"You wan' do somethin' for me?" Yolanda said. "You find out what happen to my sister."

Generally, I like to be paid for my services, but my mind flashed to little dresses in cardboard boxes. I knew what it was like to live without a mother. Besides, I was still fuming over last night's encounter with Pasqual.

"I'll look into it for you," I said.

There was a silence across the line.

"Yolanda?"

"I still here," she said. "I . . . surprise you help me."

"No problem."

"Thank you." She started to cry. "Thank you very much. I pay you-"

"Forget it."

"No, I work for you on weekends-"

"Yolanda, I live in a trailer and couldn't find anything if you cleaned up my place. Forget about paying me. Let's get back to your sister. Tell me about Jose. Martina and he got along?"

There was a very long pause. Yolanda finally said, "Jose no good. He and his brothers."

"Is Pasqual one of Jose's brothers?"

"How you know?"

I told her about my visit with Pasqual the night before, about Big-and-Fat's threat. "Has he ever killed anyone before?"

"I don' know. He drink and fight. I don' know if he kill anyone when he's drunk."

"Did you ever see Pasqual beating Martina?"

"No," Yolanda said. "I never see that."

"What about Jose?"

Another moment of silence.

Yolanda said, "He slap her mebbe one or two time. I tell her to leave him, but she say no 'cause of the girls."

"Do you think Jose could kill Martina?"

Yolanda said, "He slap her when he drink. But I don' think he would kill her to kill her."

"He wouldn't do it on purpose."

"Essackly."

"Yolanda, would Jose kill Martina for money?"

"No," she said firmly. "He's Evangelico. A bad Evangelico, but not el diablo."

"He wouldn't do it for lots of money?"

"No, he don' kill her for money."

I said, "What about Pasqual?"

"I don' think so."

"Martina have any enemigos?"

"Nunca personal!" Yolanda said. "No one want to hurt her. She like sugar. Es so terrible!"

She began to cry. I didn't want to question her further over the phone. A face-to-face meeting would be better. I asked her when was the funeral service.

"Tonight. En la iglesia a las ocho. After the culto funeral, we go to cementerio. You wan' come?"

"Yes, I think that might be best." I told her I knew the address of the church and would meet her at eight o'clock sharp.

I was unnerved by what I had to do next: break the bad news to Deirdre Pollack. The old woman took it relatively well, never even asked about the ring. When I told her I'd volunteered to look into Martina's death, she offered to pay me. I told her that wasn't necessary, but when she insisted, I didn't refuse.

I got to the church by eight, then realized I didn't know Yolanda from Adam. But she picked me out in a snap. Not a plethora of five-foot-eight, blond, blue-eyed Salvadoran women.

Yolanda was pet.i.te, barely five feet and maybe ninety pounds tops. She had yards of brown hair-Evangelical women don't cut their tresses-and big brown eyes moistened with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tightly, and thanked me for coming.

The church was filled to capacity, the ma.s.ses adding warmth to the unheated chapel. In front of the stage was a table laden with broth, hot chocolate, and plates of bread. Yolanda asked me if I wanted anything to eat, and I declined.

We sat in the first row of the married women's section. I glanced at the men's area and noticed Pasqual with his cronies. I asked Yolanda to point out Jose: the man who had come to the door with Pasqual. The other two men were also brothers. Jose's eyes were swollen and bright red. Crying or post-alcohol intoxication?

I studied him further. He'd been stuffed into an ill-fitting black suit, his dark hair slicked back with grease. All the brothers wore dark suits. Jose looked nervous, but the others seemed almost jocular.

Pasqual caught me staring, and his expression immediately darkened, his eyes bearing down on me. I felt needles down my spine as he began to rise, but luckily, the service started and he sank back into his seat.

Pastor Gomez came to the dais and spoke about what a wonderful wife and mother Martina had been. As he talked, the women around me began to let out soft, muted sobs. I did manage to sneak a couple of sidelong glances at the brothers. I met up with Pasqual's dark stare once again.

When the pastor had finished speaking, he gave the audience directions to the cemetery. Pasqual hadn't forgotten about my presence, but I was too quick for him, making a beeline for the pastor. I managed to snare Gomez before Pasqual could get to me. The fat slob backed off when the pastor pulled me into a corner.

"What happened?" I asked.

Gomez looked down. "I wish I knew."

"Do the police-"

"Police!" the pastor spat. "They don't care about a dead Hispanic girl. One less flea in their country. I was wearing my work clothes when I got the call this morning. I'd been doing some plumbing, and I guess they thought I was a wetback who didn't understand English." His eyes held pain. "They joked about her. They said it was a shame to let such a wonderful body go to waste!"

"That stinks."

"Yes, it stinks." Gomez shook his head. "So you see, I don't expect much from the police."

"I'm looking into her death."

Gomez stared at me. "Who's paying you to do it?"

"Not Yolanda," I said.

"Martina's patrona. She wants her ring."

"I think she wants justice for Martina."

The pastor blushed from embarra.s.sment.

I said, "I would have done it gratis. I've got some suspicions." I filled him in on my encounter with Pasqual.

Gomez thought a moment. "Pasqual drinks, even though the church forbids alcohol. Pasqual's not a bad person. Maybe you made him feel threatened."

"Maybe I did."

"I'll talk to him," Gomez said. "Calm him down. But I don't think you should come to the cementerio with us. Now's not the time for accusations."

I agreed. He excused himself as another parishioner approached, and suddenly, I was alone. Luckily, Pasqual had gone somewhere else. I met up with Yolanda, explaining my reason for not going to the cemetery. She understood.

We walked out to the school yard into a cold misty night. Jose and his brothers had already taken off their ties and replaced their suit jackets with warmer windbreakers. Pasqual took a deep swig from a bottle inside a paper bag, then pa.s.sed the bag to one of his brothers.

"Look at them!" Yolanda said with disgust. "They no even wait till after the funeral. They nothing but cholos. Es terrible!"

I glanced at Jose and his brothers. Something was bothering me, and it took a minute or two before it came to me. As on the night before, three of them-including Jose-were wearing old baseball caps. Pasqual was the only one wearing a painter's cap.

I didn't know why, but I found that odd. Then something familiar began to come up from my subconscious, and I knew I'd better start phoning up bus drivers. From behind me came a gentle tap on my shoulder. I turned around.

Pastor Gomez said, "Thank you for coming, Ms. Darling."

I nodded. "I'm sorry I never met Martina. From what I've heard, she seemed to be a good person."

"She was." Gomez bowed his head. "I appreciate your help, and I wish you peace."

Then he turned and walked away. I'd probably never see him again, and I felt a little bad about that.

I tailed Jose the next morning. He and his brothers were part of a crew framing a house in the Hollywood Hills. I kept watch from a quarter block away, my truck partly hidden by the overhanging boughs of a eucalyptus. I was trying to figure out how to get Jose alone, and then I got a big break. The roach wagon pulled in, and Jose was elected by his brothers to pick up lunch.

I got out of my truck, intercepted him as he carried an armful of burritos, and stuck my .38 in his side, telling him if he said a word, I'd pull the trigger. My Spanish must have been very clear, because he was as mute as Dopey.

After I got him into the cab of my truck, I took the gun out of his ribs and held it in my lap.

I said, "What happened to Martina?"

"I don' know."

"You're lying," I said. "You killed her."

"I don' kill her!" Jose was shaking hard. "Yo juro! I don' kill her!"

"Who did?"

"I don' know!"

"You killed her for the ring, didn't you, Jose?" As I spoke, I saw him shrink. "Martina would never tell you she had the ring: She knew you would take it from her. But you must have found out. You asked her about the ring, and she said she didn't have any ring, right?"

Jose didn't answer.

I repeated the accusation in espanol, but he still didn't respond. I went on.

"You didn't know what to do, did you, Jose? So you waited and waited, and finally, Monday morning, you told your brothers about the ring. But by that time, Martina and the ring had already taken the bus to work."

"All we wan' do is talk to her!" Jose insisted. "Nothin' was esuppose to happen."

"What wasn't supposed to happen?" I asked.

Jose opened his mouth, then shut it again.

I continued, "Pasqual has a truck-a Ford pickup." I read him the license number. "You and your brothers decided to meet up with her. A truck can go a lot faster than a bus. When the bus made a stop, two of you got on it and made Martina get off."

Jose shook his head.

"I called the bus company," I said. "The driver remembered you and your brother-two men making this woman carrying a big bag get off at the stop behind the big garbage bin. The driver even asked if she was okay. But Martina didn't want to get you in trouble and said todo esta bien-everything was fine. But everything wasn't fine, was it?"

Tears welled up in Jose's eyes.

"You tried to force her into the truck, but she fought, didn't she?"

Jose remained mute.

"But you did get her in Pasqual's truck," I said. "Only you forgot something. When she fought, she must have knocked off Pasqual's Dodgers cap. He didn't know it was gone until later, did he?"

Jose jerked his head up. "How you know?"

"How do I know? I have that cap, Jose." Not exactly true, but close enough. "Now, why don't you tell me what happened?"

Jose thought a long time. Then he said, "It was a.s.sident. Pasqual no mean to hurt her bad. Just get her to talk. She no have ring when we take her off the bus."

"Not in her bag-su bolsa?"

"Ella no tiene ninguna bolsa. She no have bags. She tell us she left ring at home. So we took her home, but she don' fin' the ring. That make me mad. I saw her with ring. No good for a wife to lie to husband." His eyes filled with rage, his nostrils flared. "No good! A wife must always tell husband the truth!"

"So you killed her," I said.

Jose said, "Pasqual . . . he did it. It was a.s.sident!"