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"I’m sorry, Will," Gerry Far whimpered "I’m sorry"
"Was I innocent?"
"You were innocent It was their idea Their idea"
"You hear that, Sam?" Stirman asked "You tell Fred’s --she’s not off the hook either Forty-eight hours"
That’s when the woun
Barrera didn’t think she would shoot him Then he flashed on a memory--she had shot someone, hadn’t she? In this very room Her husband
How had he known that?
"Gerry," Stirman said "Tell them I’m serious"
"You’re serious, sir," Gerry said "You are fucking serious"
"I think they need proof" Stirun to the man’s te
Just as Sam was about to watch him die for the fifth time, the woman raised her own pistol and blew out the television screen Glass cracked Electronic innards sparked
The wo out long silky loops of ribbon
Two men burst into the den
"Erainya?" The older of the two ly, as if Sa on?"
He was a gray-haired Latino in an expensive blue suit Soft hands, gold school ring, silver pen in his lapel pocket Saed him for a doctor His accent was buried deep under years of affluence, but Sanized it--Southtown Spanish A local boy, a self-’s fine, JP Just go Tres, you, too"
The younger guy was in his lo, dark-co T- shirt that said YMCA COACH
Barrera had seen this guy before
He was a PI He worked for Erainya She’d just said his naun down, Erainya," the coach said "Jeave her two free hands to better destroy the videotape She cracked it across the edge of the TV, wrapped it in a section of newspaper, tossed it into the fireplace She took a box of matches off thethis was a highly inefficient way of destroying evidence Acid would be better Or a wood chipper
The doctor was stil glowering at hi coach was zeroing in on the important stuff--the battered courier’s envelope, the video in the fireplace, Barrera’s notepad
He tried to read Barrera’s expression
Good luck, Saht
Sam calmly picked up his pen and wrote, YMCA Coach Erainya’s PI
He underlined it He’d had a run-in with this guy in the past He was sure of that
The wo matches She lit the corners of the newspaper
The coach scooped up the woun, unloaded it "Videotape won’t burn that way"
She said, "I knohat I’ht He’s fine But we had a visitor at school"
Her eyes blazed Saun
"JP," she said, her voice tight, "would you check on Jem, please?"
The doctor started to come toward her "Erainya"
"Please, JP Go see about Jem I’l only be aunwanted He sed, nodded reluctantly, then closed the door on his way out
"Al right, what happened?" the wo the school soccer field, trying to take Jem
Sam took notes--put a question mark after the name Jem The woman’s son?
"Stop that," the wo to him
"Put away the damn notebook," she said "You should have kil ed Stirman when you had the chance You and Fred couldn’t even do that right"
"We weren’t out to kil anybody," Sam said He felt pretty confident it was the truth
The woman rose "We are now We have to find Stirman"
The flue of the chi paper andof ash sailed past the woman’s head
The coach said, "You seriously think the two of you can track hi froht he could answer the second question
"You’re not thinking straight," the coach said "Cal the police"
The woreed
The coach picked up the courier envelope There was nothing inside No sender’s address Sam Barrera’s office address had been typed
"You refused police protection," the coach said "You knew Stir Jem And you won’t cal the police Why?"
"They won’t catch him," the woman said "Even if we told them he was here, even if they believed us, Stirman would vanish He’d be back next month, next year, five years fro he’s out there I won’t risk my son"