“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Home,” she said.

“I have to make a stop to pick up some weed.” I made a right. “Want to come along?”

“Sure.”

I knew she would. We’d gotten high together the week before.

I drove to the carefully selected location, a brick row home in North Kensington. The units on either side had been demolished. This one should have been razed as well. Its blackened brick exterior flaked. Tall weeds and strewn garbage covered the yard. Before stopping, I cruised the neighborhood. The surrounding blocks were more of a war zone than a place where people lived. I checked the dark street in both directions. There was no one in sight. Below evenly spaced streetlamps, yellow puddles of light glittered on wet blacktop. Drizzle coated my windshield in a light but continuous film.

So far, so good.

I parked at the curb, not worried about the car being seen. The vehicle was a nondescript sedan, and I changed the license plates often, picking from a pool of stolen plates accumulated just for the purpose. Flipping up the hood of my jacket and tugging on gloves, I reached for the door handle.

She hesitated, her eyes sweeping the darkness. “Are you sure this is safe?”

I shrugged. “I’ve picked up stuff here before, and there isn’t anybody around who looks dangerous.”

Except me.

Still she didn’t move.

“Fine. Wait out here all by yourself if you want. I’m going inside.” I got out of the car. As I predicted, the girl was beside me in a few seconds.

She followed me up the cement steps. On a nearby street, dogs barked over the soft patter of rain. Other than the distant wail of a siren, the neighborhood was quiet. No one here wanted to draw attention to what he was doing. On the crumbling stoop, I nudged the sagging door open with my foot and eased into the dark interior. The floorboards in the center of the living room had collapsed into the basement, but the biggest risk here was that someone else had decided to use this particular abandoned building for his own nefarious purposes.

I switched on my flashlight and gave the space a quick sweep. Dirt, rodent droppings, and pieces of bricks littered the interior. “All clear. I’m sure he’ll be here in a minute. Stay on the edges of the room.”

Gaze darting into the shadows, she went to the boarded-up window and peered through a gap between the sheets of plywood.

“No one will bother us here.” I was the only thing she had to fear.

Still staring out the gap, she hugged her torso, rubbing her biceps. “Will this take long?”