“Don’t worry, he’s down the hall sawing logs,” Alice says. “I just wondered. He might be sweet on you. He’s an idiot, but he’s a good brother. I don’t want to see him get hurt.”

I shake my head. “Me either. Is he doing okay? He was in the hospital and checked out, I’m guessing against medical advice.”

Alice shrugs. “Like I said, he’s an idiot. Hates hospitals. I’m an ER nurse, so sometimes he uses me like his own personal doctor. I had to change his chest bandage. Some moron wrapped a mile of gauze and tape around him. You don’t need that much.” She sips her coffee again, looks out a window at the morning light. “He said a bunch of guys wanted to smash up your uncle’s bar and he tried to stop them. He’s lucky they didn’t shoot him in the head. Course, a bullet would probably bounce off.”

“They were gangbangers,” I say. “He took out a bunch of them before they shoved a knife in his chest. Some of them left their teeth on the floor.”

She nods, proudly. “Is that right,” she says.

I drain my coffee and over Alice’s protests rinse my dishes and put them in the dishwasher. “Thank you for breakfast,” I say. “And the bed. But I have to get to Dearborn. Do you have a cab company out here, or I could get an Uber—”

“Take my car.”

“Oh, that’s really nice, but I can’t.”

“It’s easy, you just go out here to Telegraph Road and head north, hit Michigan Avenue and you’re there.”

“No, I mean, I can’t take your car.”

“Why not? I’ve got the day off and I’ll be stuck here with Gus. Just bring the car back in one piece. Fill up the tank if it’ll make you feel better.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The sky is blue with white cirrus clouds feathering the sky, and I drive north in Alice’s Town & Country like a suburban soccer mom circa 1985. I turn on the radio, the one relatively updated piece of technology in the car, and find an ’80s station. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve driven a woodie wagon in the Motor City while listening to “Home Sweet Home” by Mötley Crüe. Strip malls and car dealerships and fast-food restaurants line the six-lane road—Middle America writ large.