“Gates, go to the town hall.”

“You sure like to tell other people what to do, don’t you?”

“It’s a gift.”

She leaned her head on my shoulder. “I haven’t eaten all day. You wanna grab something while we wait?”

We sat in a booth at the hospital cafeteria, and I stared out over the road as cars drove by. Gates ordered for us. My cell phone was off, so I put it on the table. She turned it on and flipped through it, taking a picture of herself and making it the screen saver before handing it back to me.

“Really?” I said.

“You’re too arrogant to ask.”

I grinned. “I am.” I turned the phone over in my hands. “You know I almost came back that first week I was in Miami.”

“Really? Cold feet?”

I shook my head. “No. I loved it. The sunshine and orange trees, the beach, the restaurants, the art museums, all of it.” I hesitated. “I wanted to come back because there was someone here that I felt I shouldn’t have left behind. Someone that I saw hurt, and it cut me so deeply I didn’t know what else to do but run.”

She lowered her eyes to the table. “That person probably would’ve liked to have been invited.”

“Would that person have come with me?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? She was young and adventurous then. Anything’s possible to the young.”

I exhaled loudly and leaned back in the seat. “Life’s a helluva trip, ain’t it? It takes years to look back and realize you should’ve gone left when you went right.”

“Maybe. Or maybe there’s only one road, and it takes you where it takes you.”

“Funny you say that. You know what my dad told me just now? That we make our own happiness in life.” I grinned. “He said his father told him the myth of Sisyphus. Don’t know where the hell my grandpa would’ve learned that because the only thing I remember about him is that he preferred horses to cars and dropped out of school in the third grade.”

“Don’t knock cowboy wisdom. Those guys worked from sunup to sundown, hard lives, and you learn a lot about yourself when you have to do that.”

I hesitated. “I think I might be done, Gates. With the case and with the job. I never should’ve taken it, and I’m sorry.”

Gates took a swallow of juice before putting the glass down and staring into it. “You know why I hired you? I didn’t have to, you know. I’ve dealt with a few murders myself and could’ve handled this, no problem.”

“Why?”

“For you.”

“What’dya mean, for me?”