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Curtis, trying to get over his initial shock, pulled back the envelope.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but it’s gotta be signed for by the person it’s addressed to.”

She squinted her sunken eyes and looked harder at the envelope. “Who it from?”

Will Curtis turned over the envelope, pretending to read from the bill of lading. “Says the U.S. Treasury in Washington.”

“Treasury? You sure you got the right address?”

He read it off the envelope, then said, “Kendrik Mays, right?”

She said, “Think that may be a check?”

In a tone he hoped showed he was uninterested, he replied: “Yeah, that’d be my guess. Pension check, IRS refund, maybe some of that stimulus money the government’s been giving away. That’d be a good reason they want it delivered to the right person.”

Will Curtis looked her in the eyes and could see she was considering her options.

She said, “I sign for it. Kendrik my boy. I see he gets it.”

Curtis shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am. I’m just a delivery guy. And I got to follow rules. I guess I’ll come back—”

She slammed the door shut in his face.

What the hell? he thought.

Then he could hear the chain clanking against the inside. The door swung all the way open.

“Hurry up,” she said shakily. “Maybe he

got money, he don’t beat me no more. Maybe he move out for good.”

Curtis looked around the inside of the house. It was a shambles. The only furniture was a threadbare sofa with torn cushions and two white plastic patio chairs.

“You know that’s not right. No one should beat you.”

She said, “I knows. I do. But he don’t mean to. It’s drugs. They make him mean. Different, you know?”

“No, ma’am, I don’t know. I can’t begin to understand it. Where is he?”

She pointed to the floor, indicating the basement, and started to cry. “He was such a sweet little boy. The street turned him bad . . .”

“That, I know.”

“What?”

He held up the envelope, then grabbed the tab at the top, peeling it open. He reached in and pulled out a sheet. It was a Wanted poster from the listing of Megan’s Law fugitives at CrimeFreePhilly.com, one he’d downloaded and printed in his basement.

Next to a color mug shot of an angry-looking young black man with a full beard and dreadlocks was: Name (First, Middle, LAST): Kendrik LeShawn MAYS

Description: Black Male, 5'9", 200 lbs.

Date of Birth: 10/19/1988

Last Known Address: 2620 Wilder Street

City, State, ZIP: Philadelphia, PA 19147

Convicted of: 3123 Involuntary deviant