2008 Writing D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
September
2008
Emiliano's War
Page: 3That was damned curious, but killings along the border generally aren't in the Patrol's jurisdiction. The case was in Hidalgo County's hands, and they couldn't figure it out. It got to be known around law-enforcement circles as the case of the stoned scarecrow. Turns out we had the victim's fingerprints on file — he was a standard-issue mule, which is what we call the guys who lug contraband over the border. He'd been caught twice before, once over by Columbus and once in our sector. It's dangerous work, but the danger doesn't come from us; it comes from their employers. If they screw up, lose their load or something like that too often, they start losing fingers and eventually their lives.
But the killing of this guy — Homero Cruz was his name — obviously wasn't the work of his bosses. I wouldn't be surprised if they had strung him upside-down and gutted him if they were fairly mad, but they wouldn't waste product stuffing him with it. Whoever did it went to a lot of trouble to send some kind of message, and if the message didn't get the response expected, something else was going to happen.
Jack Warner, a veteran journalist with UPI and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is the author of the novel Shikar, released in paperback as Maneater. He now lives in Silver City, where he is a reserve deputy with the Grant County sheriff's office and a field deputy medical investigator.