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Foster’s warning that the house h allery? Had the guy back in the ceht and Foster wanted Jansen and company to find him?

“Valdez contacted me,” Foster said “Not you You should have respectedmy house”

I knehat he meant “Where did the coin come from?”

“I stole it a long tio”

“That’s all he ever says,” Coleen said “Frole outside a museum And my father stole it, then hid it in a drawer Bullshit”

Nate faced his father-in-law “Why are you the only one allowed to know the truth?”

They all waited for more

But Foster seemed off in another place

“I was there,” he finally said “None of you sahat I saw Felt what I felt When I rushed up those stairs to the balcony, it was like the world had come to an end”

The hole in King’s right jaas the size of a fist Blood poured out in rapid spurts soaking both King’s clothes and the balcony’s concrete He was still alive, but his breathing seemed labored He tried to speak, but no words would form

“It’s all right,” Abernathy told King “Don’t worry This is Ralph Can you hear me? Are you in pain?”

No reply

King’s skin had turned ashen and see nothing, but perhaps everything Andy Young and Jesse Jackson had finally rushed up the stairs, too A Memphis policeman appeared with a tohich he wrapped around the wound to try to check the bleeding

Young pressed for a pulse and shook his head “Ralph, it’s all over”

“Don’t say that,” Abernathy screamed

So Not as a corpse, but still as a living being Chaos exploded below People appeared fro There ails, pleas, and accusations Firemen and helmeted police arrived eapons drawn

“Where did the shot come from?” one of the cops yelled up

Those standing watch over their leader—Young, Abernathy, and the others—all pointed toward the northwest, across the street, past a bushy knoll,

at a two-story, brick roorapher below captured the ers extended outward

A siren could finally be heard and an ambulance arrived

By 6:15 King made it to the hospital

Fourteen ht into an operating roo quickly cut away

The

“Me and Ralph,” Foster said, “watched as they tried to save hi us to leave, but RalphBy now he didn’t trust anybody, especially white people”

A thoracic surgeon, heart surgeon, puleons came

But the neurosurgeon made the call

The bullet had da the spinal cord, then shattering into pieces when it ricocheted off the vertebrae, finally e in the left shoulder blade A lot of important nerves had been irrevocably severed

“He’s alive, but barely It would be a blessing if he did go The spine is cut and there is awful brain daetative state He’s permanently paralyzed from the neck down”

A respirator kept forcing air into the lungs

Monitors showed a weak heartbeat

The doctors decided to try a cardiac e and a shot of adrenaline But neither had any effect Finally, the monitors showed no heart function

Abernathy walked to the table and cradled his old friend in his arms

They’d been together a long time

King’s inhales grew farther apart

Then stopped

At 7:05 PM, sixty-fourJr died

“We just stood there,” Foster said “Ralph kept holding him I bowed one”