“Maybe when we get closer to the river and the cane, we’ll spot something.”
The closer they got to the river vega area, the less traffic there was, and far fewer tracks, and when they left the main road that curved west, their road narrowed to a two-lane trail that entered the desert brush first, then gradually gave way to the much taller green area of river cane.
The white tufted tops hissed like a whisper in the slight breeze as the slender carrizo stalks bent in the wind. The cane grew dense, with it forming an almost solid green wall along both sides of the narrow road. Hunter said, “One set of tracks besides ours.”
“We’ll see where it goes.” Norma drove easily along the loose, sandy loam soil, making sure not to become stuck in it. Five minutes later, they found where the car had been parked. Both women exited Norma’s vehicle and took a slow, methodical search of the area. Two sets of tracks showed that people approached where the car had been. Hunter said, “I think these two are our women from the bridge.”
They remained on the women’s footprints, backtracking their meandering path
across sand and a carpet of dead yellowed cane leaves that littered the open places in the cane.
Hunter said, “You see this? The one’s carrying something, and switching it from side to side, the tracks on the weighted side are deeper, and they change every so often.”
Norma said, “It’s the baby, switching it from hip to hip.” Hunter nodded. No other tracks were evident, just the two pairs of footprints. It took them ten minutes to get close enough to hear the Rio Grande gurgling ahead of them. Several other narrow paths joined the one they were on, and they showed older footprints, almost erased by insects and time, but Hunter and Norma remained on the one with the newest tracks. Hunter saw bobcat tracks on one of the others, but not much else. Here and there were piles of abandoned clothes and discarded trash where the ones who swam the river changed clothing and discarded the wet ones in an ever-growing pile left by those who crossed before.
Hunter cocked her head so her left ear was toward the hidden river, “You hear that? A boat’s coming.” The steady sound of oars in the water grew louder, and they crept through the cane, with Hunter pushing her body between the thick, tight-growing poles of pale green until she could see the river through the branches.
It was a boat made of two different colored car hoods welded together. Two young men sat in the bow and a lone older man worked the oars from the center of the craft. He sat on a handmade seat constructed of a board that ran from side to side and rested on wooden blocks cut from four-by-four posts. His oars were mismatched, and held in place by loops of baling wire at the sides of the boat. It made for noisy rowing, but the odd-looking craft made steady progress.
When the boat was less than ten feet from the shore, Norma stepped into a hole hidden under the leaves and grass, falling forward with a noisy, cane-breaking crack of carrizo and brush. “Crap!” Norma hissed.
The boatman stopped dead in the water, peering into the cane where the noise emanated, then he reversed direction and rowed toward the Mexico side of the river. The two passengers appeared nervous, as if they expected to be shot.
The boatman put the prow of the boat onto a flattened area of sandy loam and grass near a small trail that disappeared into the river brush and cane. The two men left the boat and hurried up the trail as the old man tied off his boat and, with one casual look across the river, started up the trail, disappearing into the green darkness of the cane and brush.
“Well, I don’t guess we’ll get anything out of them, huh?” Norma said.
“Not today. But I’m going over there tomorrow and see if I can find him, do some talking about his passengers and little kids.”
“I have to work tomorrow.”
“I know, but I’ll be okay. I won’t get into any trouble.”
“I hope not.”
Hunter winked at her, “Piece of cake.” She marked their GPS location on her phone, “I’ll line up on this tomorrow, and walk right on down to the old man’s boat. Easy-peasy.”
“Keep an eye out for Solomon and his people, you hear? I think he’d like to make an Agent disappear, if he had a chance.”
“Ten-four, head on a swivel.”
They watched the river flow by for several minutes before returning to their vehicle. The first thing Hunter said as they turned on the AC was, “Where are we eating tonight? I’m starving.”
“You have a tapeworm, don’t you? I’ve never seen anybody so lean who can eat so much. You’d beat the fat man from the circus at a buffet.”
“Hah! No, seriously, where are we gonna eat? I’m about to pass out here.”
Norma made a snorting sound as she drove to the highway and turned toward Del Rio, “How about Chili’s or Applebee’s?”
“They’re close, and easy.”
“And they have a bar, know what I’m sayin’? I need some refreshments this evening if I’m back in uniform tomorrow.”
“Do you know where you’re working tomorrow?”
“I’m teaming up with Brackettville. We’re gonna work some of the back roads, there’s reports of smugglers using the county roads to get around the checkpoint in Uvalde. They drive the county roads for several miles, then cut the fences and drive on ranch roads until they get far enough up, then cut the fences again and come back on a county road. They know there are sensors, so that’s why they started cutting the fences. One of the S.O. deputies will be there, too, Clay Sinclair.”
“Always nice to double team the bad guys with state and federal laws to nail them. Plus, when livestock wanders on the road through the openings in the cut fences, they have that covered, too.”