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I stood there, letting it all co in what I could of it I don't want to make too much of this I was not Saul of Tarsus, knocked off his horse en route to Damascus, nor was I AA's founder wrapped up in his faine, or both-a whole slew of things one right after the other

It couldn't have taken much time Seconds, I would think Drea over far less of the sleeper's time than it would require to recount thelow of it, the sain and think about what I'd just experienced Then I had to walk around for a while, going over every fra over the Zapruder fil it off I knew soht I went to Whitfield's place," I told Elaine "TJ was over for dinner, atching the fights together-"

"In Spanish I remember"

"-and Whitfield called And I went over there and talked with hi," I said, and paused After a longit with her

"I' it out And trying to think of a way to say it that won't sound ridiculous"

"Why worry about that? There's nobody here but us chickens"

There could have been We were in her shop on Ninth Avenue, surrounded by the artwork and furnishings she dealt in Anyone could have rung the bell and been buzzed in to look at the pictures and perhaps buy so on But it was a quiet afternoon, and for noere alone and undisturbed

I said, "There was no liquor on his breath"

"Whitfield, you're talking about"

"Right"

"You don't mean at the end, when he drank the poison and died You ht you first met him"

"Well, I'dabout the night I went to his apartment He'd told me on the phone that he'd received a death threat froo about protecting himself"

"And there was no liquor on his breath"

"None You kno it is with me I'm a sober alcoholic, I can damn near smell a drink on the other side of a concrete wall If I'uy in the far corner had a thi alcoholic earlier in the day, I smell it as surely as if I just walked into a brewery It doesn't botheror that the other person weren't, but I could no hts"

"I remember when I had the chocolate"

"The chocolate… oh, with the liquid center"

She nodded "Monica and I were visiting this friend of hers as recovering from a mastectoiven her And I got piggy, because these were very good chocolates, and I had four of the And I had it half sed before I realized what it was, and then I sed the rest of it, because as I going to do, spit it out? That's what you'd have done, you'd have had reason to, but I'm not an alcoholic, I'm just a person who doesn't drink, so it wouldn't kill me to s it"

"And it didn't make you take off all your clothes"

"It didn't have any effect whatsoever, as far as I know There couldn't have been very much brandy involved There was a cherry in there, too, so that didn't leave ave you a kiss and you looked as startled as I've ever seen you"

"It tookme a chorus of 'Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine' "

"I don't even know the tune"

"Do you wantfrom the subject The point is you're super aware of the smell of booze and you didn't smell it on Adrian Whitfield Could it be, Hol?"

"But he said he had"

"Oh?"

"It was a funny conversation," I recalled "He started out by announcing that he didn't drink, and that gotthe scotch bottle even as he said it Then he qualified it by saying he didn't drink the way he used to, and that he pretty much lih for anybody," she said, "if you had a big enough glass"

"For some of us," I said, "you'd need a bathtub Anyway, he went on to say that this particular day had been an exception, ith the letter from Will, and that he'd had a drink when he left the office and another when he got home to his apartment"

"And you didn't smell them on his breath"

"No"

"If he brushed his teeth-"

"Wouldn't ht, he'd just wind up s like crиme de menthe I notice alcohol on people's breath, too, because I don't drink But I'm nowhere near as aware of it as you are"

"All the years I drank," I said, "I never once smelled alcohol on anybody's breath, and it hardly ever occurred to one around s of it all the time"

"I kind of liked it"

"Really?"

"But I like it better this way," she said, and kissed me After a few minutes she went back to her chair and said, "Whew If ere not in a se the bell at any est tih "What do you think it means?"

"I think we're still hot for each other," I said, "after all these years"

"Well, I know that I mean the booze that wasn't on Whitfield's breath, which is uncannily like the dog that didn't bark in the nighttime, isn't it? What do you make of it?"

"I don't know"