What happened to Gloria Torres now cut at him. He was alive because she had been taken away by evil. Graciela had told him the story. Gloria had died for no reason other than that she was in the way of somebody and a cash register. It was a simple, stupid and ghastly reason to die. It somehow put McCaleb in debt. To her and her son, to Graciela, even to himself.

He picked up the phone and dialed the number scratched on the paper. It was late but he didn’t want to wait and he didn’t think she would want him to. She answered in a whisper after only one ring.

“Miss Rivers?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Terry McCaleb. You came by my-”

“Yes.”

“Is this a bad time?”

“No.”

“Well, listen, I wanted to tell you that I, uh, have been thinking about things and I promised you I’d call you back no matter what I decided.”

“Yes.”

There was a hopeful tone in just her one word. It touched his heart.

“Well, this is what I think. My, um, my skills, I guess you’d call them, they’re not really suited to this kind of crime. From what you described about your sister, we’re talking about a random occurrence with a financial motive. A robbery. So it’s different from, you know, the kind of cases I worked for the bureau, the serial cases.”

“I understand.”

The hopefulness was bleeding out.

“No, I’m not saying I’m not going to-you know, that I’m not interested. I’m calling because I am going to go see the police tomorrow and ask about this. But-”

“Thank you.”

“-I don’t know how successful I’m going to be. That’s what I’m trying to say. I don’t want to get your hopes up, is what I’m saying. These things… I don’t know.”

“I understand. Thank you for just being willing to do this. Nobody-”

“Well, I’ll take a look at things,” he said, cutting her off. He didn’t want her thanking him too much. “I don’t know what kind of help or cooperation I’ll get from the L.A. police but I’ll do what I can. I owe your sister at least that much. To try.”