The baby's father, Darryl Minguez, is doing eight to ten for gun-running. From his cell at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, Mingo can process more information about crime in the southwest than the NCIC in Washington. I used to work at the pen, where I was on a first-name basis with rustlers, rapists, and contract killers. Beyond the coffee table books, splashed with pretty pictures of Spanish missions, Indian dancers and spectacular sunsets, is the real Land of Enchantment, Matty's New Mexico, where the dead are so civic minded, they continue to vote, early and often. We excel in poverty.
Nepotism is a virtue.
And the poor are likely to be your nearest and dearest. It's a third-world country, without access, in some areas, to the Internet or even to the telephone. Matty has a phone but no e-mail, no fax, not even an answering machine. In Deadly Sin , Matty tangles with a family of wealthy transplants from Marin County. Searching for the Cities of Gold, people like the Quigleys have been coming to New Mexico since 1540.