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"I looked it up," he said quietly "It’s the Lesser Key of Soloister since I was reading street signs, h me

"That has to be a coincidence"

If I didn’t considerfor such behavior, I’d pooh-pooh the notion Maybe even tsk a little My lineage does not include ancient kings My dad, Albie Solo salesman from Peoria, and he wasn’t even Jewish He left when I was seven, and I haven’t heard from him since The state tried to locate hiht be dead for all I care If he didn’t loveto do with him

I turned onto the access road that led to A&B Sanitation If fortune favored us, their trucks would be outside in plain viee could tick the to narrow it down to that point Sadly, when Chance read the list, he didn’t feel a particular netism toward any of the names, which meant we had to visit the four places hite trucks in their fleet

I’ve seen hi--but that was the first time he ever came up empty For my sanity’s sake, I refused to let myself worry what ittrouble

No need to articulate this fear because it ift alone couldn’t carry the day I needed him to help me find Yi Min-chin, just as he needed me Was that codependence or symbiosis?

Time would tell

This street went nowhere except a series of warehouses Ours was third, set alongside the scenic interstate To ust, all the trucksrubbish I parked and tried to decide on a good cover story

Got it

I glanced over at Chance, one hand on the door handle "You okay?"

"No," he said "Not even close But let’s go We have three , I climbed out of the Toyota and headed for the business office A s a few desks and file cabinets, and a harried blond wouess she was on hold The brown and gold nameplate on her desk read ANGIE CURRAN

"May I help you?" Her expression said she’d rather eat cut glass

So much for job satisfaction at A&B Sanitation

"May I take a look at one of your trucks?"

"Why?" She sighed and put down the phone

I tried e truck T-bonedon the side I just want to see if your trucks are white with blue letters"

"Oh, they’re not Soie shook her head as she stood up "If one of our drivers did that, I’d get his ass fired But sure, honey, you can take a peek to verify None of our trucks are daed We have a couple in back that are scheduled for repairs, though, so have a look"

"Thanks I’uy down"

We followed her through the "Employees Only" door into the warehouse proper The space was mostly empty at this time of day, but as she’d said, there were a couple of trucks parked, waiting their turn in the mechanic’s bay White and yellow trucks

"That’s all I needed Thank you so much for your time"

As ent back the e came, she whispered, "Your boyfriend’s cute but he doesn’t sayto let the ht now"

"That’s too bad I hope you find the guy who screwed you over I love that you aren’t letting hio through"

Lady, you don’t know the half of it

Two more stops went more or less like that Chance worried me with his silence Usually he handled such situations by turning on the char resistance to whatever he wanted round scenery, not the star of the show But I ed

At the last place on the list, Southern Sanitation, I had no more than parked the car when I sahite and blue truck pull out of the gated parking area This legwork stuff worked I needed to do so nice for Eva

I followed the vehicle for a , "That’s it Whoever took your mom has ties to this company Somehow"