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“Yeah, man, I saw him He took off in that blue Mercedes—”

“Blue? Mutherfucker, that car was gray—”

“Whatever it was, heninety mile a hour”

I kept my eyes averted froaze Without a word, we picked our way through the swooning, unshots still ringing inout911

As aited for the police, Little D said, in a low voice, “You understand why, right?”

“Tell me, anyway” My voice sounded tinny and far away, obscured by the ocean roar in my head

“Tina came to me, ’cause I was friends with her mom If I’d turned her over to you, you’d have had to take her to the police If I handed her over to her dad, they probably would’ve found her with hiazed at the traffic on Silver Hill Road “I wanted to make sure we had an alibi for her, before that happened”

“So you left her with her uncle?”

“I knew hiured she’d be safe with him” He shook his head “And I knew he didn’t like Fisher, but I didn’t figure on hi this”

I nodded “I do understand You did what you thought was best”

“And noe standing out here with no more information than we had before”

“Maybe a little more,” I said “Maybe a little”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

A long series of interviews ensued They started on the scene and moved to a CID interview rooarden-variety shooting By the ti, but not enough to drown out the cops’ persistent questions

“And ere you at Fisher’s Pawn?” the detective asked for the third time A disheveled fellow in a shiny brown suit that matched his hair, he’d told me his name For a million dollars I couldn’t recall it