“We want Diego, and we want him now,” the sweaty Mexican man said in broken English. His face was five inches from mine. His knife began to pierce into the skin under my chin. My body pressed against the wall. Carla sat on the sofa sobbing. Another one of the three thugs threatened to slap her if she didn’t quiet down.

Moose slowly crept in the bedroom so as not to wake up his new bride. They had been married only two months, and they still had a difficult time adjusting to each other’s schedules. She was always in bed by nine every night. She needed eight full hours of sleep before the alarm sounded at five o’clock.

I never would have purchased this house if I'd known that Dirk McBride lived next door. Dirk was a household name to Major League baseball fans. I'd never heard of him.