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Jacob was at the desk when I stopped to check forunusual aboutin his manner showed it Either he was more diplomatic than I'd ever realized or he'd reached that point in the terpinhydrate bottle where relatively few things got his attention

No calls, thank God I went to my room, closed the door, and put the chain on I'd done that once before, a few years back, only to discover that afor ed to lockfor et into it But first I braced myself and looked in thesome bruises and superficial scrapes and scratches, and sorit I'd rolled in, but I hadn't lost any teeth or broken anything or sustained any bad cuts

I looked like hell all the sae; I emptied the pockets and stripped the belt from the slacks and stuffed them and the jacket into the wastebasket My shirt was ripped and my tie was a mess I tossed the tiain I sat there and soaked while I picked bits of glass and gravel out of the palms of ot to bed I never did look at the clock

I had sed some aspirin before I went to bed, and I took soot up, and another hot bath to draw some of the ache out of muscle and bones I needed a shave but knew better than to scrape a blade over ave me a few Christmases back and did what I could with it

There was blood in my urine It's always a shock to see that, but I'd taken kidney punches before and knehat they did to you It was unlikely he'd done e My kidney ached where he'd poked ured I'd get over it

I went out and had coffee and a roll and read Newsday Breslin's coluiving it any raves Another coluhtly hysterical on the subject of a death penalty for h the consequences of their actions and turn their talents to invest instead

If the previous day was up to the year's average to date, there had been seven hohs in the course of its twenty-four hours Newsday had four of thehborhood, and none of the victims had names I found familiar I couldn't say for sure, but froh any of my friends had been murdered yesterday

I went over to Midtown North but Durkin wasn't around I caught the noonat the West Side Y on Sixty-third The speaker was an actor who'd sobered up on the Coast, and his energy gave a California rah-rah quality to the hour I walked back to the station house, stopping on the way to get a slice of pizza and a Coke and eat on the street When I got to Midtown North Durkin was back, holding the phone to his ear and juggling a cigarette and a cup of coffee He motioned me to a chair and I sat down and waited while he did a lot of listening and notup, leaned forward to scribble sohtened up and looked at me "You look like you walked into a fan," he said "What happened?"

"I got in with bad company," I said "Joe, I want that bastard picked up I want to swear out a coainst Motley?" I nodded "He did that to you?"

"Most of what he did is where it doesn't show I let et suckered into an alley on the Lower East Side late last night" I gave him a condensed version, and his dark eyes narrowed as he took it in

He said, "So what do you want to charge him with?"

"I don't know Assault, I suppose Assault, coercion, e to bring"

"Any witnesses to the alleged assault?"

"Alleged?"

"You have any witnesses, Matt?"

"Of course not," I said "We didn't e Street"

"I thought you said it was an alley"

"What's the difference? It was a space between two buildings with a fence across it and a gap in the fence If it was a passage to anything, I suppose you could call it an alley I didn't get far enough into it to find out where it went"

"Uh-huh" He picked up a pencil, looked at it "I thought you said Attorney Street before"

"That's right"

"Then a e Street"

"Did I? I e, in a toilet of a place called the Garden Grill I don't knohy they call it that There's no garden, and I don't think there's a grill, either" I shook my head at the memory "Then she took ht you said a transsexual"

"I've learned to use female pronouns for them"

"Uh-huh"

"I suppose she's a witness," I said, "but it et her to testify"

"I can see where it et a name?"

"Candy That would be a street naht have been made up for the occasion Most of them have a lot of names"

"Tell me about it"

"What's the problem, Joe? He assaulted me and I have a bona fide complaint to file"

"You'd never make it stick"