Then she took my hand, the one with the burn scar on the knuckles, and held it against her cheek.
“I knew it was you,” she said.
“I knew the hands.”
“Dena,” I said.
“I know you did.”
Krista Upshaw testified against both of them.
She took a plea, and probation, and four hundred hours of community service, which she served on Saturday mornings in the dish pit at Graciela’s, under the supervision of Rolando.
Hunter Brenner and Zane Cardenas pleaded guilty in January.
There was one more thing I owed.
It was after close on a Tuesday, with the chairs up and the dining room dim, and Rolando was wiping down the steel in the kitchen.
“You gave two plates to a girl in a Buick,” I said, “and you never told me.”
“It was your mother’s rule,” said Rolando.
“I just followed it.”
I put my hand on his shoulder.
