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The bar he took ton Street at the corner of Thirteenth The sign said bar, and if it hadit a secret It was a small room, its board floor liberally streith sawdust There was a sandwich lad to see that It was a little early in the day for Coca-Cola

The bartender was a beefy felloith a flattop haircut and a brushyat the bar, two of them in butcher's aprons, both of the aprons richly bloodstained There were half a dozen square tables of dark wood, all of thelass of whiskey and a cup of black coffee from the bar and led me to the table that was farthest from the door I sat down He started to sit, then looked at his glass and saw that it didn't hold enough He went back to the bar and returned with the bottle It was Jameson, but not the pre hand around his glass and raised it a few inches fro in acknowledght have been water for all the effect it had on hiht"

"You knew the "

"Tookabout poor Eddie Dunphy And then we talked about every daht what a devious bastard you were, leadingher picture on the table But that wasn't it at all, was it?"

"No I didn't have anything to connect her to you or to Neil I was just trying to find out as on Eddie's uard up I didn't know a fucking thing about Eddie or his ht have had on it" He drank the rest of the whiskey and put the glass on the table "Matt, I have to do this Co a wire"

"Jesus," I said

"I don't want to talk around the point I want to say whatever comes to mind and I can't do that unless I know you're clean"

The lavatory was small and dank and foul It wouldn't hold us both comfortably, so he stood outside and held the door open I took off my jacket and shirt and tie and lowered nity of it all Then he heldht, then took my jacket from him and put it on We went back to the table and sat down, and he poured irl's dead," he said

So settled loithin me I had known she was dead, had sensed it and reasoned it both, but evidently there had been a part of

I said, "When?"

"Solass but didn't lift it "Before Neil came to work for me he was behind the bar at a tourist place"

"The Druid's Castle"

"You'd know that, of course He had a racket there"

"Credit cards"

He nodded "He came to me with it, I put him in touch with someone There's a lot of h it's not the kind of business I care for, not fornu for all concerned, and then they caught on at the restaurant and they let hio"

"That's where he met Paula"

He nodded "She was in it with him She would run an impression of the cards on her own ive her their carbons to tear up, only she wouldn't do it, she'd pass them on to Neil After he left she stayed on there, and he had her bringing slips and carbons to hi that But then she quit, she didn't care to wait on tables anylass and took a drink "She moved in with him She kept her roo So, but more often she'd wait and come by for him when his shift was over He didn't just tend bar"

"He still had his credit card sca around, you know, he found things to do You could tell hi a couple of tiood money in that"

"I'ht, you know, for what he was But it botheredher around"

"Why?"

"Because she didn't fit She was along for the ride but she didn't belong What does her father do?"

"He sells Japanese cars"

"And not stolen ones, either"

"I wouldn't think so, no"

He uncapped the bottle, raised it He asked me if I wantedcoffee h, the whiskey is like coffee to lass "She was a nice Protestant girl from Indiana," he said "She'd steal, but she stole for the thrill of it You can't trust that, it's alood thief doesn't steal for the thrill He steals for the money And the best thief of all steals because he's a thief"

"What happened to Paula?"

"She heard so she shouldn't have heard"

"What?"