The Governor's Wife Read Online Free PDF Page B

the river in buckets and cooked over open fires; smoke rose into the sky in thin spires. An enormous pile of smoldering refuse stood tall near the river; with each gust of wind, paper and plastic items broke free and danced across the dirt as if attempting an escape. Rats rummaged through the refuse. The congressman was right: this was another world. A third world.
    "How many people live here?"
    "Six thousand. Or perhaps seven."
    The women had stopped their work and the children their play, and they now stared at their visitors, as if frozen by the sight of the black Suburban and the police cars and the cameras. Or frightened. One barefooted little girl in a dirty white dress broke away and ran over to Lindsay. Her hair was stringy and gray with dirt. Her face was gaunt. She had pierced ears and dangling earrings. She carried a naked doll.
    " ¡Qué lindo el cabello! "
    "She says your hair is pretty," the congressman said. "She has probably never before seen red hair."
    Lindsay leaned down to the girl and said, " Gracias, mi amor. El tuyo también es bonito ."
    "Ah, you speak Spanish."
    "Enough to converse."
    "Juanita!"
    A woman down the road called to the child then clapped her hands.
    " ¡Venga! ¡Ándale! "
    The child twirled around and ran to the woman.
    "She is afraid," the congressman said.
    "The girl?"
    "The woman."
    "Why?"
    "Anglos. Police. Cameras."
    The woman and child disappeared. All the residents seemed to fade into the shadows. The dirt road suddenly lay vacant except for a few stray dogs and chickens. Two pigs. A goat. The colonia was now a ghost town. The congressman leaned in close and lowered his voice.
    "May I suggest, Mrs. Bonner, that the troopers and the police stay here with the vehicles. The Ranger also."
    "Why my Ranger?"
    "Well, the Texas Rangers are not … how shall I say … well regarded here on the border."
    "Why not?"
    "History, Mrs. Bonner. History."
    She turned to the police. "Please stay here."
    They didn't argue.
    She turned to her Ranger. "You, too."
    He did argue.
    "But, ma'am—"
    "Ranger Roy—"
    She felt utterly stupid calling her Texas Ranger bodyguard "Ranger Roy," but his surname was Rogers. Roy Rogers. Ranger Rogers was even worse than Ranger Roy.
    —"if these people fear us, we won't accomplish what we came here for today."
    "Mrs. Bonner, your safety requires that I accompany you. The governor, he wouldn't be happy."
    Lindsay embedded her fists in her hips and craned her head up at Ranger Roy. He was a strapping young man of twenty-eight; he had played football at UT. He had been her bodyguard for her husband's entire second term; he had become something of a son to her. A very large son. She had no doubt he'd die before seeing her harmed.
    "Who would you rather have unhappy with you—the governor or me?"
    Ranger Roy had faced that same choice many times. He knew the wise answer.
    "Uh, yes, ma'am, I'll wait here."
    "Thank you." She gestured to the press crew. "Let's talk to these people."
    They stood as if embedded in the dirt. A burly TV cameraman smoking a cigarette shook his head.
    "No way. My producer didn't say nothing about going into the colonias . And we sure as heck ain't going in there without the cops."
    "Why not?"
    "Because this colonia is controlled by the Los Muertos cartel."
    " Controlled? This is America."
    He snorted like a bull, and smoke shot out of his nostrils.
    "No, Mrs. Bonner, everything on this side of the wall, it's just a suburb of Mexico." He jabbed a fat finger at the vast colonia that confronted them. "Ma'am, you go in there, you might never come out—you can't even call nine-one-one 'cause there ain't no phone service out here, landline or cell."
    Congressman Delgado must have noticed her face flushing with her spiking blood pressure; he took Lindsay's arm.
    "Come, let me show you the river."
    They walked away, but she heard the cameraman grumbling behind her back.
    "Don't see why I gotta risk my life just 'cause some diva from Austin—"
    "Shut