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He sighed and I could alh his hair "About the same She treats me like dirt I don’t knohy I let her back in h, isn’t it?"

"Well, yeah, that’s true," he said "And we’re seeing a counselor Not them Me and her"

"Maybe that will help"

"Maybe it won’t" He caught hied his tone "Ah Well I shouldn’t couess I did it toyou"

"Don’t worry about it I’ot a way for you to redeeht maybe I could buy you lunch today and pick your brain"

"Sure I’d love it, only lunch is on uilt How you like that ’assuage’ stuff? That’s the word of the day on my vocabulary calendar Yesterday was ’ineluctable’ I never did figure out how to sneak that one in Where do you want to go? You name the place"

"Oh, let’s keep it simple I don’t want to spend a lot of time on social niceties"

"How about the courthouse? I’ll pick up soht out in public Won’t the departet wind of it and leaveyou want ave hi Nola Fraker out of it I’d decide later how much of the story I could trust him with For now, I fed him the public version and asked if he could take a peek at the files

"I have a vague recollection of that one Letif you would," I said "Could you run a check through NCIC on a woave him her two aka’s, Delia Sims and Delilah Sampson, the birthdate I’d taken off the driver’s license, and the additional inforht Got it I’ll do what I can See you shortly," he said and hung up

It had occurred tosoht well have a prior record There was no way I’d have access to the National Crih an authorized law-enforceh the coet feedback in minutes and at least then I’d know if rabbed the bank deposit, and locked up, going next door for a few minutes to chat with Vera Lipton, one of the claims adjusters for California Fidelity Insurance I stopped off at the bank on the way over to the courthouse, depositingaccount to cover current expenses

The day, which had started out on preheat, was cranked up to broil by now The sidewalks shimmered and the palms looked bleached out by the sun Where occasional potholes in the street had been filled, the asphalt was as soft and grainy as cookie dough

The Santa Teresa Courthouse looks like a Moorish castle: hand-carved wooden doors, towers, and wrought-iron balconies Inside, there’s so much mosaic tile on the walls, it looks like someone’s covered them with patchwork quilts One courtroo of Santa Teresa by the early Spanish missionaries It’s sort of the Walt Disney version of what really went on as the artist has omitted the introduction of syphilis and the corruption of the Indians I prefer it myself, if the truth be known It would be hard to concentrate on justice if you had to stare up at soes of paresis

I cut through the great archway toward the sunken gardens in the rear There were about two dozen people scattered across the lawn, so in the sun Idly, I catalogued thetowardone of those visual surveys that starts at the botto left… uh-hun, flat belly, great arht He’d almost reached me when I checked out the face and realized it was Jonah

I hadn’t seen hiimen had worked like a charm His face; which in the past I’d labeled "harer and he’d picked up a tan so that his blue eyes now blazed in a face the color ofdead in reat"