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"Well, shit," he said "I don't get the money if it's suicide How's that for simple?"

"Doesn't apply"

"Doesn't apply? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"Suicide wouldn't invalidate the policy," I said "Anyhen I jump out theit's not suicide"

"No, it's an act of Christian charity It's a response to overwhel public demand Why isn't it suicide when you jump out the ? You're not a bird or a plane, let alone Supery was ireat height"

"What did you do, lose your balance?"

"Wouldn't be the first time"

"Ha! Tell ?… Where'd you go? Hey, Earth to Matt Are you there?"

"I'ht?"

"Right," I said "It's an accident"

21

I stayed put over the weekend I went to a couple of s, and Saturday afternoon Elaine and I took the 7 train out to Flushing and walked around the new Chinatown She complained that it wasn't like Manhattan's Chinatown at all, feeling neither quaint nor sinister but disturbingly suburban We wound up eating at a Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant, and after two bites she put down her chopsticks and said, "I take back everything I said"

"Not bad, huh?"

"Heaven," she said

Sunday I had dinner with Jim Faber for the first time in quite a feeeks, and that meant another Chinese meal, but in our own part of town, not way out in Queens We talked about a lot of different things, including Marty McGraw's colu's News, in which he'd essentially accused Will 2 of jerking us all around

"I can't understand it," I said "I talked to hio and he was pissed off at the Post for running a story suggesting that this Will is all hat and no cattle And now he-"

"All hat and no cattle?"

"All talk and no action"

"I knohat itout of your New York mouth"

"I've been on the phone with a lot of Texans lately," I said "Maybe some of it rubbed off The point is he called the Will off, and now he's deliberately goading hiet off the pot"

"Maybe the police put him up to it"

"Maybe"

"But you don't think so"

"I think they'd be s lie That'sMarty as a cafs-paw"

"Cats and dogs," he said "Sounds like rain McGraw's a drunk, isn't he? Didn't you tell o ahead and take his inventory 'We are not saints,' remember?"

"Then I suppose he's a drunk"

"And you're surprised he's not perfectly consistent? Maybe he doesn't re to the story in the Post Maybe he doesn't even reht after breakfast and thy I called from the apartment, not froed for the calls That allowed me to feel virtuous and stupid instead of shady and clever

TuesdayMarty McGraw's column included a letter from Will There was a teaser headline to that effect on the front page, but the -related massacre in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn Before I even saw the paper, the door breakfast to announce a FedEx delivery I said I'd be down to pick it up, and I was eager enough to get going that I skipped my second cup of coffee

The delivery hat I was expecting, an overnight letter containing three photographs They were all four-by-five color snaps of the sahtly built white man in his late forties or early fifties, clean-shaven, with small even features and eyes that were invisible behind wirerilasses

I beeped TJ and met him at a lunch counter in the Port Authority bus ter around the roouess which they feared hnuts, and put away a couple of theel for me and ate half of it I knew better than to drink their coffee

TJ squinted at the photos and announced that their subject looked like Clark Kent " 'Cept he'd need e to turn hisself into Superman This the dude chilled Myron?"

"Byron"

"What I meant This him?"

"I think so"

"Don't look like no iceman Look like he'd have to call in for backup 'fore he'd step on a cockroach"

"That witness you found," I said "I ondering if you could find hiain"

"The dude as dealin'"

"That's the one"

"Might be I could find him You sellin' product, you don't want to make yourself too hard to find Or folks be buyin' from somebody else" He tapped the picture "Dude saw the shooter froli?"

He tilted his head back, grabbing at the memory "Said he hite," he recalled "Said he was ordinary lookin' Must be he saw hiot a better look at hireed

"So e doin', coverin' all the bases?"

I shook ht have to testify in court That ht to be in a police lineup If his lawyer finds out some private cop showed them a picture ahead of tie won't allow it"