This Is for the Mara Salvatrucha by Samuel Logan

her obligation to tell the cops about her membership with MS. Brenda considered the MS as her family. She was close to her homies, and her life with the gang was the only life she cared to know in that moment.
    “I think Flaca’s boyfriend was involved somehow because he had a gun that night at Rio Loco. And Flaca stole the car ’cause she wanted to steal the tires to sell them and make money to travel to El Salvador,” Brenda explained. She was lying through her teeth.
    “Do you know where I can find Flaca?” Oseguera asked.
    “I don’t know, but I think she’s in Houston. She should be passing through Dallas on her way to Maryland.”
    This time she was telling the truth. It would be to her advantage to have Flaca arrested and throw Oseguera off her trail so she could escape before he found out too much.
    Oseguera decided that talking more about Flaca was a dead end, but he wanted to see if Brenda would identify Veto, his aggravated robbery suspect and the man who had written Brenda a letter from the Dallas County Jail.
    “Do you know Veto?” Oseguera questioned, carefully looking at Brenda.
    “Yeah, he’s my boyfriend,” she admitted without hesitation, looking directly at him, but that’s where she stopped.
    There was no way she was going to sell out Veto to this cop. She knew he was already in prison, so she was willing to point him out when Oseguera showed her his mug shot after she admitted to knowing him. But Veto terrified her, and she wasn’t going to tell Oseguera anything about the night Javier was killed, nor was she going to formalize what she told him during the interview. At the end of the interview, Brenda refused when Oseguera asked her to sign a statement. She knew exactly how far she could take this cop down the line. She knew where and when to lie and where to tell the truth. Veto had taught her a few things about how to deal with cops, but Brenda was smart enough to figure out the rest.
    Oseguera closed his notebook and escorted Brenda to booking, where he took her prints and a photo. Then they walked out to his service vehicle. The drive to the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center was silent. There was nothing else to say. Along the way, Brenda simply stared out the window. It was her first time under so much police pressure. She was determined to keep her cool. So far, she had done well, but she didn’t know what would happen when they got to Dallas.
    Oseguera took her inside and booked her. He knew he had other questions for her and wanted to prevent her from leaving town, but he didn’t have enough evidence to hold her. A juvenile court judge in Dallas issued her release the next day. Brenda was ecstatic. She was free! Brenda had danced with the police, lied, dropped a smoke screen, and was free to go soon after. She had beat a capital murder rap and pushed Oseguera’s focus to Flaca. For a rookie in the criminal underworld, Brenda had made a slick getaway.
    Following Brenda’s questioning, Oseguera issued a capital murder warrant for Flaca’s arrest, the second warrant he’d put out for the Calzada murder. If she did pass through Dallas and was stupid enough to get picked up, Brenda reasoned, he would be able to question her.
    Back in his office after dropping off Brenda, Oseguera returned to the contents of her shoebox. Veto had sent her a number of letters. In one, he told Brenda he thought the cops had found out he was the perpetrator in a separate robbery, one Oseguera suspected was the aggravated robbery at the local grocery store he was working. In the letter, Veto told Brenda to be careful. When he thought about it, Veto’s mention of the robbery in the letter made her an accessory to the crime. He thought Veto was the male suspect reported by the store owner, but the detective had never nailed down the female suspect. He now believed that suspect was Brenda.
    Oseguera needed confirmation. He hopped in his vehicle and drove over to the grocery store to speak with the