Charley wasn't really Joey's uncle.  But he was more family than his old man and old lady had ever been back in Kansas City.  The only person they hated more than themselves was Joey because they had never wanted him in the first place.  So when Joey turned thirteen, he had run away from so-called home and hopped an outbound freight tran where he met "Uncle Charley."

     Charley made a living by selling stuff like televisions and computers that other people stole.  "Fenced" he called it and for a year and a half he had begun to teach Joey how to do it.

     And now somebody had put a bullet in his back.

     Thank God for the young Italian priest at St. Thomas in Memphis.  Joey's mean folks had never taken him inside a church much less had him baptized.  Fr. Mike had not only baptized him but he got him back in school and even got him a job after school as a stock boy at an appliance store selling tv's and appliances, of all things.

     The nice thing was that Fr. Mike had never hopped a freight car in his entire life.

     And Joey wasn't about to teach Fr. Mike how to now.