Socia said, “Joke all you want.” He looked at me. “But you know this ain’t a joke, don’t you? This is the end of your life, Kenzie, and it’s happening.”

I wanted to say something funny, but nothing came to mind. Nothing came even close. It was definitely happening.

Socia smiled. “Uh-huh. You know it. Only reason you’re alive right now is because Jenna gave you something, and she told you something else. Now, where’s it at?”

I said, “In a safe place.”

“In a safe place,” he repeated, rolling it off his tongue, slightly nasal inflection. His imitation of Whitespeak. “Yeah, well, whyn’t you tell me where this safe place is,” he said.

“Don’t know it,” I said. “Jenna never told me.”

“Bullshit,” he said and leaned toward me.

“I’m not busting my ass to convince you here, Marion. I’m just telling you so that when you toss my office and apartment and don’t find anything, you won’t be too surprised.”

“Maybe I get some friends, we toss you.”

“Your prerogative,” I said. “But you and your friends better be real good.”

“Why? You think you’re real good, Kenzie?”

I nodded. “At this, yeah, I’m real good. And so’s Angie, maybe better. And that guy on the roof, he’s better than both of us.”

“And he’s not too fond of black people,” Angie said.

“So, you two real proud of yourselves? Got yourselves a three-man KKK to keep the black man from your door?”

I said, “Oh, please, Socia, this ain’t color. You’re a fucking criminal. You’re a douche bag who uses kids to do his dirty work. Black or white, that wouldn’t change. And if you try and stop me on this, chances are you’ll succeed and I’ll die. But you won’t stop him.” Socia looked up at the roof. “He’ll come at you and your whole gang and take you all out and probably half the ‘Bury with you. He has about as much conscience as you and even less of a sense of public relations.”

Socia laughed. “You trying to scare me?”

I shook my head. “You don’t scare, Marion. People like you never do. But you do die. And if I die, so do you. Simple fact.”

He sat back on the bench again. Crowds passed us in a steady stream and Bubba’s target scope never moved. Socia tilted his head forward again. “All right, Kenzie. We’ll give you this round. But, either way, don’t matter what, you’ll pay up for Curtis.”

I shrugged, a heavy weight behind my eyes.

“You got twenty-four hours to find what we’re both looking for. If I find it before you, or you find it and don’t get it right over to me, your life won’t be worth piss.”

“Neither will yours.”

He stood up. “Lotta people tried to kill me over the years, white boy. No one figured a way to do it right yet. Either way, that’s the workings of the world.”