“My friend died,” I told him, “right down the block. He’d been sober for about ten years. Then got mixed up with somebody around here. That’s where they found him anyway. Can I show you the picture again? Maybe you’ve seen him.”

I showed him the picture. He still didn’t know.

“Maybe you know someone who sold him some stuff,” I said.

He didn’t know.

“Maybe you can tell me who you use, maybe he knows my friend.”

“No one regular,” he said. He told me where he went. He bought from anyone. It didn’t matter, he thought. “Ten years?” he said.

“What?”

“Ten years. Your friend.”

“That’s right.”

I had him until then. He would have gone with me, I think; he would have gotten help. Here I went and told him it would take three, five at the most. I shouldn’t have said it. You never do. It takes as long as it takes. I had to say something and I said the wrong thing. He would have gone, even then, with me saying the wrong thing, but then I had to mention Frank and the ten years.

He wasn’t going anywhere now. He was done with me. I didn’t know what I was talking about, just like everybody else. If I had stayed on him, I could have helped, but I had to swing things back to Frank, back to why I was there. I wasn’t there for him. I could have been.

He opened the door.

“I could take you somewhere,” I said.

“Where your friend went?”

“Anywhere you want.”

“I could use some money for the bus,” he said.

“I’ll take you.”

“That’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got people who can help.”

He closed the door.

I knocked again but he didn’t come back. I stood and waited, then went back to the car. I had to force myself to go and knock on a few more doors. No one knew anything, not even the person right next door.

“I’m having a hard time tracking down some of the people on the street,” I told her. “Like next door. Do you happen to know anything about them?”

“Oh, he’s never around,” the neighbor said.

“He?”

“Single guy, I think. I haven’t seen him in a while. Travels a lot, I think.”

I asked about the wife and the kid, but she didn’t think that was right.