Sam didn't think this guy was no cop. He was pretty sure this guy was from Mi Casa. "Look," he said, when he was sure Tony's little cousin was safely gone. "I'm happy to walk away." The white guy looked a little startled. "I know the score," Sam said. "A bunch of guys working corners, they've been gettin popped. I'm just sayin, if you got a problem with me working this corner, I got no beef with Mi Casa takin the franchise, know what I mean?" "Well, that's good," the white guy said. So he was Mi Casa. "Good," said Sam. "I just don't want to end up like those guys." Which is to say, dead. For one thing, Sam had a G.E.D., which his mother had made him take the test for. And to his surprise, he'd passed with no difficulty, first try. For another, with this 9mm killer wandering around knocking off random guys, street life had just reached the point where Sam wasn't sure he wanted to do it. He had a sister who was in community college and she said it was brain-dead easy so he was thinking, maybe he should be a lawyer or something. Sam was pretty sure that the killer was working for Mi Casa, although Tony said it was just dumb luck that Mi Casa hadn't been touched. Still, Paco Cisneros took over the wrong corner, bam, he was dead, and now some Mi Casa guy was workin there and nobody was blowin' his brains all over the street. And now the representative of the Angel of Death was here to talk to Mama Ligaya's boy and Sam was gonna make sure that the rep knew that Sam had no intention of laying it all down for the honor of Tony Viet and ESC... Of course, the other thing to do was to join Mi Casa. Which wasn't such a stretch. Sam's best friend from Junior High, a guy from his neighborhood, Shawn, was a mover and shaker in Mi Casa and Shawn had gone out with Sam's sister. Shawn had indicated that there might be a place in Mi Casa for Sam and had even told Sam about this cop who was backing them up. "So what's up with this po-lice-man, the fixer. Nakagawa," Sam said, by way of telling the white guy, 'I'm inside.' Sure enough, the white guy said, "What about him?" Smooth, Sam thought. He was moving smooth. "You know, is it just greed with guys like that? You know, that business of getting behind Mi Casa?" "Probably." "So I'm thinking, I know a guy in your organization. He's a good friend of mine. You know Shawn?" The guy kind of cocked his head, like he might. "I could give him a call, tell him I talked to you. We grew up together, you know?" "Okay," the guy said. "What's your name?" Sam asked. The guy glanced past him and squinted a little. "Huh," he said. "That's a funny place for a canoe."
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