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"Someone probably wanted to make a copy of another tape"

"And he didn't have a blank cassette handy so he used this one instead But why use a rental tape and then turn it in the next day? It doesn't ested "Who was the last person to rent it?"

"Before Haberman, you mean Let's see" He consulted the computer, frowned "He was the first," he said

"It was a brand-new tape?"

"No, of course not Does it look like a new tape? I don't know, you get everything on computer and you can keep records like never before, and then it does so like this Oh, wait a minute I knohere this tape caht in a whole shopping bag full of videocassettes, ood solid classics "There were all three versions of The Maltese Falcon, if you can believe that One from 1936 called Satan Met a Lady, with Bette Davis and Warren Williams Arthur Treacher plays Joel Cairo, and the Sidney Greenstreet role is played by a fat lady named Alison Skipworth, believe it or not And then there's the original 1931 version, with Ricardo Cortez playing Spade as a real sliart made him into in 1940 That was called The Maltese Falcon, but after they released the Huston version the first one was retitled Dangerous Female, they called it"

The woman had said she was a landlady A tenant of hers had died and she was selling off soht the lot," he said "I don't know if he really owed back rent or she just saw a chance to pick up a couple of dollars, but I knew she wasn't a burglar, she hadn't gone and stolen the tapes And they were in good condition, the ones I looked at" A rueful smile "I didn't look at all of them I certainly didn't look at this one"

"That would explain it," I said "If he owned the tape, whoever he was-"

"And he had a tape to copy, and o out and buy a blank cassette Sure, that makes sense He wouldn't record on a rental cassette, but this one didn't becoht it fro else onto it" He looked at ?"

I said I wasn't He said so about the kind of world it was, and I asked the wo I ever knew it in the first place, which I don't think I did"

"Didn't you write her a check?"

"Probably not I think she wanted cash People generally do There's a chance I wrote out a check Do you want me to see?"

"I'd appreciate it"

He took time out to wait on a custoed a few minutes later "No check," he said "I didn't think there would be I found h She had thirty-one cassettes and I gave her seventy-five dollars That sounds low, but these were used ite in this business"

"Did you have her name on the transaction memo?"

"No The date's June fourth, if that's any help And I've never seen the wohborhood, but I don't know anythingelse, and I couldn't think of any ht rental of The Dirty Dozen coot back to my hotel I looked up Will's number- it was easy now that I knew his last name I called him and told him he could pick up his free oes," I said, "there's nothing for either of us to do Souy copied a tape onto his own cassette of The Dirty Dozen and it wound up finding its way into circulation Theout who he was, let alone tracing the tape back froet passed around and around like that, with people interested in that sort of thing copying each other's tapes because that's the only way to get the stuff, it's not available on the open ht to just forget about it? A boy was killed"

"The original tape could be ten years old," I said "It could have been shot in Brazil" Not likely, not with everybody speaking Alish, but he let it pass "It's a pretty horrible piece of tape, andif I'd never seen it, but I don't see that there's anything to be done about it There are probably hundreds of si special about this one is that you and I happened to see it"

"There's no point in taking it to the police?"