“Why did he do that? Why not tell the truth from the beginning?”

Isabel Trejo shook her head. “You’re a smart man, Mr. Rios, can’t you figure out why we would want to keep this in the family?”

Before I could answer, her mother said, “No one needs to know my boy has AIDS.”

So that was it. I was right all along. Nick’s family was protecting him, but I was wrong about what they were protecting him from.

“Has he been sick?”

Isabel Trejo shook her head. “No, no symptoms, not,” and here she paused, glanced at her mother, and said, quietly, “yet.”

“Not everyone gets sick,” Mrs. Trejo said to her. “Not everyone dies.”

“But if he does get sick,” Isabel Trejo said evenly, “we’ll take care of him. His family. We won’t let anyone hurt him.”

“I need to tell the company about this to close the investigation.”

“Absolutely not,” Isabel Trejo said.

“Ms. Trejo, be reasonable. I promise you no one will know except me and my supervisor.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want any record out there about Nick being exposed to AIDS. It would ruin his life.”

I couldn’t argue the point.

“We figured when we told you Nick didn’t want the money, you would drop the case. I didn’t consider Bill’s estate might want it.”

I thought about it a moment. “The estate’s the only other possible claimant,” I said. “There’s Bill’s family but none of them know about the policy and Bill’s lawyer is fighting them to keep them from getting anything, so he’s not going to tell them. If the estate drops the claim, the investigation becomes moot. Bill’s lawyer is gay and a decent guy. I think he would understand if you at least let me tell him the real story.”

“What if Bill’s family finds out about the policy somewhere down the line?” Isabel Trejo asked.

“I suppose that’s a risk you’ll have to take to protect Nick. Will you let me talk to Bill’s lawyer? Between the two of us, we can make it all go away.”

Daughter and mother exchanged glances.

“Okay,” Isabel Trejo said grudgingly. “But only to him.”

“I need to show him the letter. A copy anyway.”

“You’ll destroy it after he reads it?”

“I promise. I don’t want to hurt Nick either.”

Isabel got up and went into the corridor where I heard a copying machine running. Mrs. Trejo and I were left alone.

“I’m sorry about Nick.”

“Do you think they’ll find a cure?”

“I hope so,” I equivocated, not wanting to tell her what I really thought which was that the government seemed perfectly content to let us all die. I added, “He’s a lucky boy to have such a loving family.”