8
The man Jerome shot during the robbery had agreed to meet with me at his convenience store at ten-thirty, so I made my excuses around ten. Mr. Perry was under no obligation to speak with me at all, so I was happy to accommodate the unusual time. However, as I climbed in my car, I wished I’d given myself more of a buffer to navigate in the dark. I hate that feeling of impending lateness, the compression of time during the last few minutes when you’re trying to do the impossible and arrive punctually. Fortunately, I’d driven by the scene of the crime before and I made it to Mr. Perry’s store at ten-thirty on the dot. I was already trying to help the man who’d shot him; I didn’t want to give Mr. Perry any more excuse to dislike me.
Mr. Perry’s store was a basic cinder block building with
