22.

It took a long time for Mrs. Franklin to open the door.

When she did, Crow said, “My name is Wilson Cromartie. I work for a man named Francisco.”

She tried to shut the door, but Crow wouldn’t let her.

“We need to talk,” he said, and forced the door open and went in and closed it behind him.

The woman backed away.

“Don’t hurt me,” she said.

Her voice was blurred and Crow assumed she’d drunk most of the beer she’d bought earlier.

“I won’t hurt you,” Crow said.

“He sent you,” she said.

“He did. He wants his daughter back.”

“He fucking deserves her,” the woman said. “How’d you find us.”

“Your daughter used a credit card in her own name.”

“Dumb bitch,” the woman said.

There was an open can of beer on the coffee table in front of the couch. The woman picked it up and drank some.

“He can have her back,” the woman said. “I can’t do anything with her. But I’m not going back.”

“He doesn’t want you back,” Crow said.

The woman belched softly.

“Good,” she said. “’Cause I ain’t going.”

“He told me to kill you,” Crow said.

The woman backed up a step.

“You said you wasn’t going to hurt me,” she said.

“I’m not,” Crow said. “I don’t kill women.”

“He know that?”

“No.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Your daughter’s got a boyfriend?”

The woman finished her beer.

“Everybody’s her boyfriend, the little slut. Who’s she with now?”

“Kid from Marshport named Esteban Carty,” Crow said.

“The fucking gangbanger,” the woman said.

“Yep.”

“She loves those gangbangers,” the woman said. “I think she does it to spite me.”

Crow nodded. The woman went to the refrigerator and got another beer. While she had the door open, she counted the number of beer cans left.

“I done everything for her, give up everything. Took her away from him. Run off, risked my life taking her with me, so I wouldn’t leave her with him. And she comes here and turns into a fucking slut.”

“Your daughter’s boyfriend knows I found you,” Crow said. “She’s with him now. So she’ll know, too.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want her running off again.”

“You think I can stop her?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Crow said. “I can.”


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