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"Give me a moment," she said She took a full minute Then she said, "Do you knohere I live? You et the nuet an unlisted nuuess they made a mistake"

"They wouldn't ot it fro You know the address There is a cocktail lounge right here in the building, it's always quiet during the day Meet me there in an hour"

"Fine"

"Wait a nize you," I said "Just wear the e was called Hadrian's Wall Hadrian was a Roman emperor, and the wall named for hiland to protect Ronificance the name may have had was lost onto red leather banquettes and blackwas subdued and indirect, the ot there five minutes early, sat at a table and ordered a Perrier She arrived tenjust inside the archway and trying to scan the room I stood up to make it easier for her and she walked without hesitation to ," she said "I'a Stettner"

"Matthew Scudder"

She held out her hand and I took it Her hand was sht of an iron hand in a velvet glove Her fingernails were long, and the scarlet polish matched her lipstick

In the video she'd had the same color on the tips of her breasts

We both sat down, and almost immediately the waiter was at our table She called hilass of white wine I told hi me another Perrier Neither of us said a word until he had brought the drinks and gone away again Then she said, "I've seen you before"

"I told you we'd met"

"Where?" She frowned, then said, "Of course At the arena Downstairs You were skulking around"

"I was looking for the lass and took a s a dark silk blouse and a patterned silk scarf, fastened at her throat with a jeweled pin The stone looked like lapis and her eyes looked blue, but it was hard to tell colors in the die

"Tell me what you want," she said

"Why don't I tell you what I have first"

"All right"

I started by saying that I was an ex-cop, which didn't seeuess I have the look I had met a man naned to clean up Times Square Leveque had been a clerk in an adult bookstore, I said, and we'd arrested him for possession and sale of obscenecame up and I had occasion to leave the NYPD Last year I heard fro private Well, I hadn't seen Arnie in years He was the same Fatter, but pretty much the saether, and he was being cagey He tolda film in somebody's basement, a home movie with a professional touch in that they hired hiet into the uess it didn't put you off stride, did it?"

"I don't knohat you're talking about"

I wasn't wearing a wire, but I could have been e and it wouldn't haveHer eyes , but she was very careful not to get caught speaking for the record

"Like I said," I went on, "Arnie was cagey He had a copy of the tape and he was ements to sell it for a lot of money, but of course he was careful not to say how ht pull a fast one, and that here I came in I was supposed to back him up, make sure the buyer didn't take him out"

"And did you do this?"

"That's where Arnie outsmarted himself," I said "See, he wanted a backup man but he didn't want a partner He wanted it all for hirand for my troubles So he kept me in the dark to protect hiot to protect hiot knifed to death in an alley in Hell's Kitchen"

"How sad for his happen You knohat they say, so world and the rest of the time it's the other way around Soon as I heard what happened I went over to his apartment, flashed some tin at the super and had a look around I didn't expect to find much because the cops had already been there, and I don't think they were the first ones in, either, because Arnie's keys were ot sloppy seconds, if you'll pardon the sexual innuendo, Mrs Stettner"

She looked atis," I said, "I knew Arnie kept a copy of the tape, because he already told athered up every cassette in his place There must have been forty of them, all these old movies that you'd turn off if they were on television He ate that stuff up What I did, I sat in front of h the lot of them And surprise, one of 'eh it with the Fast Forward, saular picture's gone and we're in a rooe boy all hooked up to aout of the Spanish Inquisition, and there's a beautiful wo else I notice you're wearing leather pants again today but I don't suppose they're the same ones, because the ones on the tape were crotchless"

"Tell h of it to make it clear I'd seen it "It wasn'twas a pip, and there was this sy across the floor and down the drain That was Arnie at his ive him that, and the black-and-white checkerboard floor was the same as the basement of the arena in Maspeth, and isn't that a hell of a coincidence?"