with a metal plate. âThatâs our air conditioning.â
âYou mean thatâs all the air that gets into your cell?â
âThatâs it. But I got a good system. I take my blanket, they give us a blanket upstairs, I soak it in the sink until itâs soaking wet and then I put it on the cot and I sleep on that.â
âYouâll get arthritis. Does it keep you cool?â
âIt keep you soggy but not too bad. It helps.â
âListen, Luis, I wanted to talk to you alone today because I want to get to the bottom of this story of yours. Once and for all.â
âOkay, Mr. Luca. What you want to know?â Alvarado pulled a single cigarette from his shirt pocket. It was a Pall Mall again. Filter cigarettes arenât allowed in prisonâsupposedly because prisoners can do funny things with filters, make something to get high. Pall Mall, as the original king-size cigarette, has never relinquished its popularity in prisons, where smoking is a luxury to be prolonged. It outsells all other brands there two to one.
âFirst, let me explain this to you,â said Sandro. âI want you to tell me the truth. No phony story. Understand?â
âI tolâ you, I got no reason to lie to you, Mr. Luca,â Alvarado said firmly, looking directly at Sandro. âI know you trying to help me.â
âThatâs right. And we told you that if you give us a story thatâs not true and we accept it and build your defense on it, and it blows in our face, itâs your hide. Understand? Your hideâs going to find itself in jeopardy, not ours.â
âI understand.â
âSo what Iâm suggesting,â Sandro said very carefully and slowly, leaning toward Alvarado, âis that you donât know the law, and if you want to make up a story or alibi, at least you should make up a story thatâs right, thatâll help. I know the law.â Sandro was hoping to lead Alvarado into the truth through the back door. âWe can work out the story together. At least, if itâs going to be manufactured, it will be manufactured right.â Sandro didnât intend to manufacture the story, or suborn perjury, but he did want the truth.
âI already telling you the truth. I know itâs no good for my case to hide anything from you,â replied Alvarado.
âAll right. Tell me again all that happened.â
âLike I told you. I was in the house. Oh wait, I remember something I didnât tell you and Mr. Sam Bemer last time. About a quarter after two, two thirty, before I went home to get a shower and then go in the subway, I took a haircut on Roebling Street.â
âA haircut. You got a haircut about two fifteen or two thirty?â
âYes, I didnât tolâ you last time you was here. I remember being out of the house and being near Broadway and Roebling Street. I did some things, killed time, and then I went to take a haircut. After, I wented home and taking a shower and dressed and talking to Jorge. Then I went to Times Square.â
âAre you sure about the time at the barber shop?â Sandro studied Alvarado closely.
âSure.â
âWhere is this barber shop?â
âItâs onââhe studied the ceiling, his eyes zeroing in on the barber shopââI think between Broadway and South Ninth on Roebling Street on this side of the street.â His hand motioned toward his left.
âWhat side of the street is that? Is it the east side or the west side of the street?â
âI think itâs the ⦠well, when you looking from Broadway to South Ninth Street itâs on the left side. What side is that?â
âEast. Itâs on the east side of the street between Broadway and South Ninth Street?â
âYes.â
âDo you know who the barber was or what he looked like?â
âA short guy with a moustache. Young.â It sounded like