“I know,” I said.
“Second bedroom upstairs. Downstairs, when I was first retired, I thought about putting my PI office in here, you know? But the neighborhood was going downhil then. Bad place for a business.”
He looked at Maia, who smiled in a daughterly way. If she was anxious about being late for her court date, she didn’t show it. Patience was one of her great investigative assets, which explained why she was stil dating me.
“Now they cal the neighborhood Southtown,” Sam told her. “Look at this traffic. When did the center of town move south again?”
I needed to get Sam home. I just wasn’t sure how to do it yet. The gun wasn’t the hardest part. It was moving the photographs. He would get upset about that.
“What would you charge,” he asked me, “for a job like this?”
“What job, Sam?”
He waved at the photos. “Finding them. Putting names back to the faces. It’s bothering me.”
“Look, Sam,” I said, “the folks at the office are worried about you.”
“My office?”
“Yeah. I-Tech. You were supposed to go in today and sign some papers.”
“I’m retiring,” he said.
“That’s right.”
“Before they kick me out.”
His eyes showed no hint of confusion—just the sadness of a man who knew exactly what was happening to him.
“Alicia and my doctor have it al planned,” he said. “I’m supposed to sel my properties. The money wil pay for this assisted living program. They do studies with new drugs, like on rats. They say it’s my best shot.
I don’t want to live with a bunch of people like me.”
“Sam—let’s get you home.”
“This is my home.”
Down on South Alamo, conjunto music played from a car stereo. The morning air was heating up, fil ed with the smel of wet magnolia leaves from Sam’s front yard.
Sam picked up a tintype of an old Latino in a starched shirt, suspenders and a bowler. It could’ve been Sam’s grandfather.
Right then, I knew what I would do. I realized I’d been thinking about it for days.
I wasn’t excited. I figured I might as wel make myself a T-shirt that said COACH FOR LIFE on one side and KICK ME on the other side. But I knew I had to do it. I’d never forgive myself otherwise.
I looked at Maia.
I kept looking until I thought I’d conveyed my question right.
She hesitated, then leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I think I’l strol down the block for a while, gentlemen. Nice meeting you, Mr. Barrera.”
When it was just Sam and me, I said, “You want al of those people found?”
“Yeah.” Sam studied the old picture. “Names to faces, you know? Bothering the hel out of me.”
“Big job. Lot of hours, plus expenses.”