Chapter 4

Ray waited three days before he came to the yard office, and when he finally did he sat down in the chair across from me like a man visiting a lawyer he could not afford.

He had not shaved. He has shaved every day since 1997.

"Okafor called the house," he said.

"They do that. It's a notice."

"Twenty-five years and you go to a counter."

I turned the payables screen off, which I want on the record, because it would have been very easy to leave it on and be busy at him.

"Say her middle name," I said.