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Darip for years

The irony was, eighteen years ago Titus really had been approached about killing Frankie White The parents of Julia Garcia, one of Frankie’s first victims, had come to see hirocery bag full of twenty-dollar bills Titus had looked into their hollow eyes and felt truly sorry He knew the hope of vengeance was the only thing keeping theet had been anyone other than Guy White’s son, Titus would’ve taken the job immediately As it was, he asked for a few days to think about it

Before he could give the Garcias an answer, someone else had taken care of Frankie White

Titus took one last look at Maia Lee, standing in the middle of the dark road

He put the Volvo into drive, swung a U-turn and headed back toward Presa Lee would have to come back that way The other direction, Mission, led nowhere but a dead-end cluster of trailer parks

Titus pulled in behind the Loco Mart He pointed the nose of his Volvo toward the street and waited

Three minutes later, Lee’s black BMW drove by

Titus followed, back toward King Williae and stopped on Titus’ favorite block--a row of bungalows hugging the limestone cliffs above the San Antonio River

Upstreaalleries, architectural offices The river was smooth and placid, neatly walled by concrete

But below the bridge, the water broke into a noisy strea, beneath the tiny run-down houses, as if the water were angry for being constrained so long, made to dress up for tourists

Titus parked on the bank opposite the houses, in the Pioneer Flour Mill visitors’ lot, where the curve of the river gave hiot out his binoculars

Lee was cli white trim Whirlybird propellers decorated the dirt yard Beer cans pocked with BB holes lined the porch railing

She tried a key in the lock

Titus liked her hair from behind, the way her ponytail snaked between her shoulder blades He wondered how the T-shirt seller girl would look in an expensive wool dress like that He decided she didn’t have the right figure for it

Lee’s key didn’t see

Titus wondered what she was up to

Then he re a job, and this was his chance He would drive by with hisrolled down, his Colt ready He’d call her name, wait for her to turn--

But before he could start his car, Lee stepped away fro as if cursing herself for being stupid Then she marched down the steps and around the side of the house

Titus refocused his binoculars The gravel drive led back to a tiny garage

"Not in there," Titus murmured to her "Come on back, honey"

Lee’s key slid into the lock on the garage door She rolled it open and stepped inside

Crap

Now Titus would have to get out of his car and walk up the drive

At least he could shoot her out of sight fros a little tighter around his left hand It hurt like hell, but it wasn’t his shooting hand Even with the arthritis, he could grip the 45 just fine with his right

He pulled his Volvo out of the Pioneer Mill parking lot and headed across Soledad Bridge

No mistakes, this ti

MAIA STEPPED OVER A PILE OF shattered beer bottles and worked her way toward the back of the garage

Stuff was piled everywhere--dusty baskets of wo, plastic Seventies furniture, ri the river, a worktable was spread with photo albus not covered in dust

Maia picked up a yellow legal pad scraith notes She recognized the handwriting, the saiven her

For some reason, in the not-too-distant past, the old fry cook had been ed Lucia’s scrapbooks in chronological order, evenStand receipts

First stop: A South San High School yearbook from 1964 Senior "Most Likely to Succeed" Lucia DeLeon looked uncomfortable in her bouffant hairdo, black dress and pearl necklace Despite the requisite Sixties unifor decidedly rebellious flickered in her eyes--a challenge Maia iined the men back then would’ve picked her out of the crowd They would’ve felt intrigued or threatened Probably both

The next album, Ana’s baby book, started only two years later Mike Flual pad: Ana born--1966

He’d bookmarked a photo of Lucia in her hospital bed The new mother looked exhausted, sweaty, blue around the eyes as if she’d just been pummeled in the delivery roo the infant

Standard childhood pictures followed: Ana with pureed ya Barbie dolls as druh chair tray Ana with her first birthday cake A fa frailer, holding toddler Ana up to a Christmas tree

No pictures of Ana’s father

Maia could figure out that nancy The boyfriend cuts and runs Catholic family Abortion not an option