Last Summer of the Death Warriors Read Online Free PDF Page A

that swung when she moved her head. Pancho thought that if you erased the green eye shadow, washed the rose cheeks, and wiped off the orange lipstick, she could almost make it to pretty.
    “What will happen to the trailer?” she asked, blowing out a stream of smoke.
    “They’re going to sell it.”
    “You get to keep the money?”
    “Someday, maybe. I need to ask you something.”
    “What is it?” She looked alarmed. She shifted in her chair, placed the purse on the table, and then grabbed it again. “Want to go outside? It stinks in here.”
    “I gotta go back,” he said. He fixed his eyes on her. “Was Rosa seeing someone?”
    He could see her swallow. She licked her lips. Her teeth were smudged with lipstick. She spoke without looking at him. “Why do you ask?”
    “She was found in a motel room. Someone was with her. Whoever was with her, killed her.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I know.” He didn’t want to tell her how he knew.
    “I know in many ways she was a child, you know, mentally, but she was an adult too. A woman. She had a right to her private life.”
    “I need to know who she was with that night. Did you ever see her with anyone?”
    “I thought the police said there was no crime committed.”
    “Rosa’s not important to the police. Did the police ever ask you anything? Did they even come talk to you or anyone here where she worked? Did they even try to find out who she was with?”
    “No.”
    “I’m asking now.”
    She put both feet on the ground and leaned forward. “I askedher. One day she came up to me and said she didn’t need a ride. Someone was taking her home. I said, ‘Who’s taking you home, Rosa?’ and she said, ‘My boyfriend.’ I asked her who it was, but she didn’t say. She used to walk out at eleven and meet him down the block. I mean, I don’t know, you have to respect a girl’s privacy…if that’s what she wants.”
    “You never saw him?”
    “Not really saw him. One time I was going home and I saw her getting into a red truck with a man. I never saw his face because he was leaning to open the door for her. He didn’t have much hair, just some around the sides. He looked like an older guy. An Anglo—I could tell by the top of his head. That’s all I saw, Rosa getting into a red truck with some old guy.” She thought about it for a minute. “There was something written on the door of the truck—something or other ‘and Sons.’ Oh, and the truck had a silver toolbox. It looked like he worked in construction or something.”
    “‘And Sons’?”
    “Yeah. I wish I could remember the first part, but I know it ended with ‘and Sons.’”
    “Did Rosa ever mention a name?”
    “A couple of times she started to tell me. She seemed happy and you could tell she wanted to girl-talk about him, but then she’d hold back, like all of a sudden she’d remember she wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
    “She must have met him here. Where else would she meet him? Did you ever see her talking to anyone?”
    “She talked to everyone. Everyone loved Rosa.” She reached over and touched his knee. He pulled his leg away from her. “Shewas special, delicate, you know. It was like she didn’t belong in this world, like any day she’d leave us and go back to heaven.”
    Pancho chuckled. Julieta’s words reminded him of what his father used to say about Rosa. Es una angelita que nos presto Dios. She’s a little angel on loan to us from God.
    “Want some ice tea?”
    “I got to go back,” he said. Then he thought of something else he wanted to ask. He deliberated for a moment. “There was a boy in the foster home where I got kicked out. His name was Reynolds.” He paused. “He said some things about Rosa. At first I thought he was just saying them to piss me off. But he knew who she was and where she worked.”
    “Ohh.” She covered her mouth with her hand.
    “You know a kid called Reynolds?”
    “No. It’s just that…I’m afraid of what