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"I know," I said

"Second bedrooht about puttingdownhil then Bad place for a business"

He looked at Maia, who s late for her court date, she didn’t show it Patience was one of her great investigative assets, which explained why she was stil dating hborhood Southtown," Sam told her "Look at this traffic When did the center of town et Saun wasn’t the hardest part It was et upset about that

"What would you charge," he asked me, "for a job like this?"

"What job, Sa na me"

"Look, Sam," I said, "the folks at the office are worried about you"

"My office?"

"Yeah I-Tech You were supposed to go in today and sign soht"

"Before they kick me out"

His eyes showed no hint of confusion--just the sadness of ato him

"Alicia and my doctor have it al planned," he said "I’m supposed to sel ras, like on rats They say it’s my best shot

I don’t want to live with a bunch of people like et you home"

"This is my home"

Down on South Ala air was heating up, fil ed with the snolia leaves from Sam’s front yard

Sam picked up a tintype of an old Latino in a starched shirt, suspenders and a bowler It could’ve been Saht then, I knehat I would do I realized I’d been thinking about it for days

I wasn’t excited I figured I ht as wel make myself a T-shirt that said COACH FOR LIFE on one side and KICK ME on the other side But I knew I had to do it I’d never forgiveuntil I thought I’d conveyed ht

She hesitated, then leaned over and kissed entle you, Mr Barrera"

When it was just Sam and me, I said, "You want al of those people found?"

"Yeah" Sam studied the old picture "Na job Lot of hours, plus expenses"