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After he left I took one of the photos to a copy shop and had them run off a hundred wallet-size prints I went back to my hotel room, where I had a rubber stamp with my name and number I stamped each of the photos on the back

Paula Hoeldtke's last known address was a dingy red brick roo house on Fifty-fourth Street a few doors east of Ninth Avenue It was a little after five when I headed over there, and the streets were full of office workers on their way home There was a bank of doorbells in the entrance hall, over fifty of theer off to the side Before I rang it I checked the tags on the other bells Paula Hoeldtke's naer was a tall woman, rail thin, with a face that tapered fro a floral print housedress and carrying a lit cigarette She took avacant at the ht want to check back with "

"How ?"

"One-twenty a week, but soher That includes your electric There's supposed to be no cooking, but you could have a one-ring hotplate and it'd be all right Each rooerator They're s"

"I drink e, but it doesn't ot no vacancies and don't expect any soon"

"Did Paula Hoeldtke have a hotplate?"

"She was a waitress, so I guess she took her ht when I saw you was you were a cop, but then for soed o, and then the other day aray What happened to Paula?"

"That's what I' to find out"

"You want to come inside? I told the first cop all I knew, and I went over everything for her father, but I suppose you got your own questions to ask That's always the way, isn't it?"

I followed her inside and down a long hallway A table at the foot of the stairs was heaped with envelopes "That's where they pick up theirit into fifty-four individual mailboxes, the mailman just drops the whole stack on the table there Believe it or not, it's safer that way Other places have mailboxes in the vestibules, and the junkies break into theht this way, I'm the last door on the left"

Her room was small but impressively neat There was a captain's bed ht-backed wooden chair and an armchair, a small maple drop-front desk, a painted chest of draith a television set on top of it The floor was covered with brick-patterned linoleu

I sat on one of the chairs while she opened the desk and paged through the rental ledger She said, "Here we are The last day I saw her hen she paid her rent for the last time, and that was the sixth of July That was a Monday, that's when rents are due, and she paid 135 on the due date She had a nice rooer than so week I didn't see her on the Monday, and on Wednesday I went looking for her I'll do that, on Wednesdays I go knocking on doors when people haven't co two days late, but I go around and ask for the ot so for it

"I knocked on her door and she didn't answer, and then on ain, and she still wasn't ho, that would have been Thursday the sixteenth, I banged on her door again, and when there was no answer I used my passkey" She frowned "Noould I do that? She was usually in s but not always, and she wasn't but three days late with the rent Oh, I remember! There was mail for her that hadn't been picked up in a few days, letters I'd seen a couple ti late- anyway, I opened the door"

"What did you find?"

"Not what I was afraid of finding You hate to open a door that way, you know You're a cop, I don't have to tell you that, do I? People who live alone in furnished rooht find Not this time, thank God Her place was empty"

"Completely empty?"

"No, come to think of it She left the bed linen Tenants have to supply their own linen I used to furnish it, but I changed the policy, oh, I'd say fifteen years ago Her sheets and blankets and pillowcase were still on the bed But there were no clothes in the closet, nothing in the drawers, no food in the refrigerator No question but that she'd one"

"I wonder why she left the linen"

"Maybe she wastown and only had rooot it When you pack up to leave a motel room you don't take the sheets and blankets, not unless you're a thief, and this is sort of like living in a hotel I've had the I've had the there, but I let it lie I said, "You said she was a waitress"

"Well, that's how she earned her living She was an actress, or fixing to be one Most of er people I've got a few older folks been with overnot one woman doesn't pay me but seventeen dollars and thirty cents a week, if you can believe that, and she's got one of the best roohts of stairs to collect her rent, and I'll tell you, there are sos when it doesn't see just before she left?"

"I don't even know that she orking If she told et too close to them, you know I'll pass the time of day, but that's about all Because, you know, they coo My old folks are withpeople are in and out of here, in and out They get discouraged and go hoular apartet married orwas Paula here?"