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Rebecca wasn’t pleased at Richie asking her to leave Shay’s house, but she could tell there would be no meeting of the minds that day, and she really didn’t want to create a permanent rift between herself and Shay. She hoped, given enough time, she would be able to talk to him about Salma without feeling like a participant in a cage match.
She drove to A-1 Cleaners, the shop owned by Gebran Najjar. She wanted to see what it looked like, as well as to question Salma’s father.
A sign on the door said the shop was closed due to a death in the family, but if someone needed to pick up their dry cleaning, to ring the bell during the shop’s normal hours, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. She rang the bell.
An older man answered. “Are you Salma Najjar’s father?” she asked, showing her badge.
“Yes.” He look
