That’s the way I wanted her. Alone, unsure. Now I was ready to set the trap and tell her where to meet me. I paused to give her just another second of anxiety.

Lupe grabbed the phone from my hand and started talking in Spanish. Her voice was surprisingly cold, flat. I don’t know what she said. She mentioned Joey’s name only once. When she hung up she grabbed her purse from the desk and rushed toward the door.

“What’d you do that for?” I yelled at her, blocking her way out.

“He’s my son. I told you. I don’t got time for your fancy way of figuring things out, and I don’t much care who you think killed who. I only care about Joey, and I’m gonna find him.”

I hadn’t had time to tell her what I’d found in Armando Diaz’s studio. She didn’t know how dangerous the shifting landscape was.

“You’ll ruin everything. I’ve got it all planned how I’ll—”

“No. We go together to meet Emma. This time you follow me. You said we were equal. Prove it.” She had changed clothes when she went home. She wore a red miniskirt, a skin-tight black halter top with cross straps and black high heels. It was not the wardrobe of a person you take seriously.

“I have to go alone,” I argued. “That’s the way I’ve always done everything.” The times I ran away from home. The way when I was a little kid I used to stay up all night so I could be awake and strong while my parents slept. The time in the Girl Scouts I cut a deep hole in the palm of my left hand to teach myself pain. I still have a scar nearly the size of a dime by my thumb. Going to law school when I knew my father didn’t want me to. I don’t know any other way to do things.

“I should have known. You’re all talk,” she snarled, one hand on her hip. “You do think you’re better than me. Smarter. All this stuff about the law and helping people—it’s bullshit. You’re just out to make yourself big. Well, fuck you.”

I stared stupidly back at Lupe. There was nothing about me in her eyes.

“Get outta the way. I told Emma where to meet me. I’m going,” she growled, pulling her purse more snugly across her shoulder. “With or without you. You can come with me or you can stay here and jerk off with your precious law books.”