Ruby, Washington kept waiting for a rainbow.
Cecile kept herself focused on how Miguel Gutierrez figured out she had raided the cartel’s bank accounts.
Something stopped him from taking her bait. He should have concluded his brother Balbino had stolen from him, at first to cover gambling debts and then simply because he could.
But somehow, Miguel Gutierrez knew better. He sidestepped her deception and misdirection.
And yet, she had not underestimated him.
Something about her plan to turn brother against brother was clearly flawed. Maybe she stuck around too long after she stole the money, or maybe she should have resigned before the money vanished.
When a woman vanishes at the same time money vanishes, there’s not much for the victim to consider. The difficulties of successful deception are formidable. The deflection of suspicion is always emotional, never rational.
When a man wants to believe something about a woman, no fact, no truth can alter his outlook. He is a river running to the sea and his course set.
So better to fake her own death a month or two later.
Her reason to resign, as she explained it to Miguel, were unwelcome and unchecked advances by his little brother Balbino Gutierrez.
But then her cover vanished.
Cecile now realized she would need to return the money, or at least a substantial portion of it, in a way that would keep her alive. Working in her favor was Miguel Gutierrez’s intelligence.
The trick was to make him understand that as long as she was alive, his money would be returned.
She wasn’t sure if and how this would work.
She could go through every book on every shelf at Book Soup on Sunset and still not know.
Ruby, Washington never knew why either. It just turned out that way.
