Miss Bala

Chapter 12: Capybara

"Oh if you even gave a shit about Gloria, maybe you'd spend a little less time being a thug, and a little more time being a dad."

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Chivo was sitting in an interrogation room with his face in his hands. But he immediately looked up towards the door when it opened.

Stahl.

"Where's my family?" He immediately asked. He hasn't seen Adriana or the kids since they first got picked up. That was hours ago.

"Right down the hall. My people packed a few of their things so they're very comfortable," she took a a walk around the table as she continued, "justice uses this facility to transition informants into witness protection, so it's-"

"What the-are you charging me?" He asked as she stopped right in front of him.

"No."

"Then you got to cut me loose." He said in an obvious tone.

"You need to stay here, Chivo. For your own safety."

"For my own safety?" He chuckled. Did she really have any idea who she was talking to?

"Yeah, you see, we have an eyewitness who saw two men gun down Robert Munson. Juan Ortiz was positively identified and your I.D could take a little court time but it'll happen." She explained.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Stahl was a little annoyed at the fact that he wanted to play stupid with what she just told him. She reached into the folder she brought in.

"You see, she didn't get the eyes or the nose quite right. That's why it fell short of a positive I.D." She slide the sketch drawing of himself over the table for him to see.

"I want my lawyer." He demanded while staring down the piece of paper.

"I'm sure that Las Estrellas knows that you and your family are gone. And lots of your neighbors saw you get into our big, comfortable, black sedan. No cuffs. And what, with all the inconvenience," She pulled out another piece of paper and slide it towards him, "I figured the least I could do was, uh, pay off some of those big bills of yours."

She took a seat across from him as he skimmed through the payment bills that Adriana's auntie had.

"You crazy bitch," he looked up at her, "you're setting me up as the rat."

"Unfortunately, I think it's gonna play out that way, yeah." She responded, her turn to play stupid.

"What the hell is she doing?" Deputy Hale questioned the only other agent in the room as they watched the scene from the one sided window.

"They'll know I wasn't the witness." Chivo shook his head.

"Hmm, eventually. But you see, the U.S attorney won't release the identity of the witness until pretrial and that could take weeks. I can only hold you for 48 hours." She shrugged, "now what is going to happen when I put you and your family back in town, hmm?"

"I tell them the truth."

"And maybe they believe you," she agreed, "or maybe they don't. Are you really willing to risk the life of your family on the brotherhood that this cartel has for you?"

Chivo didn't say another word as he only glared at the person in front of him, the person playing with his family's lives. His thoughts having a full blown war.

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"What of this rat trap backfires?" Hale asked Stahl as they both looked on at Chivo as he just sat in the chair. Chivo already knew they were watching him, he couldn't see through the mirror but he knew.