Zona

Two weeks passed and Eric had settled into procedure and was figuring people out. Gus had passed the word that he had been somewhat interesting to O.I.G. in Laredo to people at the port whom he considered key people. The two dead boys had come across the line and been buried with the usual promises of a complete investigation that would never get far. Things went back to as normal as they ever were. Carlos went back to leaning on his suburban outside city hall in Agua Prieta listening to his scanner and waiting for informants to walk by and give him signals to meet in various parts of town. One of his favorites would send a shoe shine boy over to shine his boots. He would then get in to his suburban and drive over to the "zona" to meet her and get laid. She ran this particular bar and always had something good. The dopers loved to brag to the girls so they felt important. The girls always coaxed more because it was money on top of their usual cut that they would be able to give their families.

Carlos paid well because he always had money that he had collected from some of the same dopers for protection. In Agua Prieta cops paid for their jobs. Money that was kicked up to the "capitan". Carlos had some money kicked up to him from lower ranking officers but he wasn't as greedy as some. After all, everybody had families.

David knew the pecking order Carlos worked under and although he never asked he knew that Carlos worked with some of the traffickers. That was a given. David knew about the madam from the zona and even once when Carlos was in a bad mood told him to go get his boots shined.

Eric often sat on one of the tables in secondary since he couldn't smoke in the office. He would light a smoke while he watched customs inspectors with mirrors stop cars passing by to look underneath for shiny bolts or tell-tale scratches on a recently removed gas tank. He watched as some inspectors stopped cars with female drivers and pulled them over to have them open the trunk. The smiles gave the flirting away as the real reason. He laughed one day when a driver got out, opened the hood, and bolted south as the inspectors inspected the back seat. They didn't even notice that the driver had run away at first and tried to take a passenger from another vehicle into custody when they discovered the marijuana under the seat. Eric had to break the news to them. What made them mad was that Eric was laughing when he told them. What made matters worse was the man they tried to arrest as the driver started to laugh too. Eric wasn't liked by many customs inspectors and he could give a shit.