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Go back

“We can’t,” I said, ets those files, they’ll never see the light of day”

I’ve always been a as at stake In the years that followed I would h calls, soonizing, but none would ever measure up to that first one

“I get that,” she said “I got it back in the restaurant You go Find out what you can Keep the files and the coin I’ll take my chances that these files are more important than I am Oliver will surely want to deal” She handed over the backpack and fished Nate’s cell phone from her pocket “Hold on to this You may need it”

Then she hopped off thetram to the street

I turned back to see her waiting on Valdez, astoward her

The trolley turned a corner

Should I jump off, too? Go back and help her? No The ht and Valdez and Oliver would do nothing until they could obtain the files and the coin

The tra up speed

I left it a fewoff to the sidehile the driver waited for the red light to change I was back near the ency vehicles, their lights flashing in the bright sun, still busy at the scene where Veddern had been shot

I needed some privacy to assess my options

I noticed a large Spanish Revival–style building not far away, identified as the Lightner Museuship hotels, it once contained the world’s largest indoor pool Noas aan eclectic collection of 19th-century art and décor Some people called it Florida’s Smithsonian

I recalled what else was inside

So I hustled around the building to its west side and followed the ay to a side entrance Through a dim, cool corridor I stepped into as once the hotel’s indoor pool Now it housed the Café Alcazar, which Paray, weathered cement Three stories of railed balconies rose above frouests had once leaped down into the cold water Now those floors were part of the museum Only a few of the tables were occupied A pianist played, the soft, tinny h the cavernous space Whatwas that it was entirely inside, with no s I needed a few minutes in relative safety to catch my breath

And to think

Coleen had toldthe person named on Bruce Lael’s pad

I sat at one of the tables

A server approached and, to buy tilass of iced tea

I couldn’t call Stephanie Nelle She probably wasn’t all that happy withway beyond anything I’d ever ihts traced back over the last day and a half, which seemed like a lifetime A man had just bee

n shot Another man had been blown up Now Coleen and her father were in jeopardy

Everything seemed to depend on me

I sat for a few hts spun uselessly Much later in my career I would learn to e insecurity That unsettling combination of nerves, alertness, and weariness At thisacquainted with their presence What I knew for sure, even then, was that I could not afford any rebellion inside myself

Nothing that ht trap me in a dilemma

Had theseJr? Were the conspiratorialists right? Did the wrongdoing stretch all the way up to the director of the FBI? A new sense of vibrancy, h me

I had to keep going forward

But I needed transportation

I could call Pam Our house was less than an hour away But I wondered what she’d think if she knew I’d been traveling across the state with a woman Would she think me as weak as I’d once been? Would she take out her fears onco to believe that relationships never lasted Paether ever since I joined the Navy Neither one of us had dated many others We chose each other I’d resolved never to repeatabout it, which probably explained hoas caught I’d realized thethat I loved s fast, but not before Pam learned what had happened The old cliché was true The spouse always knew

No

Pam was not an option here

The server returned with my tea

I sipped the cold liquid and tried to calone with Coleen Maybe I should just turn this all over to Stephanie Nelle Her resources far exceeded mine But this was s happen I recall vividly how, on that day,ambition seemed cloudy in its outlines, but precise in its parts Was I being selfish? Probably But what rookie wasn’t a little bit self-centered?