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GOD MAY KNOW where Henry Leyden found that astounding suit, but we certainly do not A costuant to be a costu, not an i is it? The wide lapels sweep down to an inch below the waist, and the twin flaps of the stail reach nearly to the ankles of the billowing, pleated trousers, which seem, beneath the snowfield expanse of the double-breasted waistcoat, to ride nearly at the level of the sternuh-button spats adorn white patent-leather shoes; about his neck, a stiff, high collar turns its pointed peaks over a wide, flowing, white satin bow tie, perfectly knotted The total effect is of old-fashioned diplomatic finery harmoniously wedded to a zoot suit: the raffishness of the ensenity of the stail and the waistcoat contribute to the whole a regal quality of a specific kind, the regality often seen in African A Henry to the co a handcart loaded with boxes of records, Rebecca Vilas di a white cutaway like this in a clip from some old filmor was it Cab Calloway? She recalls an upraised eyebrow, a glittering sure posed before a band, but little ton or Mr Calloway could have inforh-drape" pants with a "reet pleat," terms not in her vocabulary, had undoubtedly been handhborhoods of New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, or Los Angeles, round tailors, men now alas as dead as their celebrated clients Henry Leyden knows exactly who tailored his outfit, where it came from, and how it fell into his hands, but when it comes to persons such as Rebecca Vilas, Henry imparts no more information than is already likely to be known) In the corridor leading to the common room, the white cutaway appears to shine from within, an impression only increased by Henry’s oversized, daddy-cool dark glasses with bamboo frames, in which what may be tiny sapphires wink at the corners of the bows

Is there maybe some shop that sells Spiffy Clothes of Great 1930s Bandleaders? Does some museum inherit this stuff and auction it off ? Rebecca cannot contain her curiosity a et that beautiful outfit?"

Fro to hi an outfit like that probably requires chasing a person of an ethnicity beginning with the letter n for at least a couple of nores Pete and s where to look"

"Guess you never heard of CDs," Pete says "They’re like this big new breakthrough"

"Shut up and tote them bales, me bucko," says Ms Vilas "We’re almost there"

"Rebecca, ht to grouse After all, there’s no way he could know that I own about three thousand CDs, is there? And if the er, I’d be proud to call myself one, too That would be an incredible honor I wish I could claim it"

Henry has come to a halt Each, in a different way, shocked by his use of the forbidden word, Pete and Rebecca have also stopped

"And," Henry says, "e respect to those who assist us in the performance of our duties I asked Mr Wexler to shake out ed ht and put your turntable and speakers and shit right where you want ’em"

"Thank you very much, Mr Wexler," Henry says "I appreciate your efforts inyou want after you’re done, I’ll give you a hand"

Without benefit of a flash of panties or a glimpse of ass, Pete Wexler has been cohtless or not, Henry Leyden, it co she has ever been privileged to encounter in her entire twenty-six years on the face of the earth Never uys like this come from?

"Do you really think some little boy vanished from the sidewalk out in front of here this afternoon?" Henry asks

"What?" Rebecca asks

"Seeain, this ti?"

"Well, he ast me, and I tol’ hierously, Rebecca takes a stride toward him "This happened on our sidewalk? Another kid, in front of our building? And you didn’t say anything to me or Mr Maxton?"

"There wasn’t nothin’ to say," Pete offers in self-defense

"Maybe you could tell us what actually happened," Henry says

"Sure What happened was, I went outside for a smoke, see?" This is less than strictly truthful Faced with the choice of walking ten yards to the Daisy corridorten feet to the entrance and pitching it into the parking lot, Pete had sensibly elected outdoor disposal "So I get outside and that’s when I saw it This police car, parked right out there So I walked up to the hedge, and there’s this cop, a young guy, I think his na like that, and he’s loadin’ this bike, like a kid’s bike, into his trunk And so else, too, only I couldn’t see what it was except it was sot a piece a chalk outta his glove compartment and he came back and made like X marks on the sidewalk"

"Did you talk to hi?"

"Miz Vilas, I don’t talk to cops unless it’s like you got no other choice, knohat I uy wouldn’t of said nothing anyhow He had this expression on his face ¡ª it was like, Jeez, I hope I get to the crapper before I drop a load in my pants, that kind of expression"

"Then he just drove away?"

"Just like that Twenty minutes later, two other cops showed up"

Rebecca raises both hands, closes her eyes, and presses her fingertips to her forehead, giving Pete Wexler an excellent opportunity, of which he does not fail to take full advantage, to admire the shape of her breasts underneath her blouse It reat as the view froht, yes it will As far as Ebbie’s dad is concerned, a sight like Rebecca Vilas’s Hottentots pushing out against her dress is like a good fire on a cold night They are bigger than you’d expect on a slender little thing like her, and you knohat? When the aro up, too! Hey, if he had known she was going to put on a show like this, he would have told her about Cheetah and the bicycle as soon as it happened

"All right, okay," she says, still flattening the tips of her fingers against her head She lifts her chin, raising her arms another few inches, and frowns in concentration, for a ure on a plinth

Hoo-ray and hallelujah, Pete thinks There’s a bright side to everything If another little snotnose gets grabbed off the sidewalk toh for me

Rebecca says, "Okay, okay, okay," opens her eyes, and lowers her ar firmly at a point over her shoulder, his face blank with a false innocence she immediately comprehends Good God, what a caveht In the first place, all you saas a police up a bike Maybe it was stolen Maybe some other kid borrowed the bike, du for it Or the kid ned the bike could have been hit by a car or so And even if the worst did happen, I don’t see any way that it could hurt us Maxton’s isn’t responsible for whatever goes on outside the grounds"

She turns to Henry, who looks as though he wishes he were a hundred miles away "Sorry, I know that sounded awfully cold I’m as distressed about this Fisherman business as everyone else, ith those two poor kids and the irl We’re all so upset we can hardly think straight But I’d hate to see us dragged into the mess, don’t you see?"

"I see perfectly," Henry says "Being one of those blindabout"

"Hah!" Pete Wexler barks

"And you agree with ree with everybody," Henry says "I agree with Pete that another child may well have been abducted by our local monster Officer Cheetah, or whatever his na up a lost bicycle And I agree with you that Maxton’s cannot be bla that happened"

"Good," Rebecca says

"Unless, of course, someone here is involved in the murders of these children"

"But that’s impossible!" Rebecca says "Most of our male clients can’t even reirl could take most of these feebs," Pete says "Even the ones who don’t have old-timer’s disease walk around covered in their ownyou know"

"You’re forgetting about the staff," Henry says

"Oh, now," Rebecca says, momentarily rendered nearly wordless "Come on That’sthat’s a totally irresponsible thing to say"

"True It is But if this goes on, nobody will be above suspicion That’s my point"

Pete Wexler feels a sudden chill ¡ª if the town clowns start grilling Maxton’s residents, his private aht, and wouldn’t Wendell Green have a field day with that stuff ? A glea to impress Miz Vilas "You knohat? The cops should talk to that California guy, the big-ti asshole two-three years ago He lives around here souy we need on this The cops here, they’re way outta their depth That guy, he’s like a whaddayacallit, a goddamn resource"

"Odd you should say that," Henry says "I couldn’t agree with youI’ll work on hiain"

"You know him?" Rebecca asks

"Oh, yes," Henry says "That I do But isn’t it about ti?"

"Soon They’re all still outside"

Rebecca leads him down the rest of the corridor and into the co platform Henry’s microphone stands beside a tableaccuracy, Henry says, "Lot of space in here"

"You can tell that?" she asks

"Piece of cake," Henry says "We ht in front of you Do you need any help?"

Henry extends one foot and taps the side of the flat He glides a hand down the edge of the table, locates the mike stand, says, "Not at the moment, darlin’," and steps neatly up onto the platform Guided by touch, he moves to the back of the table and locates the turntable "All is co-pacetic," he says "Pete, would you please put the record boxes on the table? The one on top goes here, and the other one right next to it"

"What’s he like, your friend Jack?" Rebecca asks

"An orphan of the storm A pussycat, but an extremely difficult pussy-cat I have to say, he can be a real pain in the bunghole"

Crowd noises, a buzz of conversation interlaced with children’s voices and songs thuh the s since they entered the room, and when Pete has placed the record boxes on the table, he says, "I better get out there, ’cuz Chipper’s probly lookin’ for me Gonna be a shitload of cleanup once they co the handcart before hi hts are on, aren’t they? Please turn them off, and wait for the first wave to co your heart out"

"You want hts?"

"You’ll see"

Rebecca hts, and does see, just as Henry had promised A soft, dim illu the forue mellow haze, as if the roo to look pretty good in here, Rebecca thinks

Outside on the lawn, the predance wingding is winding down Lots of oldoff their strawberry shortcakes and soda pop at the picnic tables, and the piano-playing gent in the straw boater and red sleeve garters comes to the end of "Heart and Soul," ba bump ba bump ba ba bump bump bump, no finesse but plenty of voluht, and stands up to a scattering of applause Grandchildren who had earlier coh the tables and wheelchairs, evading their parents’ glances and hoping to wheedle a last balloon fro, oh joy unbounded

Alice Weathers applauds the piano player, as well she o, he reluctantly absorbed the rudih to pick up a few bucks at occasions like this, when not obliged to perfor sweatshirts and baseball caps on Chase Street Charles Burnside, who, having been scrubbed clean by good-hearted Butch Yerxa, decked himself out in an old white shirt and a pair of loose, filthy trousers, stands slightly apart fro but sneering The unbuttoned collar of the shirt droops around his ropy neck Now and then he wipes his ed thuh someone plunked him down by the side of a road and drove off Whenever the careering grandkids swerve near Burny, they instantly veer away, as if repelled by a force field

Between Alice and Burny, three-fourths of the residents of Maxton’s belly up to the tables, stump around on their walkers, sit beneath the trees, occupy their wheelchairs, hobble here and there ¡ª yakking, dozing, chuckling, farting, dabbing at fresh strawberry-colored stains on their clothing, staring at their relatives, staring at their tre Half a dozen of thethem wear conical party hats of hard, flat red and hard, flat blue, the shades of enforced gaiety The woh the tables with big black garbage bags, for soon they reat feast of potato salad, mashed potatoes, creamed potatoes, baked beans, Jell-O salad, marshhty strawberry shortcake!

The undisputed and hereditary sovereign of this realenerally resembles that of a skunk trapped in aabout srowls, "what the hell took you so long? Start racking up the folding chairs, okay? And help shift these people into the coons west"