He heard the small sound she made and turned toward her. He saw she was crying, almost silently.
“Hey!” he said softly. “Hey, there!”
“I’m all right. I just... waited so long for this to happen, and I thought... it never would. I thought you’d... go back there again.”
“I won’t go back.” he said, and this time he knew he wouldn’t. He knew he’d outgrown the taste for the dramatic kind of happy ending, and in doing so, had learned there could be another kind.
A little over a week later, he came home and found Canelli sitting in front in a car waiting for him. Canelli asked him to get in and listen for a minute. Rainey got in beside him. Canelli looked straight ahead, tapping his fingers on the horn ring lightly.
“One way I can get it straightened out in my mind. Rainey, I can look up the arrest records. I can find who was picked up later. I can check it through the MO. I can find the people who were picked up for other things. I can make deals. A cop can always trade time for information. All he has to do is admit he was there. It might not work. It might take a lot of time and still never come to anything.”
“I’m glad you’re going to do it.”
“I wasn’t going to tell you I was going to do it. I’ve talked it over with my wife a dozen times. She said I should tell you I was doing it. I said I didn’t want to get your hopes up. She said you maybe needed to know I was doing it because it would mean something to you.”
“It’s a good thing to know.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. It was a long time ago. They don’t even remember the places they try to tap.”
“Thanks. Canelli.”
The man looked at him then with suppressed fury. “Don’t you thank me for a thing. Don’t even talk to me. Get out.”
Rainey got out. Canelli drove off, pushing the car hard. Rainey watched him wrench it around the distant corner. And he saw Mary come around the same corner, walking home from work. She saw him and waved. He waited for her so they could go up the stairs together.
