Excerpt of Included!

JOHN HART“He owns the Laundromat by the high school. There’s an office in theback.”“Is there a back door?”“Yeah, but it’s steel. You’ll have to go in the front.”“Anything else I should know?”“Don’t mention my name.” The phone clicked off.The Laundromat filled a shady place between an apartment complex surroundedby hurricane fencing and a grand old home on the verge of decay.Nondescript and small, it was easy to miss. Glass windows threw back a rippledreflection of my car as I turned into the lot. I did not park in front, though. Instead,I slipped down the narrow space beside the building and parked wherefencing sealed off the back. I climbed the fence, dropped to the other side, andcrossed a litter-strewn square of pavement hidden from the street. The steeldoor stood open, wedged with a cracked chunk of cinder block. The gap wasless than a foot wide, air still and damp. I smelled laundry detergent and somethingalong the lines of rotting fruit. Bass-heavy music pumped through thecrack in the door.I edged to the door and looked in. The office was dim and paneled, papersstacked on cabinets, big cheap desk with a fat bald man behind it, swivel chairspun sideways. His pants hung off one ankle. Head tilted back, eyes squeezedtight in a red face. The woman was on her knees, head working like a steampiston. Slender, young, and black, she could pass for sixteen. He had one handtwined in her oily hair, the other locked onto the chair arm so hard I saw tendonspopping through the fat.A limp twenty hung off the corner of the desk.I kicked the cinder block away and slammed the door open. When itclanged against brick the fat man’s eyes flew open. For a long second he staredat me as the girl continued to work. His mouth rounded into a black hole andhe said, “Oh, God.”The girl stopped long enough to say, “That’s right, baby.” Then she wentback to work. I stepped into the room as he pushed the girl away from his240