The Shut Mouth Society (32 page)

Baldwin turned in her seat and faced more toward Evarts. “I got ahead of myself. When Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, the war was going bad for the North, so he jettisoned his vice president and ran on a ticket with Johnson. Johnson was a Southern Democrat, but he was an antislavery Democrat. After Lincoln’s assassination, the Republicans never trusted Johnson and feared that he would try to restore the Democratic Party to prominence. The Radicals passed a law that said the president couldn’t fire a cabinet member without the advice and consent of the Senate. They meant it as a trap, and Johnson leaped into it. He fired Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war and the last remaining Radical Republican in the cabinet. Technically, they impeached him for violating this law, but they really impeached him to maintain Republican dominance of Congress.” She paused and as an afterthought added, “Much later the law was deemed unconstitutional.”

“
And my great great grandfather defended him.”

“
Very ably.”

“
So he might have assembled a dossier on the misdoings of the Radicals?”

“
Very likely. Today we call it opponent research, but digging up dirt on an opponent has a long and ugly history in this country.”

“
We have to get on the offensive.”

“
What?”

“
Sorry, my mind’s somewhere else.” He drove for a while. “I’m tired, Trish. I’m tired of all these narrow escapes, I’m tired of being on the defensive, and I’m tired of someone else setting the agenda. We need to take the battle to them—to the head of the union.”

“
How?”

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With the only weapon they fear—the William Evarts documents.”

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But we don’t know where they are.”

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Your parents would’ve given you a clue. I don’t believe they ever gave up on you joining their cause. I’m not asking you to think about it now. We need sleep and fresh minds.” He slapped the steering wheel with his palm. “Damn it, are there no motels on this godforsaken road?”

“
In South Dakota? We’re off the beaten track. We need to head toward the next town.”

Almost as she said it, a signpost indicated a town eight miles to the right. Evarts took the turn. In about ten minutes, they came to a small farming community, and Evarts gratefully saw a seedy motel. They rented a room from an equally seedy desk clerk, and after dropping their sole bag on the floor; Evarts collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.

Chapter 37

Evarts woke disoriented. The drug and stress had sapped all his energy. When he rolled over, he found Baldwin fully dressed and sound asleep. He stayed still as long as possible, because he feared any movement would wake her. Finally, he had to relieve himself too badly to wait any longer. He tried to keep his movements even, but she rolled over and looked at him with wide-awake eyes. She had been playing possum so he could sleep.

“
Good morning. How long have you been awake?” he asked.

“
I don’t know. I’ve been fading in and out for awhile.”

He heard the last as he closed the bathroom door. He couldn’t let her sneak in first this time.

When he came out, she sat on the edge of the bed looking disheveled. “Do you feel better?” she asked him.

“
Yeah. Bit of a headache but better. Yourself?”

“
Something beyond a bit of a headache.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Any of those aspirin left?”

He held the bottle in his hand and threw it to her. She immediately went into the bathroom, and in a few minutes he heard the shower going.

When they had both showered and redressed in their dirty clothes, they grabbed their overnight bag, threw it in the backseat, and went in search of a coffee shop. They found the only one in town that served breakfast.

They went over what Greene had disclosed one more time. After a pause in the conversation, Evarts said, “I figure we’re less than a hundred miles from Omaha.”

“
How many miles are enough?”

“
Who knows? They seem to keep finding us.”

He motioned to the waitress for more coffee. After she refilled their cups, he said, “Our last remaining clue is the computer files your father downloaded. We’ve developed an MO of always running far away. Maybe this time we should stick close. If we settled in one spot, we could use the time to carefully examine those files.”

“
We’ve looked through those files already.”

“
Now we’re motivated. We have nothing else to do and nowhere else to go.”

“
How about Canada? Straight up north. You’re a cop—don’t you know how to get us new identities?”

“
I thought you wanted your old life back.”

“
The price scares me.”

“
Well, I want my old life back. I liked it and I’m beginning to believe I would like it even better with you in it.” He watched her face carefully. He wanted confirmation that she felt the same way. He got an encouraging smile but no words. He plunged ahead anyway. “Trish, the life I want with you doesn’t include running from place to place hiding from bogeymen. We must win this fight.”

“
Alone? You said we could find help by following the trail of my parents. Look where that led.”

“
We discovered some new information, at least.”

Evarts thought about what Greene had told him. Sketchy, due to lack of time, but it gave him something to think about. According to Greene, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the union partners from the South took control of the secret organization and directed their investments toward Mexico. By the nineteen-seventies, they had built strong financial positions in Mexican businesses, especially in banking and defense-oriented enterprises that dealt with the government on a national level. The union kept in the background and put Mexican nationals in apparent charge of the supposedly independent companies.

Somehow the union had recently gained control of the newly popular Mexican Panther Party and José Garcia—the standard-bearer for the populist movement and very possibly the next president. According to Greene, the Shut Mouth Society had missed the move south and merely watched the union’s United States investments, which were relatively benign. The Society had recently learned about the union’s ambitions in Mexico because they had finally infiltrated someone into the union’s inner sanctum.

Last spring the Shut Mouth Society had made three decisions, and the Mute Council approved these directives. The council comprised eleven voting members, and the Greenes held a single-vote membership together.

The first decision was to finally make public the William Evarts Reconstruction files and to distribute them to the American and Mexican governments after sending copies to the press in both countries.

To forestall wholesale renunciation, the second decision was to secure a noted historian verification of the documents’ authenticity.

The union ruthlessly used violence and bribery to make difficulties go away, so the council’s third decision was to authorize a small security force.

Abraham Douglass had been assigned to recruit Patricia Baldwin and Gregory Evarts to carry out the actions related to the last two decisions prior to international disclosure of the files. Unfortunately, the Shut Mouth Society never learned that their informer had been discovered, and one of their own trusted members had been turned against them.

Before time had run out with Greene, Evarts had learned one more piece of troubling news: The union had become a silent partner with the Mexican drug cartels. The cartel connection made the violence Evarts and Baldwin had witnessed more understandable.

Yesterday, when he had explained all this to Baldwin in the car, she had wrapped her arms around the purse that held her .45.

She set her cup down in a way that rattled her saucer. When she spoke, it seemed that she had been reading his mind. “These drug cartels are bad people, aren’t they?”

“
The worst.”

As a Southern California policeman, Evarts knew enough about the Mexican cartels to be scared, but he debated how much to tell Baldwin. He hadn’t held anything back so far, so he decided to tell her.

“
The Mexicans started out as small-time smugglers for the Columbians, initially not much more than loose gangs willing to risk border crossings. But the Columbians made a strategic error: They paid the Mexicans in cocaine. The Mexican drug traffickers were already distributing their own marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine, but after they acquired an inventory of cocaine, they grew to dominance over their partners from the south.”

“
I thought the Columbians were the major drug threat to this country,” she said.

“
Not for years. In the eighties and early nineties, the American War on Drugs diminished the Columbian cartels and made smuggling into Florida difficult. The Mexicans benefited. In short order, drug wars broke out and a few gangs emerged as preeminent: The Mexican cartels were born. They’re a nasty bunch. Much more dangerous than the Columbians. They bribe the corrupt and kill the honest … without a moment’s hesitation. Police, politicians, opponents, informants—doesn’t matter.”

Baldwin sat silent for a minute. “Who’re we fighting: the union or drug cartels?”

“
I don’t know. Possibly both. That’s what’s bothering me. I wish I knew how tight the union is tied to the cartels … and which one.”

Baldwin shoved her plate away to signal she was through eating breakfast. “If the union is more concerned with Mexican politics than drug trafficking, does that make it easier?”

Evarts swiveled his neck, first in one direction and then the other, in a futile attempt to expel the remnants of his headache. “Politics and drugs are intertwined in Mexico—at least at the local level. The Fox and Calderón administrations made some headway against drugs, but if the union can get their man in the presidency, they’ll create a risk-free zone for the drug trade.” Evarts gave her a glance. “Remember when I said something must have changed to bring all this to a head after all these years? This has got to be it. I’m guessing the union and one of the cartels are about to make a grab for control of the $142 billion U.S. drug business.”

“
How many cartels are there?”

“
Three big ones—the Gulf, Juarez, and Tijuana cartels—lots of small contenders. Hopefully, the union isn’t tied into one of the big three.”

Evarts also wanted to know how the union had weaseled their way into such a lucrative enterprise. Suddenly, he knew the answer. Banking and defense contracting. Money and weapons. With the way the cartels corrupted or intimidated almost every aspect of Mexican society, it would actually be surprising if the union had been able to keep their operations clean. What he didn’t know was whether they had been coerced or joined up willingly with some of the worst criminals on the planet.

Evarts wished he had had more time to interrogate Greene, but the quick arrival of the union henchmen proved that he had been right to get out of the loft.

“
What do you know about Mexican politics?” Evarts asked Baldwin.

“
Not much, but I’ve been thinking about the Greene allegations.” She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “In Lincoln’s day, the Mexican War and the admittance of Texas as a slave state emboldened some leaders in the Deep South to envision a slaveholding empire that would eventually annex Mexico and Cuba. If these sentiments got passed down generation to generation, then I can believe they aimed their investments south of the border.” She shrugged. “Buy what they couldn’t conquer.” She paused. “Plus, the violence we’ve witnessed reminds me of my days hanging around the DEA.”

“
Then you believe him?”

“
Don’t you?”

“
I believe what he said. I’m scared about what he didn’t say. What I didn’t ask.”

“
At least we know the names of the eleven members of the Mute Council.”

“
Greene told the union as well. Douglass, your parents, and the third member of the Mute Circle are dead. I bet both Greenes are dead now. If any of the others are still alive, they can’t help us find the documents.”

“
What didn’t he say? Do you suppose he actually knew the identities of people in the union?”

“
No, they’re too good for that, but I can’t get rid of a nagging fear that the union has an ace in the hole.”

Chapter 38

After breakfast, they returned to the motel to examine the laptop files once again. A little after three o’clock, Baldwin said, “There’s a small workout room. Let’s exercise and come back with clear heads.”

Evarts snapped the computer lid shut. “Let’s go.”

They had the tiny exercise room to themselves, but Evarts pointed out a security camera in the corner, so they didn’t discuss the day’s work. After they returned to the room and showered, Evarts plopped down in the sole side chair and Baldwin reclined on the bed.

“
If we ever get out of this mess, you’re going to be a wealthy woman.”