“How much?”
“Dinner tonight at Memo’s. Radney Foster’s back in town and is going to be there playing some new songs, too.”
Hunter said, “Oh, I like me some Radney. You’re on.” They travelled in silence for a bit, enjoying the sun through the windows and glimpses of the clean, blue-green water as they approached the long bridge over Amistad Lake. Both of them noticed a sedan coming at a high rate of speed on a side road that intersected the highway, and Hunter said, “They’re coming fast, Norma.”
“I see them.” She slowed down as the car slid onto the highway with a squeal of tires before weaving in several S patterns and lining out in the passing lane, driving toward the lake bridge.
Hunter motioned with her hand, and said, “Get up there, let’s take a look.”
Norma accelerated in the right-hand lane to move up. The distance to the bridge closed fast as Hunter leaned forward in the seat and looked beyond Norma at the passenger in the sedan.
It took a moment before the people in the sedan noticed them, but it gave enough time for Hunter and Norma to see the child’s head lolling around and smearing a wet, dark brown streak on the side window. “That’s not good,” Hunter said. “Get closer and honk your horn.”
Norma honked as Hunter leaned across her and showed the two women in the sedan her badge.
Norma said, “That badge isn’t gonna work.”
“It might,” She yelled out Norma’s open window, “Pull over!”
Instead, the sedan accelerated to get on the two-lane bridge first and moved side to side to keep Norma from pulling beside them again. Norma called in on her phone to the Border Patrol station dispatcher and told them what was happening. The sedan kept the two female Agents behind them, until halfway across the bridge.
Hunter said, “I think they snatched that baby, otherwise why dye her hair in a moving car?”
“I asked on the phone, you heard me. The dispatcher said there’s no traffic about a kidnapping. But something’s not right.”
Without warning, the sedan slammed on the brakes in front of them and slid to a squealing stop as blue smoke boiled from the tires.
Norma stood on her brakes and they slid toward the sedan, coming to a final, rocking halt three feet from the car.
The instant the car came to a standstill, Sofia opened her passenger door and took several steps with the blanket-wrapped child, walking to the edge of the bridge.
She looked once at Hunter, then tossed the child over the railing to the lake far below.
Hunter’s mouth dropped open.
Norma yelled, “Oh my God!”
Hunter shoved open her door and vaulted over the rail into space.
The lake surface glistened seventy feet below, and Hunter’s stomach flopped as she flailed her arms to change her body’s angle, hoping to hit the water with the soles of her feet.
She chanced a quick glance to where the child hit. Frothy white bubbles laced the surface and there was a hint of something small below the waterline. Hunter stiffened and closed her eyes an instant before impact, but still hit on her feet hard enough to click her teeth together before plummeting into the depths of the lake like an arrow until the water’s friction slowed her to a stop.
Bubbles like a thousand pearls surrounded her and rose through the clear green water toward the surface, pacing her as she kicked for the light. Her ears felt the pressure, and it was cold. She’d felt it when she went through the warmer top layer of water to the colder, deeper layer beneath.
Through the water, she saw a blanket-wrapped bundle sinking into the depths as slow as a waterlogged tree branch. A tiny hand pushed out of the blankets, frantically jerking as if trying to swim.
Hunter swam through the water toward the baby as it plummeted into the gloom, and she reached the toddler before it sank another five feet. She pulled the blankets from her and let them sink, with their edges fluttering in a motion like the wings of manta rays. Hunter held the struggling girl with one arm and kicked toward the surface.
As soon as their heads broke into the air, Hunter treaded water and checked her. The child wasn’t responsive. Hunter turned her on her back and continued treading, using her legs and feet to keep both of them afloat. Putting one hand on the center of her back, she lifted the child so her small chest and face was above water. Hunter put her other hand on the child’s body to do chest compressions when the girl coughed and vomited out a cup of water. She blinked her eyes and looked around, still frightened and looking for her mother.
Hunter said, “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”
“Donde esta mi Mami? Donde?”
“Vamos a hallárla. No tienes miedo.”
“Mi Mami?”