Chapter 4 - Three Signatures
Shaw’s hand moved toward his belt before he seemed to realize what he was doing.
Mateo noticed.
So did Elena.
The old woman stepped between them.
“No guns in my bakery.”
Shaw flushed. “Nobody said anything about a gun.”
“You touched it.”
His hand dropped.
Mateo placed the lien notice on the counter and smoothed it flat.
“Why is a sheriff’s deputy witnessing a private debt transfer?”
Shaw stared at the paper. “I witness documents all the time.”
“For Wade?”
“For people in this county.”
“How many people?”
“That’s enough.”
“No,” Mateo said. “That’s the first useful question anybody has asked.”
Wade stepped into the doorway.
Shaw turned. “You need to go.”
Wade’s face tightened.
Mateo saw the shift between them. Not friendship. Not exactly.
Control.
Wade was used to Shaw cooperating.
Shaw was suddenly worried cooperation might look like evidence.
Wade pointed at Mateo. “He’s not from here anymore.”
Mateo looked at him. “I grew up three blocks away.”
“You left.”
“Still know how to read.”
Elena shut her eyes briefly.
“Mateo.”
He lowered his voice. “I’m not fighting him. I’m asking questions.”
“That’s worse,” Wade said.
Everyone looked at him.
Wade realized too late that he had said it out loud.
Mateo smiled for the first time.
“Yeah,” he said. “I think it is.”
Shaw grabbed his hat. “I’m done here. Mrs. Morales, keep things calm. Mateo, do not create a confrontation.”
“Was that official advice?”
“That was me trying to keep you out of a hospital.”
The room went still.
Shaw froze.
Mateo’s phone was still recording.
The deputy looked at it.
Then he walked out without another word.
Wade lingered.
His voice dropped low enough that only Mateo and Elena could hear.
“You’ve got six days.”
He tapped the lien notice twice.
“After that, she loses the building.”
Elena swallowed.
Wade looked at Mateo.
“And if you keep digging, she loses more than that.”
He left.
Mateo locked the door behind him.
Elena sat down hard on a plastic chair.
“You’re going back to Phoenix tonight.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand.”
She looked at him for a long time.
Then she reached beneath her apron and pulled out a tiny brass key.
“There is something your grandfather hid before he died.”
Mateo’s pulse slowed.
“What?”
May you like
Elena closed her fingers around the key.
“I think Wade has been looking for it for fifteen years.”
