Page 31 (2/2)

"But Will's history and the people of this great city can sleep safe in their beds Is that it?"

"Evidently not," I said, "if your tone of voice is anything to go by What have you got?"

"What have I got? I haven't got a thing I could tell you what they've got don, except you can figure it out for yourself when I tell you who they got it from Our old friend Martin J McGraw" I looked at hiht," he said "Another letter from Will"

17

The letter had obviously been written after its author had read Marty McGraw's most recent column, the one that ended in an oblique invitation to Will to deal harshly with the principal owner of the New York Yankees "An Open Letter to Marty McGraas how he headed it, and he started with a reference to the last line of McGraw's column "You ask where I am now that you need me," he said "The question answers itself if you will but remember what I am The Will of the People is always present, even as it is always needed The particular flesh and blood embodiment of that Will rites these lines, and who has been called to action several ti more than a physical manifestation of that Will"

He went on in that abstract vein for another paragraph or two, then turned specific His letter's title notwithstanding, Marty McGraas not his target Neither was the Yankees' arrogant owner Instead he narant opposition to the public good First was Peter Tully, head of the Transit Workers Union, as already threatening to greet the new year with a bus and subway strike Second on the list was Marvin Roe who'd never is Kilbourne, for many years the theater critic of the New York Tiot to see a copy of the letter "You keep shaking your head like that," Joe Durkin said, "you'll wind up suing yourself for whiplash"

"Will never wrote this letter"

"So you said At great length, as I recall"

We'd spent the day in a conference rooot to tell my story over and over to different teams of detectives Some of the, but whatever attitude they struck it felt as though they were acting the part They all see to e ood twenty years on them

I don't knohy they had to ask me the same questions quite as many times as they did A certain amount of that was probably to see if I contradicted myself or offered any additional inforuess they just settled into a routine It was easier to go overelse to do

Meanwhile, other people were off doing other things They sent a crew to toss Adrian's apartraph went out by wire to Omaha and Philadelphia, as well as to Midwest Express's hub city, Milwaukee They weren't keeping an to turn up, because there was an attitudinal shift sometian to become clear that they knew the story I'd spun for the He wasn't always in the conference rooone hoh, and he brought a sandwich and a container of coffee for ain after a while, but he was planted in a chair in the outer office when they finally toldup a few favorite cop watering holes, and wound up in the bar of a Vietna to e a newspaper at a table and another nursing a beer at the far end of the bar The wohly bored She fixed a martini for Joe and a Coke for me and left us alone

Joe drank a third of his lass aloft "I ordered this," he said, "not because I ever liked the taste of these things, but because after a day like today I wanted soht between the eyes"

"I knohat you mean," I said "That's why I ordered a Coke"

"Is that a fact Don't tell et lots of urges," I said "So?"

"So nothing" He nodded in the direction of the bartender "Talk about urges," he said

"Oh?"

"What do you figure, black father and Vietna like that"

"A lonely GI far fro in years, but filled with the ancient knowledge of the East Listen to h You see somebody looks exotic like that, you think it'd be special But it's just in your mind"

"You've looked at clouds froo fuck yourself," he said

"Everybody tells ot a copy of this I don't think I was supposed to, and I know I' it's in the paper by , so why should you be the last person in town to see it?"

And he handed ," I said "Will didn't write this"

"If Will was Whitfield," he said, "and assuoes without saying, doesn't it? Of course he didn't write it Dead men don't write letters"

"They can write them before they die He already did that once"

He took the letter froot references to the column of McGraw's that ran yesterday, Matt And he talks about Tully's threat of a TWU strike, and that's only been news in the past week or ten days"

"I know that," I said "There's plenty of evidence to disprove any theory that Adrian wrote this and arranged to have it mailed weeks after his death But suppose I never even suspected Adrian You could still take one look at this and know that the same person hadn't written it"

"Oh? Style's pretty close"

"Will Nue, and I'd guess he ot the other letters handy to conize phrases that I've read before"

"I don't know about that I'd agree it has a fa Will inal?"

"Not everybody could pull it off"

"No?" He shrugged "Maybe it's harder than it looks You know, he didn't just copycat the style of the writing He got the rest of it right, too See the signature?"

"It's printed in script"

He nodded "Sauys while the rest of the to make your head spin I asked about the forensic side"