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restaurant in town. We were seated in a booth where I
could see anyone who entered. It wasn t the kind of
place where illegals and thugs would hang out, and I
was sure I would notice anyone who seemed out of
place. I was prepared to follow Cate all the way to
Austin if I had to. The sooner she was out of the
picture, the better I was going to feel. We placed our
order and snacked on breadsticks while we waited.
Did you bring the folder with you? she asked.
Yeah. It s in the car.
Why don t we look it over while we wait?
After I brought the folder back inside, she took a
couple of papers and glanced at them while I scanned
the sheet left on top. Opening her purse, she took her
glasses and a pen out to circle a few things, jotting
notes to herself in the margins. I could see her mind
working as she read.
What s this? she asked, pointing at the page.
I don t know. I can t read upside down.
Rather than hand the paper to me, she got out of
the booth and slid in next to me. Placing the paper in
front of me, she pointed to three capital letters on the
page: ABP.
That s the name of the processing plant.
American Beef and Pork.
How are they involved, other than the fact that
they hired illegals?
Everyone hires illegals, but Lena thought the
number they hired was suspicious. It s one thing to
get three or four, but they apparently had a few more
than normal.
How many more?
A couple hundred or so.
Hmm. That does seem like a lot of people
slipping through the cracks.
Lena told me some of her relatives had worked
for ABP, but they were laid off and replaced by
illegals. She was still pissed at the company, which
was why she was willing to do some investigating.
But like you said, hiring illegals isn t a big deal
in Texas. The company can always claim ignorance,
and they don t face much, if any, monetary loss for
hiring them.
According to Sarita, the number of Hispanics in
Mountain View has grown about four hundred
percent in the last few years.
How does she know that?
Said she used to teach in Mountain View before
moving to San Antonio. She suspected most of them
were illegals, but they all had papers.
Wouldn t take a genius to fake papers.
I talked to a worker from the plant who was laid
off recently. He claimed there were a lot of false
documents among the workers, but the INS doesn t
have the manpower to check them all out. Plus they
always seemed to know when the INS was planning a
raid and called in sick.
What s this? she asked, pointing to the paper in
front of her.
The letter C was written three or four times on
that page and the next one.
Some big shot with ABP. His name is in here
somewhere, I said looking through the rest of the
papers. Like I said, I haven t had time to organize all
this yet.
I finally found the page where I had jotted down a
name.
Here it is, I said. Camarena. I m pretty sure
he s C. Everyone Lena talked to mentioned him, but I
don t know what he does exactly. Lena thought he
was some kind of attorney.
Do you have his first name?
Felix.
Cate leaned back in the booth and closed her eyes.
Tired? I asked.
A little. She opened her eyes and looked at me.
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She was
sitting close to me, and I could feel the warmth of her
body through my shirt sleeve.
Well, our food will be here soon. Then you can go
back home and get rested up.
I guess so. Actually, I told Susan I was taking a
couple of days off to check on Kyle.
Susan seems like a nice woman.
She s an excellent tax attorney.
Can t beat a woman who s good at her work,
obviously wealthy, and not too bad looking. Spiffy
dresser, too. Maybe you should hook up with her.
She smiled. She s asked me to live with her.
I wasn t really surprised but wasn t sure what to
say. Congratulations.
I haven t said yes. Things have been a little hectic
lately.
It ll settle down.
How would you feel about that, Jo?
The question surprised me. Well, it s not really
any of my business, now is it.
A waitress approached carrying a large tray. Cate
returned to her side of the booth, and we waited
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