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Mateo Gutierrez was eleven years Luke’s junior. He was finishing up a general education at the community college (he hadn’t a clue what he wanted to do in the long run, which was fine by him) and spent his summers serving at a breakfast diner on Seventeenth Street. Ron Hazen was a manager at the Panera just up the road. When Matty’s shift was over the next afternoon he took his car to the Panera’s parking lot, sat low behind the wheel and waited. He munched on Takis and spicy tamarind candy sticks, washed it down with sweet iced coffee. When he saw Ron come out, climb into his truck and drive off, he counted backwards from five and then pulled into the street and followed after, hot stomach acid roiling at the base of his throat, heart kicking in his chest.
That night he and Luk
