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9 Tenderloin

If you’re looking for a great taco in San Francisco, you go to the Mission district If you want a plate of pasta, you go to North Beach Need so root? Chinatown is yourfor stupidly expensive shoes? Union Square Want to enjoy aprofessional croell you’ll want to head for the Marina or the SOMA But if you’re looking for so in a puddle of his own urine, you can’t beat the Tenderloin, which here Rivera and Cavuto were investigating the report of aperson Well-persons

"The theater district seems somewhat deserted today," said Cavuto as he pulled the unmarked Ford into a red zone in front of the Sacred Heart Mission The Tenderloin was, in fact, also the theater district, which was convenient if you wanted to see a first-rate show in addition to drinking a bottle of Thunderbird and being stabbed repeatedly

"They’re all at their country homes in Sono inside hi, the Tenderloin sidewalks ran with gri for their first drink of the day or a place to sleep Down here you did erous There should have been a line around the block at Sacred Heart, people waiting for the free breakfast, but the line barely reached out the door

As they walked into the Mission, Cavuto said, "You know, this ed whores You knoith de a cop and all"

Rivera stopped, turned, and looked at his partner A dozen raggedy ht in the doorway like a great, ruirl to your house and film it when she makes you cry"

Cavuto slu is the only way I know to take my mind off of it"

Rivera understood For twenty-five years he’d been an honest cop Had never taken a diiven special favors to powerful people, which is why he was still an inspector, but then the redhead happened, and her v-word condition, and the old one and his yacht full of money, and it wasn’t like they could tell anyone anyway The two hundred thousand that he and Cavuto had taken wasn’t really a bribe, it ell, it was co a secret that you could not only not tell, but that no one would believe if you did

"Hey, you knohy there’s so uy earing a down sleeping bag like a cape

Rivera and Cavuto turned toward the hope of coin’ cannibals," said the sleeping bag guy

Not funny at all The cops trod on "If you only knew," said Rivera over his shoulder

"Hey, where is everybody?" asked a wo one of your round-ups?"

"Not us," said Cavuto

TheyHispanic ht their eyes over the heads of the diners and motioned for them to come around the steam tables to the back Father Jaime They’d met before There were a lot of murders in the Tenderloin, and only a few sane people who knew the flow of the neighborhood

"This way," said Father Jaih a prep kitchen and dish room into a cold concrete hallway that led to their shower room The father extended a set of keys that were tethered to his belt on a cable and opened a vented green door "They started bringing it in a week ago, but thisstuff in They’re freaked"

Father Jaiht and stood aside Rivera and Cavuto entered a rooraypiled on every horizontal surface, all covered, in varying degrees, with a greasy gray dust Rivera picked up a quilted nylon jacket that was partially shredded and spattered with blood

"I know that jacket, Inspector Guy ns it is naht in Nae when he saw the pattern of the rips in the cloth

Father Jaiuys every day, and they’re alearing the sa It’s not like they have a closet full of clothes to choose fro around in the cold, or so happened to him"

"And you haven’t seen him?" asked Cavuto

"No one has And I could tell you stories for most of the rest of these clothes, too And the fact that clothing is even being turned in means that there’s lot of it out there Street people don’t have a lot, but they won’t take what they can’t carry That means that this is just what people couldn’t carry Everyone in that dining roo for a friend he’s lost"

Rivera put down the jacket and picked up a pair of work pants, not shredded, but covered in the dust and spattered with blood "You said that you can link these clothes to people you know?"

"Yes, that’s what I told the unifor I know these people, Alphonse, and they’re gone"

Rivera s his first name Father Jaime enty years Rivera’s junior, but he still spoke to hi called "Father" all the ti ho in common? What I mean is, were they sick?"

"Sick? Everyone on the street has so"

"I mean terminal That you know of, were they very sick? Cancer? The virus?" When the old va victims, it turned out that nearly every one of them had been terminally ill and would have died soon anyway

"No There’s no connection other than they were all on the street and they’re all gone"

Cavuto grih the clothing, tossing it around as if looking for a lost sock

"Look, Father, can youto And add anything you can re for them in the hospitals and jail"

"I only know street na you can reme else coress, calling the uniforation"

"Sure, sure," said Father Jai on?"

Rivera looked at his partner, who didn’t look up fro

"I’m sure there’s some explanation I don’t know of any citywide relocation of the homeless, but it’s happened before They don’t always tell us"

Father Jaiuilt-shooting eyes that Rivera always iined were on the other side of the confessional "Inspector, we serve four to five hundred breakfasts a day here"

"I know, Father You do great work"