I said this as quietly as I could and with the least amount of expression. I thought she would panic, but she just looked back at me as though this was what she’d been expecting. Lupe looked around the clearing where we stood and listened intently, a slight frown on her face. There were no longer any sounds except for our own breathing. We were completely alone in the spreading shadows of Dogtown.

“He doesn’t know how much you know,” Lupe said, pushing her hair back from her face.

“True. He thinks I know more than I do.” Did I have enough for a prima facie case in court? Or just enough to be dangerous to myself and others? My education suddenly seemed woefully inadequate.

“Get out of here while you can,” I begged. “Go to the police.”

“Me? The police? And have them take Joey from me. Estas loca. Besides, they’re probably looking for you right now. You stood up a guy at Parker Center, remember?”

I was past caring about the law. About formal structures. I couldn’t remember why I had gone to law school. They would do what they had to do. I would do what I had to do. “Then go to your mother,” I told her.

Angrily, Lupe started to say something but she turned away instead. I watched as she hurried down the path on which we had come. Instead of continuing on to the car, she stepped off the path and disappeared between some monuments. What was she doing? Why didn’t she listen to me?

I wanted to run after her, but I made myself stand still and listen for whatever sounds might tell me where Armando Diaz was. I wondered what I was going to do. Talk to him? Counsel him? Volunteer to go with him if he’d surrender? I stood there for a long time, sniffing the air like a dog, uncertain about what to do. The sepulchers and markers stood taller than a man and were jumbled together with scant space between them. I stood still for so long that I thought I heard the sound of rain. It was only the sound of sprinklers somewhere in the distance, but it woke me from my blank reverie.

I felt for the gun at my waist again. My fingers embraced the handle, and I ran my thumb over the safety catch, feeling the tension of the mechanism.