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Eddie looks up sharply “That’s a shitty thing to say”
“Maybe,” I say “But these days I speakback?”
“Well, it’s still shitty of you to say it like that Even if you’re right, ould she leave noel’s dead Cheating on Olivia with her is moot”
“Maybe she’s had enough of your shit, Eddie Maybe she sees herself ending up like Jewel I don’t know, but I do know one thing”
“What?”
“She deserves better than you”
Eddie rises to his feet, chair scraping back I don’t knohat he intends to do, but he doesn’t get far Nurabs Eddie by the forearm Numi makes no other movement Hell, even his eyes are still half-closed as he stares ahead He looks, if anything, bored It’s a well-cultivated illusion Nu
“Sit down, cowboy,” he says
Eddie doesn’t like to be grabbed, and he doesn’t like Nu If he leaves now I knoill never see ain either I had always assumed I would see her at least one ood-bye
“I probably shouldn’t have said what I said, Eddie, but you kno I feel about you cheating on her”
“Because you love her”
“Because I care about her,” I correct “Sit down”
He doesn’t sit immediately, and Nuerian friend and sits again, folding his arms over his chest
“Good,” I say “Who saw her last?”
“The friend she was staying with”
“When?”
“Al to take a hike in Elysian Park”
“When did she leave you?”
He thinks about it “Eight days ago”
“She had been with her friend the entire time?”
“Yes, as far as I know”
“What’s her friend’s name?”
“Karen Fitch”
“Do you knohere she lives?”
“Yes, in Echo Park I can get the address for you”
He lapses into silence and so do I All of us know that Elysian Park is where o My brother was nine years old Eddie must have told Numi this, which is why Nu
I think ether when I ask, “Did she go alone?”
“Yes” Eddie is watchingme Too damn closely
I count back two days That would have been July 5 If she had gone to Elysian Park on the Fourth, I would have understood People hiked and picnicked there to watch the fireworks at Dodger Stadium I have done so a few times myself Back in another lifetime