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"An original thinker?"

"Case in point While I'ot in ht strikes otaspersions on his state of mind So I do a spot edit in inal thinker'

"The journalistic ht I don't really believe he has my phone tapped, and what does he care what I call him? Names will never hurt him I'm not sure sticks and stones will, either WhatWhitfield?"

"The amount of time it took him to write It's been a full week since Whitfield died"

He was silent for a moment Then he said, "That's what proves it"

"Proves what? That he did it? Because I don't see how"

"We just got this," he said, "or it would have run along with the rest of the story So I don't want to say anything over the phone because we'd like to be first with it toht here in the city? You knohere the News is, don't you?"

"Thirty-third between Ninth and Tenth But if you hadn't asked I one to the old place on East Forty-second That's still the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the News"

"What's the zip code?"

"The zip code? You want me to write to you?"

"No, not particularly Look, you haven't got anything against tits, have you? There's a joint called Bunny's Topless on Ninth and Thirty-second that's quieter than a sulky Trappist this time of day Why don't you ht"

"You won't have any trouble recognizing uy with a shirt on"

I don't knohat Bunny's Topless is like at night It would al their breasts andat them And it's probably sad at any hour, deeply sad in the manner ofcasinos are sad in that way, and the glitzier they are the more palpable is their sadness The air has an ozone-tainted reek of base dreams and broken promises

Early in the day, the place made no sense at all It was a cave of a room, the door and s painted matte black, the rooether, its furnishing a mix of what the previous owner had left and what had come cheap at auction Twotheir attention between the TV set (CNN with the sound off) and the bartender, whose breasts (ood deal ht red hair

There was a little stage, and they probably had dancers at night, but the stage was empty now and a Golden Oldies station on the radio provided the music A waitress, clad like the bartender in cottontailed hot pants and rabbit ears and high heels and nothing else, worked the booths and tables Maybe things would pick up some at lunchtime, but for now she had two men each at a pair of tables in front and one man all by himself in a corner booth

The loner was Marty McGraw, and anybody would have recognized him A little photo of him, head cocked and lip curled, ran three tiray in his hair that didn't show in the photo, but I knew about that for having seen him so many times on television since the Will story first broke Aside fro, time had treated hi as already there,out the jaw

He'd shucked his suit jacket and loosened his tie, and he had one hand wrapped around the base of a glass of beer There was an elass, and the raw sht to my nostrils

"Scudder," he said "McGraw And this little darling"-he waved to summon the waitress-"assures me her name is Darlene She's never lied to me in the past, have you, sweetie?"

She s she was called upon to do that a lot She had dark hair, cut short, and full breasts

"The bartender's name is Stacey," he went on, "but she'd probably answer to Spacey You don't want to ask her to do anything terribly co your life in your hands A shot and a beer's a safe choice here, and you want to onna get anyway, no matter what it says on the bottle"

I said I'd have a Coke

"Well, that's safe," he said, "if not terribly adventurous Another of the sae, understand?"

She walked off and he said, "The zip code's one-oh-oh-oh-one, or should I say one-zero-zero-zero-one? You notice how they been doing that lately?"

"Doing what?"

"Saying zero You give a credit card number over the phone, say 'oh' for 'zero,' and they'll replace all your ohs with zeroes when they read it back to you for confirmation You knohat I think it is? Computers You copy down a number by hand, what's it e? They both look the sa different keys So they have to make sure"

Our drinks came He picked up the shot and tossed it off, took a small sip of the beer "Anyway, that'sto do with Will's letter, anyway He got the zip code wrong"

"He put an oh for a zero?"

"No, no, no He wrote down the wrong nuht address, 450 West Thirty-third Street, but for sooddam reason he put one-oh-oh-one-one instead of one-oh-oh-oh-one One-oh-oh-eleven's the zip for Chelsea and part of the West Village"