Angel and Theresa took turns asking each other questions while Duke read. Angel had to stop herself from gazing at him, because watching him read aloud under his breath, intent on the text in front of him, drove her mad. She wanted to close those moving lips with a long kiss. And then open them with her tongue.

After a few minutes, he stopped and said, “Is this for real?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are there really so many black kids dying from asthma? How come they don’t have medicine that works?”

“I know, it’s crazy. You’d think they’d have alternative pharmaceuticals by now,” Theresa said.

“Pharma companies focus their research on improving Viagra and hair-growth medication. More people need to look into why it’s happening, anyway. I mean, most of the boys on Jose’s baseball team have some level of asthma kick in when they’re outside playing, so I’m sure it’s the air around here. But Jose’s lungs get irritated sometimes just by playing in his room. The damn landlord couldn’t care less about taking care of the mold in the walls or sealing the windows so dust from the train doesn’t get in.”

Duke pounded a fist into his hand. “I’ll talk to the motherfucker.”

“Unfortunately, he’s somewhere in the Florida Keys.”

He exhaled a deep breath and took a sip of coffee. “How do you get scientists to start spending more time researching this?”

“You’d have to find funding.”

“Huh. This is really bugging me.”

“It should! You saw Jose, how bad he was two days ago. We treat asthmatic kids at the clinic all the time, sometimes really bad episodes. Some white kids, but mostly Puerto Rican and black.”

He frowned deeply and went back to his reading.

Theresa whispered to Angel, “Speaking of the clinic … have you talked to Dr. Collins today?”

“No, not since the day before…” They both looked at Duke and back at each other and grinned.

“The doctor has dyed his hair black.”

“Oh my God, the silver fox is trying to go back in time.”

Theresa giggled. “It’s the fakest thing I’ve ever seen. And there’s a black ring around the collar of his lab coat.”

“I am so glad we’re almost done with that moron.”

“He was bugging me about you last night, though, asking if I’d heard from you. What’s that all about?”

“Oh God. I don’t know. He texted and asked me to come in today. I’m putting it off as long as I can.”