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"Sohoulish, doesn't it?"

"I just can't i for soer to die so I can collect"

"I knohat you mean There have been articles written about this, you know, and not just in the gay press"

"Iabout negative publicity"

"Some writers think it's just awful," he said "Reprehensible to profit from the misfortunes of others, blah blah blah Horrible to think of anyoneco?" He held up a hand "Don't tell me there's a difference I know that I also know it's not people with AIDS who get upset about viatical transactions, because for us it's a godsend"

"Really"

"Absolutely Matt, once you've been diagnosed with full-blown AIDS you da, and this ood idea what else the future holds If somebody in Texas makes it possible for you to live decently and co to think of him? As a bloodsucker or as a benefactor?"

"I see what you mean But-"

"But even so you can't help seeing one party as a buzzard and the other as roadkill It's a natural reaction One company even set up a sort of pool, like a mutual fund for viatical transactions Instead of an individual buying a single policy, the investment funds are combined and the risk is spread out over a whole portfolio of policies"

"The risk of longevity"

He nodded He toyed with a stapler on his desk, and I remembered his dead lover's pipes and wondered what he'd done with thened to individual investors," he said "I think the paperwork reat need to spread the risk, because there's not really very iven to a traveler' Everyone's a traveler, you know And, sooner or later, everybodywent over Byron Leopold's records again, working backward from the date when he'd deposited the Viaticom check Every three months there was a check drawn to the order of Illinois Sentinel Life The checks had stopped two ot the Viaticom check

"He transferred ownership of the policy," I said, "so he stopped paying the premiums, and that became the responsibility of the other party to the transaction"

"And when he died-"

"The insurance company would have paid the money directly to the beneficiary But who is he and how much did they pay him?"

" 'Always the beautiful answer that asks the hed at h I suppose it would be more appropriate to quote Wallace Stevens, wouldn't it?"

"Did he have so to say about questions and answers?"

"I'm not sure what he had to say," she said, "because I could never tell what he was getting at But he worked all his life as an executive with an insurance co Aoing to be spending soht as well make free calls from my hotel room If I could work pro bono, so could the phone company

I called Illinois Sentinel Life, headquartered in Springfield, and got shunted around fro that any of theAmerican poets of our ti to a man na, that Byron Wayne Leopold had indeed been an Illinois Sentinel Life policyholder, that the face amount of the policy had been 75,000, and that ownership of the policy had been transferred on such and such a date to a Mr William Havemeyer of Lakewood, Ohio

"Not Texas," I said

No, he said, not Texas Lakeas in Ohio, and he wouldn't swear to it but it seemed to him that it was, a suburb of Cleveland The lake would be Erie, he said

"And the wood?"

"I beg your pardon? Oh, the wood! Very funny I suppose the ould oe oak or maple Or maybe knotty pine, ha ha ha"

Ha ha ha Had the claim been processed? It had And had a check been issued to Mr Havemeyer?

"Well, he's named as the beneficiary, so we could hardly have paid the money to anyone else And the policy has been retired and noted as paid in full"

I asked if Mr Havemeyer was the beneficiary of any other policies There was a pause, and he said he would have no way of knowing that

"Ask your computer," I said "I bet it knows Feed it the name of William Havemeyer and see what it comes up with"

"I'm afraid I couldn't do that"

"Why not?"