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"How do you happen to know all this?"

"Coirl does"

"What girl?"

"Girl I know Not like the Kongs, she ain't no hacker, don't kno to do anything tricky, sneakin' into networks an' data bases and all of that She just use it to do her homework and balance her checkbook an' shit"

"So you asked her computer about peach pits and cyanide and it spat out all that information?"

"You don't ask the coot this on-line service, see, and you hook up to that and browse these different ht know the answer to your question, you send him an E-mail An' he E-mails you back Like talkin', 'cept it on the screen"

"Oh"

"An' what else you can do, you can post a question on the e board, an' people post their answers an' you can pick 'e you want to know, soot the answer"

"Oh"

"Course, so answer, 'cause people who don't know be just as apt to answer as people who do So all of that about the apricot kernels ain't exactly soot the details wrong"

"I see"

"Anyway," he said, "I learned all of that, so I thought I'd pass it on I be at Elaine's shop later, case you need me"

I finished my coffee, and I was on

It was Joe Durkin "We have to talk," he said

"I was on my way over"

"Don't come here There's that coffee shop I hth between Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth I forget the naed it when they redecorated, but it's the sahth"

"Right Ten minutes?"

"Fine I'll buy the coffee"

"All I want is straight answers," he said "I don't give a shit who buys the coffee"

He was in a booth when I got there He had a cup of coffee in front of him and an expression on his face that I couldn't read He said, "I want to knohat you know about Will"

"What brought this on?"

"What brought it on? I ht I'd ask if the Allen Johnson naot fro a bell"

"The naet that far Before I knew it I was right in the middle of a Chinese fire drill What did I know about Will? What did I have and where did it come fro froation of another matter I don't remember exactly what I said I didn't "

"Good"

"The only reason I kept you out of it," he said, "is before I give you to theet to be Will, and how did you get onto him, and who the hell is he anyway?" When I hesitated he added, "And don't hold out onsot so, well, the son of a bitch already murdered four people Don't sit there with your thuoes and kills so to kill anybody else"

"Why, because he gave us his word? He kills people but he draws the line at lying?"

"His killing days are over"

"And you know for a fact he won't change his mind?"

"He can't"

"Why's that?"

"Because he's dead," I said "The last person he killed was hi out, either Will was Adrian Whitfield He killed three people and then he killed himself"

He looked at ?"

"It'll take some police work to wrap it up and tie off the loose ends, but-"