Tijuana serves as a crucial way station in Harry Magana’s search for Miguel Montes. Harry arrives with little more than a name; through an old acquaintance in law enforcement, he finds a local officer, follows a lead through a stack of police files, and reaches Chucho, who places Miguel in Santa Teresa. The city offers a route toward the missing man, but no resolution: by night Harry is driving south again.

A Search Without Official Authority

Harry reaches Tijuana early in the morning, looking for a bartender or waiter named Chucho, a friend of Miguel Montes. He has neither enough time to search the city’s bars and clubs nor anyone there who can help. At noon he calls a former acquaintance, an East Los Angeles police officer, from a phone booth. Their conversation establishes the personal cost Harry carries into the search: his wife died of cancer four years earlier. He tells the officer he is in Tijuana looking for someone in an unofficial capacity and has only a name.

The call produces a practical connection rather than an official case. The officer gives Harry the name and address of Raul Ramirez Cerezo, and Harry goes to 401 Calle Oro. Ramirez takes him to a downtown police station and leaves him with more than a thousand files. Harry identifies one that seems to match his quarry; Ramirez recognizes the man as a small-time criminal and occasional pimp, and says he can be found that night at Wow, a club where he spends time. The search advances by borrowed access and local knowledge, not by a formal investigation.

The Questions and the Club

Over dinner, Ramirez recounts his difficult life and reflects on how people can become blind by habit to the suffering of women who care for them. His talk turns to the danger of asking questions: questions can lead somewhere unwanted, yet still must be asked. The exchange gives the search a moral unease that accompanies its practical steps. Harry is impatient to get to Chucho, but he listens, then agrees to another beer before they go to the club.

At Wow, Ramirez speaks privately with a bouncer, who leads them to a back corridor and the men’s room. Chucho appears there. Ramirez questions him while Harry watches; when Chucho insists he is telling the truth, Ramirez takes out a switchblade with a mother-of-pearl handle and a six-inch blade to test his assurances. Harry judges that Chucho is probably not lying, and the encounter ends without violence. Outside, two women run to embrace Chucho, laughing and crying, while Ramirez treats the episode as routine.

The Lead Back to Santa Teresa

Chucho confirms that he knew Miguel and says Miguel was still living in Santa Teresa with a young woman who had worked at a club called Internal Affairs. Harry suggests Elsa Fuentes’s name, and Chucho nods, though he qualifies his recollection. The information is useful but not definitive: it places Miguel in Santa Teresa and connects him to a woman Harry can pursue, while leaving the exact circumstances uncertain.

Harry tells Ramirez he is going to Santa Teresa. He drives through the night, crossing the Rio Colorado and continuing south by way of San Luis, Los Vidrios, Sonoyta, Caborca, Altar, Pueblo Nuevo, and Santa Ana before reaching the highway toward Nogales and Santa Teresa. The route makes Tijuana’s role clear: it is not the destination of the search but the place where a tenuous lead becomes a direction. The inquiry leaves Harry with more than the original name, but still short of the person he is trying to find.