“No!” Andrés roared, then said in a more level voice, “He promised me he would go back to By-Smart, tell them he changed his mind, and I even told him I would help him if he did go. And young Billy said Frank did go, he did see the woman in charge of sheets, and also Patrick Grobian, whom we all know, but—then I think he changed his mind.”

“Did he tell you he had opened his second plant? Did Rose Dorrado tell you she was supervising the night shift for him in it?”

“What?” He was thunderstruck. “She was doing that and she said nothing to me, to her pastor, about this important thing in the life of the neighborhood?”

“But wasn’t that good?” I was genuinely bewildered now. “That meant he was keeping jobs in the community.”

“He lied to me!” Andrés’s color rose. “And so did she. Or worse, she did not look me in the face and tell me the truth!”

“About what?”

“About—Frank Zamar’s financial situation.”

I didn’t think that was what he meant, and from the look on the other electrician’s face he didn’t think so, either, but I couldn’t get Andrés to budge, and I couldn’t get his coworker to talk. We’d been at it for about ten minutes when a man came in and spoke to Andrés in Spanish—they needed the work in the kitchen finished so that the floor could be something—closed up, I think. Andrés told me I had to leave, he had nothing further to say to me.

I pushed myself to my feet. My hamstrings were stiff from squatting so long. “Okay. Just so you know, though, this morning people broke into the apartment where Ms. Love has been staying. They took her computer: they don’t want whatever she knows about the South Side to be made public. Bron Czernin was killed in a very ugly way. If she survives, Ms. Love will face many surgeries before she recovers. Whoever attacked them is ruthless. If they think you know whatever secrets she and Bron shared, you could be the next target.”

Andrés straightened himself; his face took on a rapt expression. “Jesús se humillo así mismo, haciendose obediente, hasta la muerte. Jesus became obedient to death upon the cross. I will not show fear to go where my Master went before me.”

“And it’s okay with you if they attack Billy and Josie as well?”