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His expression stayed deadly serious "This ti uello After that, believe uello to justice, or anybody who’s helping him Guy White will take care of our problem for us"

Chapter 4

RALPH AND I SPENT A COLD SLEEPLESS NIGHT WITH SOME transients under a bridge on West Main

The houys decorated a Christmas tree with beer cans They roasted pecans over a trash can fire, tried to re Ralph if he had the DTs because of the way he was shaking

I tried talking to him about Ana and the Frankie White case I told hi fro to the transients’ shopping cart

Ralph stared into the fla the Rosary in Spanish, as if trying to draw ghosts out of the heat

THE FIRST TIME I’D MET RALPH was also my first real experience with Frankie White We were all juniors at Alalo linebackers outside a convenience store because he’d flirted with one of their girlfriends I was on the football teahts I jumped in on Ralph’s side He and I kicked sorown blond preppie named Frankie White

In typical Ralph fashion, he becaht I was never sure what Ralph saw in Frankie, but I understood Frankie’s fascination with Ralph Ralph was completely unintimidated by Frankie’s uts to punch Frankie in the face

Several months later, Ralph invited Frankie and me to dinner at his house for the first ti white adobe cottage on the wrong side of McCullough, ten feet froe was behind the back fence

The tiny roos, cousins and nephehose naht The extended fauello full-ti or apathetic parents

Frankie White gave me an amused look, like, Can you believe this shit?

Sleeping bags filled the living rooed on the sofa The walls were cluttered with family photos and crucifixes and portraits of saints No air-conditioning A hundred degrees inside, with a li the pale yellow curtains Ralph’stortillas by hand and cooking theh she didn’t know ladiolas and corne seventeen, I would’ve been embarrassed by the house, my yback rides and quarters and ar rematches Especially with Frankie White there, who lived in a mansion and drove his own Mercedes But Ralph didn’t care He grinned at the kids, laughed, joked around He seemed as confident as he had when Frankie and the other linebackers tried to assault hi fazed him

At least, not until ent into the backyard to set the picnic table and found his latest stepfather (the sixth) trying to kiss Ralph’s fourteen-year-old cousin Apparently, it had happened before, because Ralph’s voice turned to ice "I warned you, pendejo"

Twelve minutes later, Ralph dumped the battered stepfather half-conscious into the curbside trash can, tossed his suitcase next to him and called a taxi

Frankie beamed like a kid at his first R-rated uello"

Ralph said nothing

Back inside, his mother screamed, cried, made excuses for the bum she’d married, but Ralph just held her while she puood for you, Maued money, Ralph produced six hundred-dollar bills for the week’s expenses, o back outside and set the table He grounded his fourteen-year-old cousin to the bedroom

By the time dinner was ready, the family’s happy chaos seeuisada tacos and drank Big Red while fireflies blinked across the lawn Gunshots crackled in the suround shake

Frankie White enjoyed hi at the bedroo him

Ralph’s mother was the only one who didn’t cheer up She stared at the citronella candle on the table as if she wished the flame would freeze, just once, into a shape she could hold

That night under the Main Street Bridge, years later, staring at the trash can fire, Ralph reminded me of his mother for the first time

IN THE MORNING, WE CHANGED INTO clothes from a Goodwill donation box

We’d already ditched Ralph’s car in an HEB grocery store parking lot, so we hot-wired the Chevy Impala of a former client I didn’t like very much Then we headed doith my 22 pistol, six dollars and thirty-two cents between us, and very little hope of living through the weekend

I’dthe house, but we decided to use a pay phone on the corner of South Saint Mary’s instead I doubted SAPD could triangulate a ure out their own e- chances

I called Maia’s number She was already in town If possible, she sounded even angrier than she had the night before, when I called to let her knoas a fugitive from justice

As she told me about her conversation with Detective Kelsey and the note she’d found on Ana’s bulletin board, a pickup full of irant laborers cruised past on Houston Street The driver slowed to see if anted work Ralph shook his head The truck drove on

"Tres?" Maia prompted

"I heard you"

"You’re protecting a murderer Turn him in"

I pinched the collar of my Goodwill ski jacket, tried to pretend the s fro’ What does that mean?"

"I don’t know," she said wearily "It doesn’t ue with That’s all they’ll need to convict"

So in her voice worried er, she soundedsick The way she sounded whenever she was forced to face her phobia about boats and deep water

"Are you okay?"

"Of course I’ from the law"

"Look, MaiaAna didn’t believe the DNA results You could retrace her steps, find out where she was going with the investigation"