“‘Danny Garza’s men killed my father,’ ” Mack read. “‘Santa Olivia, please strike him dead.’” He cocked an eyebrow at Loup. “Tempted?”

She shook her head. “No vigilante justice. We promised.”

“We’re lucky we got away with the snakes,” Jaime agreed. “I think Santa Olivia had better lie low for a while.”

“Aw!” Pilar, sitting on C.C.’s lap, sighed. “This one’s so sad!”

C.C. snatched it from her. “Lemme see.”

“No!” She glared at him and took it back. “I don’t want you to laugh at it.”

“I won’t laugh!” he protested.

Loup stirred. “Read it.”

“ ‘Santa Olivia, I am an old man and I have lived through many things,’” Pilar read slowly. “‘I have lost everything I loved, one piece at a time. My wife. My daughter. My grandchildren. All I had left…’ It’s pretty long, you guys.”

“That’s okay,” Mack said. “Keep reading.”

“ ‘All I had left in these last years of my life was my dog Badger,’” Pilar continued. “‘He was a good dog and a good companion. Sometimes he leaves the yard, but only a little. There is a police patrol that passes every morning in a jeep. They used to be friendly, but lately, it is a bad pair. The soldier who drives always swerves and pretends he’s going to hit Badger. Yesterday he did. He killed my dog.’ ” She looked up, eyes bright with tears. “Isn’t that terrible?”

“Fucking soldiers,” Katya muttered.

“They’re bored,” Jaime said in an objective tone. “And they’re not being held accountable by the military. The bad ones are acting out.”

Kotch shrugged. “Whatever.”

“There’s more.” Pilar turned the letter over. “ ‘The patrol is the one that passes my house on Tenth Street at six or seven in the morning. I do not know the soldier’s name, but he has a deep dimple in his chin and thick eyebrows. I do not wish him harm, but I pray that one day he repents of having killed an old man’s last happiness.’ ”

Loup’s skin prickled. “Mack.”

“Yeah.” He met her eyes. “It’s almost like he knows. You know, we didn’t exactly promise. We just said we understood, that’s all. You wanna check it out?”

She nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Could be a setup,” Jaime warned them. “I’m telling you, we’re pushing our luck. The general is not happy about this business.”

“What if it’s not?” Mack countered. “You willing to put that big brain to work figuring out a plan?”

“Let me see the petition.” Jaime read it silently to himself, then sighed. “Oh, shit. That’s too damn pathetic for words. Fine, if it checks out, I’m in.”

It checked out.

Jane and Dondi went on the first scouting expedition, claiming that Father Ramon had sent them to canvas the neighborhood asking for donations for the votive candle fund.

“The old guy’s for real,” Jane said when they reported back, sounding uncommonly subdued. “Looks about a hundred years old. He goes shuffling across the kitchen to get a dollar out of a cookie jar. I notice this empty dog dish on the floor and ask if he’s got a dog…” She stopped.

“His mouth started shaking and he got all shaky,” Dondi finished for her. “He said ‘I used to,’ like he was gonna cry.”

Mack looked at Jaime. “Any ideas?”

“One.” Jaime looked at Loup. “Let’s go into the courtyard.”

There was a rock garden along the east wall of the inner courtyard with several good-sized boulders and a few sickly cacti set amid a sea of pebbles.

“How big a rock could you lift and throw?” Jaime asked.

Loup cocked her head. “Dunno.”

“Let’s find out.”

The biggest one was about three feet tall, the centerpiece of the rock garden. Loup shifted it experimentally and knew right away it was too heavy, too awkward. She surveyed the others and chose a boulder that was roughly two feet in diameter. She squatted and grabbed it, lifting with her legs.

“Jesus,” Pilar murmured.

Loup took a couple of steps back and heaved the boulder. It fell with a resounding crash, pebbles grinding beneath it. “That’s about it,” she said, slightly breathless. “I could lift a heavier one, but not throw it.”

“Jesus,” Mack echoed. He went over and managed to lift the boulder a few inches, his face red with the strain. “That thing must weigh two hundred pounds.” He straightened. “So what are you thinking?”

Anna poked her head into the courtyard. “What in God’s name are you doing out here? What was that sound?”

“Nothing!” T.Y. called.

“I was messing with the rock garden,” Loup added. “Sorry! Nothing broke.”

Anna shook her head and withdrew.

They trooped back to the rec room where Jaime revealed his plan. “Okay, here’s the thing. They’ve got extra patrols on the nightclub, so that’s out. And we can’t risk luring them again,” he said. “They’re not stupid. They’d figure it out and start looking for whoever served as bait. So. If we want to convince them it’s a real miracle, Santa Olivia’s got to make an appearance and do something impossible, then vanish.”

“Throw a rock?” Mack frowned.

“A rock most grown men couldn’t lift,” Jaime said. “A rock with a message on it. Right through the windshield of their jeep.”

Loup nodded. “Not bad. How do I vanish?”

“We’ll have to identify the soldiers and study their route.” Jaime leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Pick a spot where you can run like hell, because you’re not gonna be hidden this time. How fast is your fastest?”

“Pretty fast, I guess.” She shrugged. “I don’t know how fast for how long. Tommy never let me try.”

Jane sniffed. “I like your rock idea, Jaime, but you need a better getaway.”

“Hey.” Jaime spread his hands. “I don’t have a lot to work with.”

“Let’s get the route worked out first,” Mack said pragmatically.

It took a week of covert surveillance. Identifying the patrol was easy enough. Mack and Diego waited on the street outside the old man’s house. The jeep passed in the early morning. The driver slowed down to yell at them for loitering, slowly enough that they were able to note his dimpled chin and thick eyebrows. After that, it was a matter of working backward and forward, posting different Santitos at different corners, making notes of which way the patrol vehicle went. They also noted that the driver did in fact make a habit of swerving toward dogs on the street.

Jaime found an old map of the town in the church’s archives and traced the route. Once that was done, they staked out the patrol a few more times to confirm that the route didn’t vary.

“Okay,” he said when they reconvened. “I’ve been thinking about the getaway.” He pointed to a spot on the map. “Corner of Fisher and Juarez. There’s an apartment building on the west side of Fisher with a side alley that ends in a wooden fence about eight feet tall. Think you could clear it, Loup?”

She shook her head. “I can’t jump that high. I’m better at jumping distances than height.”

“Oh.” Jaime looked crestfallen.

“What if you had a rope?” T.Y. asked. He glanced at Jaime. “Is it a flat-top fence or pointy?”

“Pointy.”

“So we could loop a rope over one of the points. Loup could use it to climb the fence and take it with her.” T.Y. grinned. “Poof! Santa Olivia vanishes.”

“That would work,” Loup agreed.

“She still has to get back to the church,” Jane warned them. “It’ll be daylight and those soldiers have radios. They’re already on edge. They’ll be swarming all over the place in minutes.”

“All she has to do is cut through the swap market at Flores…” Jaime studied the map. “Hmm. Lot of people would see her. The swap market starts early.”

“Loup needs a disguise. One that she can take off and blend in with the crowd.” T.Y. whacked one of his beloved comics against his hand. “Hello? Superman? Clark Kent?”

“Santa Olivia,” Pilar said. She pointed upward. “She wears a pretty blue dress and a white kerchief over her hair.”

“Superheroes don’t wear pretty blue dresses!” T.Y. protested.

Katya snorted. “Does anyone here have a pretty blue dress?”

“We could sew one,” Pilar offered. The Santitos stared at her. “Okay, I could sew one!” She shrugged. “What? My fucking aunt made me sew for her brats all the time. Sew and clean and cook. I’ve got domestic skills up the butt, okay?”

C.C. rolled his eyes. “This is just silly.”

“Yeah,” Mack said slowly. “It is. But that’s the point, right? This has to be too crazy to be true.” He grinned. “A pretty little girl in a pretty blue dress hurls a boulder grown men can’t lift, then disappears. What else could it be but Santa Olivia herself?”

“I’m not that little,” Loup commented.

“You’re not that big, either,” he told her.

“Yeah, well, we’d need fabric.” Jane glanced at Pilar. “There’s a bunch of hospital scrubs from the plague days in the clinic. They’re light blue. I think the color’s pretty close to Santa Olivia’s dress. Would that work?”

Pilar nodded. “Sure.”

Mack clapped his hands once, briskly. “Let’s do it!”

TWENTY-TWO

Hold still,” Pilar murmured, her mouth full of pins. “Okay.” Loup looked at herself in the mirror.