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grander from Hinestroza, but he had to admit the simplicity worked—in large quantities and for a long time.
    “You seem surprised.”
    Miller shrugged. “Maybe.”
    “Why? You see a lot of drugs come up in more elaborate ways?”
    “Oh, yeah.” Miller took a drag off his cigarette, debating whether to tell Danny more. Idle conversation served no purpose in the investigation. “We had a case last year where they made bathtubs and toilets out of cocaine and shipped them in eighteen-wheelers.” Danny coughed out a lungful of smoke. “No shit? How the fuck did they manage that?”
    “Mixed the cocaine with fiberglass.”
    “What?” Danny laughed. “Wasn’t it hard to separate?”
    “That was the problem. They couldn’t get all of the fiberglass out, 32 | Brooke McKinley
    so there were a lot of unhappy customers with noses even bloodier than usual.”
    Danny’s mouth curled up in disgust. “Jesus.”
    “Probably would have put a dent in your habit, huh?” Miller asked, his voice mild.
    “I don’t do drugs.”
    “Right,” Miller scoffed.
    “I don’t do drugs,” Danny repeated with more force. “I never have.”
    Miller looked at him, watching for signs of deception. But Danny maintained eye contact, not fidgeting, not breathing hard. He was telling the truth; Miller would have staked his reputation on it.
    “Okay,” Miller said, willing to concede the point and move on.
    “How does Hinestroza get the cocaine out of Texas?” Danny pulled one foot up onto the bench and rested a wrist across his jean-clad knee. “That’s where I come in. Once there’s a large enough stash of cocaine in Texas, I go down and collect it. A white guy driving a U-haul doesn’t get noticed the way a Mexican guy does.” Danny smiled without humor. “Hinestroza knows how to use racism to his advantage.”
    “Isn’t Hinestroza worried about losing the cocaine if you’re pulled over?”
    “I suppose in theory he is. But I don’t get pulled over. I stay right at the speed limit, use my turn signal, don’t make crazy lane changes. I dress the part of an average guy, take this out,” Danny fiddled with the diamond stud in his ear, “cover the tattoos.” He flashed Miller a devilish grin. “I can be pretty charming, too, when I want to be. I never have any trouble.”
    “But if you did get caught, you’d be going away for a very long time.”
    “That’s a risk Hinestroza is willing to take,” Danny noted dryly.
    “What happens once you get here?”

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    “I distribute the cocaine to various dealers. Some stay in this area.
    Others run it to points east and north. We stay out of the western market.”
    “Why?”
    “Turf wars, mainly. Hinestroza works east of the Mississippi.”
    “So you don’t sell directly?”
    “No. I bring the drugs up, distribute them, keep the various dealers in line, do whatever else needs doing, but I don’t sell on the street.”
    Miller wasn’t sure why that fact pleased him, why knowing that Danny didn’t peddle drugs on grammar school playgrounds filled him with a sense of relief. He acknowledged to himself it was a stupid distinction. Danny was only one step up that particular drug chain.
    “I need the names of the dealers who buy cocaine from you.” Danny didn’t answer.
    “Danny….”
    “I thought you wanted Hinestroza.”
    “We do. But we have to know who else is involved in the operation.”
    “Why? So you can trap them the same way you trapped me?
    Follow them around until they jaywalk or litter and then offer them the same shitty deal you gave me?”
    “Keep your voice down!”
    “I’m not giving you the names.”
    Miller had to have the names. It wasn’t a negotiable point. But this was only the first of many times he and Danny would talk. They’d go over and over this information until they both wanted to bang their heads against a wall. He could wait.
    “Fine,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me today. But what about Amanda? Is