The Ways of Evil Men by Leighton Gage

that somebody knocked him out, forced alcohol down his throat, and set him up to take the fall for—”
    “Shut up,” Borges said. “Both of you. Okay, Senhorita Calmon, now you’ve heard his side of the story. Kind of a tall one, if you ask me.”
    “I don’t recall asking you, Delegado.”
    “No need to get snippy. All I’m after here is justice. Any more questions?”
    “Not at the moment, but there’s something else we have to discuss and before we do—” She looked at the priest. “I’d like him to leave.”
    “I’m not going anywhere,” the priest said.
    “Sorry, Father,” Borges said, “but she’s within her rights. So you’re going to have to.”
    The priest sniffed at Borges, narrowed his eyes at Jade and left without uttering another word. Seconds later, they heard the front door slam.
    Borges smiled. “A little advice for both of you: don’t attend communion in this town ever again. If you do, it’s likely you’ll find something nasty slipped into your wafer.”
    “I never attend his church anyway,” she said.
    “And I never will again,” Osvaldo said.
    “Okay, Senhorita Calmon, out with it. What did you want to say?”
    “You have no jurisdiction over the Awana. As a representative of the FUNAI, I’m making an official request that you release this man into my custody.”
    Borges’s eyes rounded in surprise. “Are you kidding? Did you see that crowd outside?”
    “How could we miss them?”
    “You see how pissed off they are about this?”
    “They were quite vocal about it.”
    “One of the women,” Osvaldo said, “spit in her face. Another one kicked me in the shin.”
    “Which is why,” Jade said, “we want to get Amati out of here and take him to a place of safety.”
    “A place of safety? Around here? There’s no place safer than my jail.”
    “I intend to bring him to the airport and fly him to Belem. He can be incarcerated there until we sort this out.”
    “No way,” Borges said, shaking his head.
    “You’re refusing?”
    “I am.”
    “Why?”
    “The murder took place here in Azevedo, which means I’m in charge. And until a court tells me otherwise, he’s
my
suspect, and he’s going to stay in
my
jail. You have every right to get a lawyer and try to get him moved. Meanwhile, I intend to do my duty.”
    “You’re making a mistake, Delegado. Can’t you see that his life—”
    “
Moreover
,” Borges said, stressing the word as he rode roughshod over her objection. “Even if I was willing to turn him loose, which I’m not, there is no way you’d ever get him out of here. They’re around in back as well.”
    There was a door with a glass pane at the end of the corridor. Osvaldo frowned, went there, and looked through it. “He’s right. Not as many, but just as mad.”
    Jade bit her lip. “All right,” she said. “But it’s your job to keep this man safe until I—”
    “You don’t have to tell me my job, Senhorita Calmon, but if those people out there storm this jail, I’m not going to start shooting my fellow citizens in an attempt to stop them.”
    “So you’re not prepared to lift a finger to help him?”
    “A finger, yes. A firearm, no.”
    “And if they break in and attempt to take him?”
    “I won’t wound anyone, much less kill anyone. It’s a question of the greatest good for the greatest number. Those people out there are acting out of a sense of justice. They’re good people, most of them. They believe in an eye for an eye, and since there’s no death penalty in this country—”
    “They want to kill him.”
    “That’s my guess. And it’s also my guess that they wouldn’t be averse to killing
me
if I tried to stop them.”

Chapter Thirteen
    “S O WHAT NOW ?” O SVALDO asked, studying the angry crowd through the front window of the
delegacia
. It had become larger—and Father Castori had joined it.
    “I want you to call Federal Police headquarters in Belem,” Jade said. “Try to get in touch with a Chief