him... A folder marked CIA: CONFIDENTIAL. ACCESS DENIED. "Fuck..."

□□■■□□

A ramshackle warehouse, it's windows streaked opaque with years of dust and grime, surrounded by a fence, and a weedy garden which is home to dozens of the most unique wind chimes of all sizes and shapes, made from scrap metal. And two of the biggest, most ferocious dogs on Earth, laying on their sides, asleep.

The dog's ears perk up; hearing something anyone else wouldn'td, a low growl begins to rumble deep in their throats. The gate to the garden begins to open, and like a shot the dogs are up, hurling themselves toward the opening gate, eyes flashing, barking loud enough to scare the dead back to life, fangs bared, ready to kill. And then they stop cold when they see who it is coming into their domain. Holding two very full shopping bags.

"Hi guys." The dogs jump all over her, licking her. "Hey! Hey!" She pets them and plays with them. "OK. OK. Now sit." The dogs obey her in a heartbeat, sitting expectantly. Not making a sound, "Now let's see what good boys you can be."

She reaches into one of the shopping bags and pulls out two roasts top cut sirloin. She puts them down on ground in their bowls and the dog's eyes go to the chunks of meat.

"Nice, huh?" The dogs can barely contain themselves. Red, juicy, delicious. The dogs whimper in anticipation, "Stay."

She picks up the shopping bags, and heads for the ramshackle warehouse. The dogs whimper, but do not move, their eyes going from the meat to Cat. Cat reaches the door. Turns. She sees the dogs looking at her.

"Good boys. Eat." The dogs pounce. Each one grabs a roast and tears into the meat with ferocious, pent up glee. Cat smiles at the sight and enters the warehouse.

The warehouse, is filled with piles of rusting scrap metal, the cannibalized carcasses of cars, trucks, shipping containers, welding equipment, hammers tongs, all sorts of tools. In the corner is one fully built truck, a big red monster with huge demolition fenders. This is home to OLD PEPE, an ancient, blind man, who is working away, building yet another set of oversized chimes out of scrap metal.

"Hola Cataleya."

"Hola Pepe. I guess the boys gave me away."

"Anyone else? The barking would only have stopped when their screaming began. You spoil them."

"I train them."

"If that's what you want to call it." Cat kisses Pepe and taps one of the chimes, it makes the most ethereal sound as one chime bangs against the other. She opens a cupboard in the makeshift kitchen area, and starts unpacking the groceries.

"Did you get the beans I like?"

"Of course."

"And the salsa Verde?"

"And the salsa Verde."

"Not the one in the short bottle. The long one. I hate that other one, the chili they use sucks. Did you see your uncle?"

"Of course." She moves from the kitchen and walks across to the far wall. "We're going to church for Easter. As always. And you?"

"Not this year." Until she reaches a big discarded safe, taller than her, with an impregnable door.

"As always. You should, you know."

"I should do a lot of things." She turns the combination knob.

"You could start with that one. It would make us very happy.

"Maybe next year." The door opens, reveals shelves with dozens of passports, and stacks of cash.

"Cataleya. No one knows what happens tomorrow, next year is a long time away. How was your trip?"

Cat starts to remove some of the cash. Starts to count it. Stick it in her pocket.

"Rewarding." She takes a passport out.

"Passport?"

"Your ears are better than my eyes." She tells him.

" You work too much. I keep telling that to Emilio. The girl should have a life while she is still young enough to enjoy it. You should take a vacation. Go some place warm. With a nice beach." 

"  Good idea."  She says, grabbing a passport and slamming the big safe door shut