Chapter 5: The Midnight List

"No," I said. "He didn't tell me anything. That's his whole problem."

Valentina's smile slipped a little.

She'd come to watch me bleed, and I'd given her a customer-service voice.

"Have a good night, Valentina. Watch the step."

She looked at Connie, who was holding the lasagna knife.

She left.

The bell rang behind her.

The barber shook his head at me and went back to his chair.

As soon as the door shut, Connie had her phone out.

"I'm calling him."

"No, you're not."

"He's paying for her apartment? Lili, I'll put him in the ground. I'll put both of them in the ground and then go to confession."

"Put the phone down."

She put it down hard.

"Why aren't you screaming?" she asked.

"I screamed on Thursday. Inside."

I wiped the counter where my mother's bag had been.

"Now I'm opening a shop."

Connie stared at me for a long second.

Then she picked up the broom.

We worked until ten.

I oiled Nonno's machine and cut six test keys until the cuts came out clean.

Connie taped a sheet of printer paper over the broken sign.

It said Y in black marker.

"It's temporary," she said.

"It's crooked."

"It's temporary and crooked."

At midnight someone pounded on the shutter so hard the whole thing rang.

I came down the stairs in my socks with the pry bar.

Connie was right behind me in her scrubs, holding a frying pan.

"Who is it?" I called.

"Please," a woman's voice said. "Please. You're the lock lady. You did my grandmother's door."

I raised the shutter halfway.

A woman about my age was crouched on the sidewalk under it.

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