Book excerpt: On coming of age, Rudy returns to Georgetown and gets in with three brothers about his age, who all wanted to form a construction company, with dreams of owning a large business and getting rich. Basking in the glow of signing their first big contract, Rudy stepped out on the porch to look at the stars with contentment. On a very dark street that had no street lights, Rudy got a quick glimpse of a young girl as she passed through a sliver of light coming from a slightly opened window in the street. While Rudy was vaguely thinking why she would be out at night on this dark street, he heard a barely audible struggle across the street from where he was standing. Blackies door opened, and through the faint light from within his house, Rudy saw a struggling Girlie, a fifteen-year-old who lived a few blocks away and on the backstreet, being forcibly taken into Blackies house by him. Rudy dashed back into the house to alarm his friends, but they just shrugged. Rudy was outraged that they were not prepared to do anything about Blackie, who was known and feared in the neighborhood as Blackie the Monster. The next morning, Girlie was fished out of a canal close to her house by her parents after some passersby raised an alarm. Who killed Girlie Moonsammy? And why did her parents hastily take off her body into the country and cremated Girlie? Guilt-ridden, Rudy began drinking heavily, losing his first love along the way. Will he become an alcoholic and bring ruin to their budding business?