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I put the little fellow back on his stand "I think he's already got a hoo out of here Who's it belong to now, can you tell me that?"

I couldn't I told him I was sure soonna want to put this on the market He was a tenant, Mr Leopold He didn't buy when he had the chance, so the aparto to his faotta come around, say, 'All this here is oes is the Salvation Ar real good, the drivers got dealers they call, tip 'em off Then the dealer snaps it up and slips 'em a few bucks on the side I saw you lookin' at that book You want, pick it up, take it hoht"

I went to the , looked out at the park across the way I poked through the closet

"Cops been through here a couple of tiht I didn't notice I notice plenty"

"I'll bet you do"

"Pills from the medicine chest, a watch froood thief One of the other cops, he didn't want to touch anything Walks around like this" He stood with his aronna catch it if he touches anything Catch it fro the air Stupid bastard That ain't how you catch it"

On the lastof his life, Byron Leopold breakfasted on half a cantaloupe and a slice of toast (They'd found the e, the erator, the dishes he'd used stacked in the sink) He made a pot of drip coffee and filled a lidded plastic cup, then collected his home-delivered copy of the Times from the mat in front of his door With the paper tucked under his arm, the coffee cup in one hand and his rubber-tipped cane in the other, he rode the elevator downstairs and walked through the lobby

This was his usual routine On cold or rainy s he stayed in his apartment and sat at the hile he drank his coffee and read his newspaper, but when the weather was good he went out and sat in the sun

He was sitting down, reading the paper, with his cup of coffee on the bench beside him Then a man had approached him The man hite, and the eyewitness consensus see, neither tall nor short, neither stout nor lean He was evidently wearing light-colored slacks, although one witness recalled him in jeans His shirt was either a T or a short-sleeved sport shirt, depending on whose word you took My sense was that nobody paid any real attention to hiunshot At that point the feeren't diving for cover tried to see as going on, but by then the shooter was showing the to Byron A couple of people heard him, and one said he called Byron by na was other than wholly random, but the cop I talked to at the Sixth hadn't placed hborhood street person, I was given to understand, his consciousness generally under the sway of one ches imperceptible to you or me

Two shots, alun One witness re, and un concealed in it Both slugs entered the victim's chest, and were evidently fired froun was a38 revolver, h hardly a high-tech ar the Kevlar vest that Adrian Whitfield was griping about, he'd have lived to tell the tale

But he wasn't, and the bullets entered side by side, one finding his heart and the other an inch or so to the right of it The pain and shockbeyond description, but they couldn't have lasted long Death was pretty close to instantaneous

Two shots, and the shooter was off and running before the light died in Byron's eyes He was lucky He could have tripped and gone sprawling, he could have run around a corner and right into a cop Or, failing that, he could have rushed past soood look at his face

Didn't happen He got away clean

That afternoon I beeped TJ, and he met me at a coffee shop a couple of blocks from there "We been here before," he said "Fixed the place up since then Looks nice"

"How's the cheeseburger?"

He considered the question "Fulfillin'," he said

"Fulfilling?"

"Be fillin'his plate away "What kind of work you got forwe could use a computer for," I said, and told him what I knew about Byron Leopold and the work time," he said "Knockin' on do's and talkin' to ho's"

"That's the idea"

"We on the clock?"

"You are," I said

"Means you payin'me," I said, "while I try to find out what happened to Paul"

'Think you lost me 'round the turn, Vern"

"I have a client," I said "Adrian Whitfield"

"Lawyer dude Got his self on Will's list"

"That s right"

"How's he hooked up with Byron?"

"He's not," I said, and explained Whitfield's theory

"Thinks Will's runnin' warm-up sessions," he said "Make sense to you?"

"Not really"

"Me neither," he said "What for's he need to practice? He doin' fine"

Suppose Byron Leopold's er at so he'd said or done Maybe he'd witnessed a cri fro from his park bench Maybe he'd beensale, or made a pass at the shooter's lover