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"On Horatio Street"

I nodded "Whitfield suggested there ht be a link, that maybe Will killed Byron at random, more or less for practice"

"Is that possible?"

"I suppose it's possible It's also possible Byron was gunned down by an extraterrestrial, and every bit as likely It was his way of telling ate whatever the hell I wanted to investigate Itone case as the other Either way I wasn't going to acco, was I?"

"That's it, isn't it? That's what'syou taste alcohol that isn't there That you can't accoht about it I sipped some coffee, put the cup in the saucer "Yeah," I said "That's it"

Outside, I took her hand as aited for the light to change I glanced at the building diagonally across the street, and ht out aon the twenty-ninth floor Noticingin the Village reminds me of? Glenn Holtzmann"

He'd lived in that twenty-ninth-floor apart there after his death She hiredfor her I continued to return occasionally to her apartment, and to her bed

When Elaine and I were married ent to Europe for a honeyether in our hotel rooo on being ourselves and living our lives The rings on our fingers didn't change anything

She said this in a way that made the unspoken subtext un, and I don't care

"Glenn Holtzht and there's no such thing as an accident"

"I thought about Holtzes of Byron's life The idea of so killed for a reason"

"Uh-huh Somebody heard the shooter call Byron by naht"

We walked the rest of the way ho much Upstairs in our apartment I put a hand on her shoulder and turned her toward me, and ere in each other's arms We kissed, and I put a hand on her hindquarters and drew her against e, she'd told e over tis to each other over many years, Elaine and I When we irl We were together, and then ere apart for years, until the past drew us together again After a while she quit hooking After a while we found an apartot married

Passion, after all those years, was different from what it had been when I'd made those first visits to her Turtle Bay apartent and undeniable Now it had been teinning, had grown infinitely broader and deeper with tiht we had always taken in each other's corown less furious, was richer as well

We kissed again, and her breath caught in her throat We moved to the bedroom, shed our clothes

"I love you," I said Or maybe she said it After a while you lose track

"You know," she said, "if we keep on like this, I can see where we ree of proficiency"

"Never happen"

"You're my bear and I love you And you're about to drop off to sleep, aren't you? Unless I keep you awake by glowing in the dark I almost could, the way I feel Why does sex o on God's part or does it somehow contribute to the survival of the species?"

I was turning the question over and over into form an anshen I felt her breath on ht," she said

8

The big news over the weekend had to do with the results of the autopsy performed on Adrian Whitfield The cause of death was no surprise It had been confirestion of a dose of potassiuh to kill a dozen lawyers (Monday night Leno read that iteot a laugh without saying a word)

What the autopsy also established was that Will had done little more than anticipate Nature At the time of his death, Adrian Whitfield had already been stricken with a nant tumor that had lands and invaded the lymph system Will had cheated him, at most, out of a year of life

"I wonder if he knew," I said to Elaine "It would have been largely asy to the story in the Times"

"Had he been to the doctor?"

"His doctor's out of town Nobody can get hold of hi "He never said anything?"

"He said so What was it?" I closed ht before he drank the poison, he said soet to know each other, hat he eneral"