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"You know that’s impossible"

"Vato, I don’t care aboutotta make sure Ana is safe She’s all I care about Her and the baby"

The brittleness in his voice worried , helping hi to calm him down until I could convince him to accept some kind of surrender deal

But if Ralph went to jail, if Guy White found out he was a suspect in Frankie’s death, I knew damn well there would be no tio to trial He’d be dead before Christ Soht be able to find a solution in two days, but she didn’t know the city or the local police like I did And if I showed my face, I’d be arrested

I needed a cop I could trust--somebody inside the syste on and wouldn’t arrest ht Despite the fact that hties, rettably short

An answer came to me, but I didn’t like it

I stared at the river Maybe if I jumped in, I could wakethe Saturdaypaper while Mrs Loohed "Let’s go, Ralphas"

"Where to?"

"Back to the phone I’ve got an idea that’ll probably get us killed"

LARRY DRAPIEWSKI WAS WAITING FOR US at Mi Tierra--an outside table, just like I’d told hi up, sunlight uitars by the fountain Except for pigeons and one tourist fa the cold, we had the restaurant patio to ourselves

Larry pointed to the extra breakfast plates he’d ordered

He kicked out a chair for h you shot a doctor this week, huh? You’re riding a shit avalanche, son"

"Good to see you, too, Larry"

Since retiring froray He’d gotten a hearing aid, grown a scraggly beard and cultivated a potbelly He looked like Santa Claus after boot camp

Ralph sat across fro huevos rancheros into a tortilla

Larry glanced at him with distaste "Tres, if your father could see you now--"

"Can you help us or not?" I asked I’d already told hi over the phone Some of it he’d already heard from cop friends None of it seeer around the edge of his Bloody Mary glass "Your friend here is a killer"

"You can talk to lés"

Larry’s eyes turned steely I rebetter than a cattle prod when it cauello," he said, "if it wasn’t Tres asking me this, if I didn’t owe his father et me in to see her or not?"

Larry stared across the plaza, toward the parking garage where we’d couys work hospital security when an officer is shot," I said

"We rotate with SAPD Professional courtesy The answer is still no"

"Is Ana stabilized?" I asked

"She’s still alive That’s all I know"

"Then she needs protection," Ralph said

Larry glared at hiuard duty, Arguello?"

"And if the guy who shot her is a cop?"

Larry blinked "You’re some piece of work Why don’t you be a hter to think about"

Ralph started to get up

I grabbed his arm, pushed him back into his seat "Larry, pro after her are good men"

"I’m retired, Tres"

"Every "

He sipped his Bloody Mary, checked his watch His eyes drifted again toward the parking lot "I’ll do what I can In exchange, Arguello surrenders"

"We’re talking about Frankie White’s ets out"

"He made that bed"

"He didn’t," I said "Youabout the case back then--so"

"This is crazy, Tres Don’t get sucked into it"

"White’s eneain "Zapata--you probably already know that Or the Zacagni fa about a hit man, Titus Roe, maybe hired by the family of one of Frankie’s victims"

"What do you lanced uneasily at Ralph, then back at et it Nobody on the right side of the law is going to help you with this You’ve got to surrender"

So at the parking lot

I pushed my chair out "It’s time we left," I told Ralph

"Eat first," Larry said "I paid for that and you haven’t touched it"

"Since when have you worn a hearing aid, Larry?"