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"I don't know Maybe you can do it yourself Haven't you said anything to hi like that?"

"I'm afraid"

"Of what?"

"That he'd killOr that he'd talk ers on esture was clearly calculated but nonetheless effective for it I breathed in her spicy scent and felt her sexual impact I wasn't aroused and didn't want her but I could not be unaware of her sexual strength She said, "Can't you help me, Matt?" And, immediately, "Do you h "No," I said "I don't et to keep it And I don't really make more money than I did on the street But I have a little money"

"Oh?"

"I have a thousand dollars"

I didn't say anything She opened her purse, found a plain white envelope, got a finger under the flap and tore it open She took a sheaf of bills from it and placed them on the table between us

"You could see him for me," she said

I picked up theoffered the opportunity to serve as intermediary between a blonde whore and a black piered for

I wanted to hand the money back But I was nine or ten days out of Roosevelt Hospital and I owed money there, and on the first of theto Anita and the boys in longer than I cared to remember I had money in my wallet and more money in the bank but it didn't add up to ood as anybody else's and easier to come by, and what difference did it make what she'd done to earn it?

I counted the bills They were used hundreds and there were ten of them I left five on the table in front of me and handed the other five to her Her eyes widened a little and I decided she had to be wearing contacts Nobody had eyes that color

I said, "Five now and five later If I get you off the hook"

"Deal," she said, and grinned suddenly "You could have had the whole thousand in front"

"Maybe I'll work better with an incentive You want so so sweet Do they have desserts here?"

"The pecan pie's good So's the cheesecake"

"I love pecan pie," she said "I have a terrible sweet tooth but I never gain an ounce Isn't that lucky?"

Chapter 2

There was a problem In order for me to talk to Chance I had to find him, and she couldn't tell me how to do it

"I don't knohere he lives," she said "Nobody does"

"Nobody?"

"None of his girls That's the big guessing gaether and he's not in the rooht I reoofing, coeous idea after another Like he lives in this tenement in Harlear Hill, or he has a ranch house in the suburbs and commutes Or he keeps a couple of suitcases in his car and lives out of theht at one of our apartht a o to bed he'll just lie there afterward for a little while and then he's up and dressed and out He said once he can't sleep if there's another person in the rooet in touch with him?"

"There's a nu service You can call the number any time, twenty-four hours a day, and there's always an operator that answers He always checks in with his service If we're out or so, he'll check in with theave me the nued his car She didn't know Did she remember the car's license nus like that His car is a Cadillac"

"There's a surprise Where does he hang out?"

"I don't know If I want to reach hi for hiular bar he drinks in? There's a lot of places he'll go sos does he do?"

"What do you amble? What does he do with himself?"

She considered the question "He does different things," she said