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"Me, too At least in part," I said "Did you have a chance to look at the old files?"

"Can’t be done I talked to the chief and he says the case notes are sealed Once the FBI stepped in, they put everything under lock and key"

"Even after all this time? It’s been twenty years"

"Twenty-one to be precise, and the answer is, definitely You kno it goes The case is federal and the file’s still active If the details are leaked then any clown off his meds can walk into the departht a fa on a sec"

I putup the hydraulic grinding, wheeze, and hiss of a garbage truck approaching frootten to take out o I’ll call you later"

"Vaya con Dios"

I hung up in haste and headed down the hall to the kitchenette, where I grabbed a plastic bag from a carton under the sink I did a quick round of the wastebaskets--kitchen, bathrooged fro in my trash bin, and rolled it down the ay on one side of the bungalow By the ti at the curb and I just uy before he hopped back on He paused long enough to add my contribution to the day’s haul As the truck pulled away, I blew him a kiss and was rewarded with a wave

I returned tomakes a room look messier than a wastebasket full of trash As I settled in lanced down and spotted the vellu and now lay on the floor I leaned over, picked it up, and stared at it What was going on? Instead of happily winging its way to the county du was back I’m not superstitious by nature, but the envelope, coupled with Michael Sutton’s reference to his faht in motion

I kne treacherous and frail family bonds could be My randparents Burton Kinsey and Cornelia Straith LaGrand, known since as Grand My parents had been jettisoned from the bosom of the family when my mother met hteen at the time and came from money, albeit of the small-town sort My father, Randy Millhone, was thirty-three years old and a mail carrier In retrospect, it’s difficult to say which orse in Grand’s eyes, his advanced age or his occupation Apparently, she viewed civil servants right up there with career criirl Rita Cynthia Kinsey first clapped eyes onin as a waiter for a friend ned the catering coe created a rift in the family that had never healed My Aunt Gin was the only one of her four sisters who sided with her, and she ended up raising me after my parents were killed in a car wreck when I was five

You’d think I’d have been pleased to discover the existence of close kin Instead, I was pissed off, convinced they’d known about h to seek me out I was thirty-four when the first family overtures were made, and I counted their twenty-nine years’ silence as evidence of crass indifference for which I blamed Grand I really didn’t have a quarrel with my aunts and cousins I’d tossed them into the pit with Grand because it was simpler that way I’ll adhteous satisfaction in my wholesale condemnation For the past two or three years, I’d made a halfhearted attempt to modify my attitude, but it hadn’t really worked I’ in I shoved the invitation inI’d deal with it later

Sutton returned after twenty minutes with five crisp one-hundred-dollar bills, for which I wrote hiain, I locked the cash inThursday to Sutton’s business, I sat down and did a rough draft of one of the client reports on et one chore out of the way By the time I’d finished, it was close to 4:00 and I decided to shut down for the day One reason I’ anyone else

I rescuedspot I’d found earlier My office is on a narrow side street barely one block long For the , whichways to squeezeticket, but I hadn’t gotten one yet