North of the Border — Judith Van Gieson

"Don't worry, Chiquita" was the Kid's answer to almost everything, and right now Neil Hamel missed the Kid -- her part-time lover and car mechanic. Neil had gone to Mexico as a favor to a man she shouldn't be doing favors for, and what it got her was a face-to-face meeting with a corpse: a Mexican lawyer with a diamond pinky ring an a throat slit from, ear to ear. Returning home to Albuquerque, Neil couldn't let go of the tangled scheme she had uncovered. Someone was sending threatening letters. A rich man was hiding a secret. And a mine in Lagrima was worth more than gold or silver, now that the U. S. government wanted to bury nuclear waste there.

Seeking the kid, Neil finds another woman. Looking for the truth she finds human predators. All alone; Neil knows there is only one way to get out of this, and that is straight through a killer....