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"Listen, Ike I’ve got to talk to hih to cal you--"

"Hey, Erainya, don’t stress it, right? It’s another day’s work for you I’l be happy to pay the regular bounty"

"You’re a lunatic, Ike"

"He’s ive you a bonus Probably just staying with Lalu and Kiko again"

"Lalu and Kiko are nowhere," Erainya said "I’ve checked They haven’t been seen in at least twenty-four"

A pause "Should I be worried?"

"Nah," Erainya said, sarcastical y "It’s just Wil Stirman on the loose He’s not exactly a serious threat"

"Oh, shit--you don’t think--"

Erainya hung up the phone Ike and Die, but they seemed like blood brothers when it came to stupidity

She turned back to the television Constant flood coverage was giving her a headache She kept waiting for news on Wil Stirone north Al she got were pictures of livestock standing bel y-deep in water, people riding a boat down a street in New Braunfels

Her nerves were frayed She’d had two hang-up phone cal s in the ht, both fro for so his cereal bohere she could trip over it The uilt

Taking him to soccer practice, she’d al fol owed She cao Then she decided she was being paranoid Missing practice would crush the poor kid Besides, Tres would be there the whole time She couldn’t ask for better protection than that

NowSam Barrera was ten minutes late For al his other faults, Sam was never late

Erainya’s ht’ve happened to him If he did show up, ould she tel hio to save herself?

Sooner or later, Wil Stirman would contact her She knew it She wanted desperately to believe he would just disappear, or if he did go after Barrera, at least leave her alone, but she knew better

She re, when her best friend Helen Malski lay dying of ly her hand, as Helen labored to speak "You can’t keep silent forever, Irene You can’t"

Helen had been one of the last people who remelicized, failure-laden nae

"I know," Erainya had said "I’l co as she drifted off to sleep

Erainya had lied to her best friend She had no intention of tel ing anyone the truth

She opened her desk drawer, stared at her Colt 45

It won’t coht Not this time

She picked up the photo of her dead husband It was the only photo of Fred she kept in the house, and she kept it right under the gun--to re Fred Barrow, just after he’d left the Border Patrol to become a PI His nose was broken from his days as an amateur boxer His black hair was parted in the middle and feathered in that wretched late-seventies style His s heavily, so it was possible to think he looked confident rather than bul headed, strong rather than brutal--the way Erainya had thought of hiirl, working part-time in the county records office Fred’s flirtations overwhelmed her whenever he came in to see a land deed or a tax record He’d complimented her efficiency, her jewelry, her clothes and her eyes A real private investigator--paying attention to her The fourth time he visited, he sat at the corner of her desk and picked up her letter opener As he talked, he kept testing the blade Years later, Erainya would wonder if he’d beento warn her

He said he needed a good helper His PI business was boo He needed somebody who could double as a secretary and a life partner The proposalher drea fa up She told hirants who’d been kil ed by a hit-and-run driver when Erainya was seven She told hiodparents who’d raised her, rena un-American and unladylike from her character Fred listened sy faood father They were one welErainya had been prepared to take the back seat to a man Her foster parents had prepared her for that ever since she was a child

Then Erainyadiscoveries The first was that she liked investigations Infors they’d never tel Fred She involved herself more in the cases She was sure if she showed Fred what she could do, he would eventual y see that it ive her more responsibility

The an accusing her of butting in,up his business And the more irritated he became, the

The second discovery orse After three years of trying, she was stil not pregnant Fred didn’t want to talk about it He began drinking, and yel ing Final y, the doctor assured Erainya that the fertility problem was not hers Erainya’s friend Helen told her she real y had to speak to Fred It took Erainya a et up her nerve, but final y she broached the subject

That was the first night Fred ever hit her It wasn’t the last Erainya was slow, painful y slow, to realize her e and her dreams were incompatible

She slipped Fred’s photo careful y back under the 45

She looked at the clock Sam Barrera was noenty-twothe old case files into storage, leaving Tres a key Of course he would go through them That was his nature It had been stupid of her to leave hi