Page 41 of Prisoner of War
Minnie sipped the third cup of coffee Carmen had poured for her and put it back into the swinging cup holder. “You know, I’ve spent the last—well, forever, it seems like—trying to make someone listen to me about Duardo. Mostly Nick, but anyone at all would have done. No one was willing to do a damn thing. I never in a million years thought that the one person I’d endup talking into helping me would be you.”
“You’re a pretty queen-sized bitch yourself, honey,” Carmen said. “And just so we’re on the table with this, I’m not doing it for your Duardo.”
“You think he’s dead, just like everyone else.”
“You know it’s a long shot, don’t you?” Carmen said gently. “From what I heard about where he took the shot, even if he wasn’t dead when they pulled you off him,he’d have died not long after.”
“I can’t give up based on a percentage,” Minnie said. “Duardo was strong willed and had every reason to live—”
“You mean because he loved you?” Carmen interrupted.
“I wasn’t even thinking of me. Duardo had...energy. He loved life, he loved his work, his family. He had all these huge plans about the future. He just wouldn’t give up on that.”
“The bullet in hisback might have been too much to argue with.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. I just have to know.” Minnie kept her eyes on the compass and the shining sea ahead of the boat.
“You have to know and I have to go. Well, maybe Grandma Karen was right, Minerva Benning. Maybe we are alike.”
“Just a little,” Minnie added quickly.
“Apenas muy un poco,” Carmen agreed. “Just a very little,” she translated.
