Ruth hitched up the bosom of her bathing suit. She gave Letty an awkward pat on the back. “We’re so glad,” she said. “Aren’t we, Billie?”

Billie nodded. “Ruth was about to boost me up and into the dumpster. We were afraid maybe…”

Ruth frowned. “And then we heard Maya. She was inside that big concrete pipe. She ran out and that fella came out too. He must’ve been hiding in there with her.”

“Right before that, Merwin and Trudi pulled into the parking lot. Merwin was mad because somebody else parked in that handicap spot,” Billie said.

“Yeah, Merwin thinks he owns that handicap spot, but he doesn’t,” Oscar said. “Ava even told him he can’t park there permanent. Supposed to be loading and unloading only.”

“We get it, Oscar,” Ruth said, giving him a withering glance. “Could you please let Billie finish telling what happened. We were there and you weren’t.”

“So Merwin had the other car blocked in, and he was really laying on the horn,” Billie reported.

“And then Trudi got out of the van, and that guy, the one in the baseball cap, he came running at Trudi.”

“The guy in the baseball cap? See? I told you. I told you I saw him creeping around here last night. Nobody believed me, but I saw him peeking in the window at the office.” Oscar’s pale face was pink with excitement. “It had to be the same guy. I knew he was up to no good.”

“It wasn’t that we didn’t believe you,” Ava started to say.

“He had a gun!” Ruth broke in. “And he was pointing it right at Trudi, screaming at her that if they didn’t move Merwin’s van, he’d blow her bleeping head off.”

“Trudi didn’t even blink,” Billie said. “He kept yelling and pointing the gun at her. I really thought he’d kill her. I even told Ruthie, ‘He’ll shoot her.’”

Letty began to edge away from the crowd of regulars who’d gathered in the breezeway. Maya’s arms encircled her neck. She gently rubbed the little girl’s back, crooning the verses to Maya’s favorite song in her ear. “Let it go, let it go…” Maya’s sobs slowed and she took a long, shuddering breath.

“And then Trudi picked up that walker of hers and she swung on him like A-Rod used to swing on a high fastball,” she heard Ruth say. “Ka-pow! She laid him out with one swing. Knocked him clean out of the park.”

Joe found Letty curled up in the corner of the sofa in her unit, with Maya on her lap, watching PAW Patrol on the television. Letty looked up and smiled when he walked into the room, and he wanted to collapse from relief.

“She’s okay,” Letty said, before he could ask. “Right, Maya?” She patted the sofa cushion and Joe sat down beside her.