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"To go after Will"

I told him all the reasons why it didn't ned to the case, and the cops had access to the available data and evidence along with the scientific apparatus to learn so from it On top of that, they had the manpower to knock on every door and run down every lead and phone tip that caet in their way

"I know all that," he said

"So?"

"So I still want to hire you"

"Why? As a way of paying ?"

He shook his head "I want you on the case"

"What for?"

"Because I think there's a chance you'll make a difference The first time I hired you, you knoas on Ray Gruliow's recoood ht on fast 'Give hie,' that's what he said"

"He was being generous," I said "Soood things about your character and personal integrity And he said soed"

"It's a nicer word than pigheaded"

He rolled his eyes "You're a hard man to compliment, aren't you? Matt, offense is the best defense That's true in the courtroom and it's true on the street I don't knohat the hell you can do that the cops can't, but the one thing I don't have to worry about these days is money, and if I can throw a little of it your way I can tell ets nailed before he nails me Nohy don't you just say you'll take the case so I can write you out a check?"

"I'll take the case"

"See? You're stubborn, which may be part of the job description for what you do But I'm persuasive, which is very definitely part of ot out his checkbook and wrote me a check, tore it out and handed it to h?"

The amount o thousand dollars "That's fine," I said

"You have anything else you're working?"

"Not at theto do, but I'll start doing it in the ettingto have to do Can I tell you so? Don't repeat this, but until this afternoon I sort of liked Will"

"You did?"

"Let's say I had a grudging admiration for him He was a kind of urban folk hero, wasn't he? Almost like Batman"

"Batman never killed anybody"

"Not in the comic books He does in the , won't they? No, the real Batman never killed anybody Listen to rew up on the comic book that's how it seems"

"I know"

"For Christ's sake," he said, "I' lawyer That's all I auin, I'ainsta wildlife documentary on the Discovery channel I joined her for the last tenthe credit crawl she made a face and switched off the set

"I should have done that when you ca"

"What I have to learn," she said, "is always to skip the last five s, because it's always the sa so by telling you it's endangered and won't last out the century They're so determined to leave you depressed you'd think they had Prozac for a sponsor Hoas Adrian Whitfield?"

I gave her a su "Well, he's not depressed," she said "Bemused, it sounds like 'Why me?' "

"Natural question"

"Yeah, I'd say How much did you say the retainer was? Two thousand dollars? I'uess"

"When so like that He wanted to pay me for my time, and when I turned him down he decided he wanted to hire me We can use the money"

"And you can use the work"

"I can, andto do I just hope it won't involve buying a computer"

"Huh?"

"TJ He was on my case earlier When did he leave?"

"Half an hour after you did I offered him the couch, but he didn't want to stay over"

"He never does"

" 'What you think, I's got no place to sleep?' I wonder where he does sleep"

"It's a mystery"

"He must live somewhere"

"Not everybody does"

"I don't think he's hoularly and he's clean about his person I'm sure he doesn't bed down in the park"

"There are a lot of ways to be ho on the subway and eating out of Dumpsters I knooman who drank her way out of a rent-controlled aparte locker in Chelsea She pays soht feet square That's where she keeps her stuff, and that's where she sleeps"