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Still, it takes it out of you I took the bus and went back to my hotel rooame underway, two Pac-10 tea hyped for the Heis, and I could understand what the fuss was about He was a white boy, too, and big enough for pro ball So that his incoher thanso I opened my eyes, turned the sound down on the TV, and answered the phone

It was Elaine She said, "Hi, sweetie I called earlier but they said you were out"

"I didn't get a e"

"I didn't leave one I just wanted to thank you and I didn't want to do that by e You're a sweet man, but I suppose everybody tells you that"

"Not quite everybody," I said "I talked to dozens of people today and not one of the"

"What were you doing?"

"Looking for our friend I found a hotel where he spent a ot out of prison"

"Where?"

"A flop in the West Nineties The Benjamin Davis, but I don't think you'd know it"

"Would I want to?"

"Probably not Our sketch is good, I ed to establish thatI learned today"

"Did you get the original back?"

"You still want it, huh?"

"Of course I do What are you doing tonight? Do you want to bring it over?"

"I've got so, don't you?"

"And I want to get to a ," I said "I'll call later, if it's not too late And maybe I'll come by, if you feel like late company"

"Good," she said "And Matt? That eet"

"For me, too"

"Did you used to be such a romantic? Well, I just wanted you to know I appreciate it"

I put the phone down and turned the sound up The game ell into the fourth quarter, so I'd evidently been asleep for a while It was no contest at this stage, but I watched the rest of it anyway, then went out to get so to eat

I took a batch of copies of Motley's likeness and an inch-thick stack of business cards, and after I ate I went on don I worked the SRO hotels and rooe I ti in a storefront on Perry Street There were about seventy people jammed into a room that would have held half that number coot there There was standing roo was lively, though, and I got a seat when the place thinned out at the break

Thebroke at ten and I made the rounds of some of the leather bars, Boots and Saddles on Christopher, the Chuckwagon on Greenwich, and a couple of lon riverfront joints on West Street The gay bars catering to the S & M crowd had always had a e of AIDS I found their at Part of this, I suppose, cae proportion of the racefully casual in deni their Coors, alking time bombs, infected with the virus and odds-on to come doith the disease within e, or perhaps disarmed by it, it was all too easy for me to see the skull beneath the skin

I was there on a hunch, and a thin one at that The day Motley surprised us at Elaine's aparted out like some sort of urban cowboy, all the way down to hishim a leather queen, I had to ad hi, those long strong fingers curled around a beer bottle, those flat cold eyes staring,As far as I kneomen were Motley's victi he was in that particular regard If he didn't care whether his partners were alive or dead, how iender be to him?

So I showed his likeness around and asked the questions that ith it Two bartenders thought Motley looked fah neither could ID him for certain At one of the West Street dives, they had a dress code on weekends; you had to be wearing deni both stoppedthe policy

I suppose it's fair play Look at all the people in jeans and boet to have a drink at the Plaza "It's not a social call," I told him I showed him Motley's picture and asked if he knew hiet our share of rough trade"

"This is rougher than you'd want"

"Letthe sketch up to his eyes for a closer look "Oh, yes," he said

"You know him?"