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I checked again an hour later, and an hour after that Then I dozed off, and when I opened hts were out in the law office I walked on past it and used the lavatory again, and the lights were still out when I returned

The lock was better than the one on Barish's door, and I thought I et in I was prepared to do that-I didn't think anyone was around to hear it, or inclined to pay attention-but first I used et a purchase on the bolt and snick it back I put on the lights, figuring that a lighted office would look less suspicious to someone across the street than a darkened office with so around inside it

I found Whitfield's office and got busy

It was around one-thirty in theas I'd found it, and wiped whatever surfaces I ht have left prints on, ht dust the place for prints I rubbed a little dirt into the gouges I'd made around the lock, so that the scar didn't look too new, and I drew the door shut and heard the bolt snick behind ht, and actually considered holing up in Barish's office and napping in his easy chair until dawn, all that in order to avoid having to sneak out past the guard Instead I decided to bluff my way past hin I'dwas locked fro

This didn't et back in again That was fine with ot out of there and had to walk three blocks before I could hail a cruising cab Stickers on the s in the passenger co In front, the Pakistani driver puffed away at one of those foul little Italian cigars Di Nobili, I think they're called Years and years ago I was partnered with a wise old cop nas day in and day out I suppose they were no less appropriate for a Pakistani cabby than for an Irish cop, but I didn't let ia I just rolled down the s and tried to find soot in She stirred when I slipped into bed beside her I gave her a kiss and told her to go back to sleep

"TJ called again," she said "You didn't beep him"

"I know What did he want?"

"He didn't say"

"I'll call hiht?"

"I'?"

"I don't know Go to sleep"

" 'Go to sleep, go to sleep' Is that all you can say?"

I tried to think of a response, but before I could coain I closed one by the ti that she'd left early for an auction at Tepper Galleries on East Twenty-fifth Street, and re lish muffin There was coffee in the thermos, and I drank one cup and poured another before I picked up the phone and dialed his beeper number When the tone sounded I punched inup

Fifteenand I picked it up "Who wants TJ?" he said, and went on without waiting for a response, " 'Cept I knoho it is, Diz, on account of I reckanize the nu to find a phone? Either they out of order or soettin' paid by the word You think I should get a cell phone?"

"I wouldn't want one"

"You don't want a beeper," he said, "or a computer, neither What you want's the nineteenth century back again"

"Maybe the eighteenth," I said, "before the Industrial Revolution took the joy out of life"

"Soies Why I don't want a cell phone, they cost too much Cost when you call soot no privacy Dude's chillin' with a Walk you sayin' What makes it work like that?"

"Hoould I know?"

"Don't even need a Walks in their teeth Next thing you know they think it's the CIA, tellin' 'eo to the post office and shoot everybody"

"You wouldn't want that on your conscience"

"Dahed "I stick to my beeper Hey, listen I found that dude"

"What dude is that?"

"Dude you had me lookin' for Dude as on the scene when the one dude shot the other dude"

"There's too many dudes in that sentence," I said "I don't knoho you're talking about"

"Talkin' 'bout Myron"

"Myron"

"Dude got shot in that little park? Dude had AIDS? Ring a little bell, Mel?"

"Byron," I said

"Byron Leopold Wha'd I do, call hi is, see, I never heard of nobody named Byron… You still there?"

"I'innin' to wonder"

"I guess I was speechless," I said "I didn't know you were still looking for the witness"

"Ain't been nobody told ot me started in this detectin' business, everybody say he like a dog with a bone Once he get his teeth in somethin', he ain't about to turn it loose"

"Is that what they say?"

"So I gettin' to be the sa with a bone 'Sides, it be somethin' to do"

"And you found the dude"

"Took some doin'," he admitted "He wasn't exactly lookin' to be found But he saw the whole thing, 'cept it was more hearin' than seein' He wasn't lookin' at first, and when he did look he was seein' it fro, and he didn't see the gun, just heard, you know, pop pop"