Page 3 (1/2)

Except I wasn't I'd been out of the hospital for nine or ten days I would stay sober for two or three days and then I would pick up a drink Mostly it was a drink or two drinks or three drinks and it stayed under control, but Sunday night I'd been bad drunk, drinking bourbon at a Blarney Stone on Sixth Avenue where I didn't figure to run into anybody I knew I couldn't reot ho I had the shakes and a drydeath

I didn't tell hi again and went around the room People would say their names and say they were alcoholics and thank the speaker for his qualification, which is what they call the life story that he told Then they would go on to talk about how they'd identified with the speaker, or recall so days, or speak about so to lead a sober life A girl not much older than Kiay man in his thirties described a hassle he'd had that day with a custoot a lot of laughs

One wo in the world All you have to do is don't drink, go tolife"

When it got toended at ten I stopped at Ar's on my way home and took a seat at the bar They tell you to stay out of bars if you're trying not to drink but I' to drink I'll drink and it doesn't matter where I am

By the time I left there the early edition of the Neas on the street I picked it up and went back to e froain, which established that he had received e and said that it was important I hear from him as soon as possible

I showered and put on a robe and read the paper I read the national and international stories but I can never really focus on thes have to be on a smaller scale and happen closer to home before I can relate to them

There was plenty to relate to Two kids in the Bronx threw a young woh six cars passed over her before the ot the train stopped, she'd escaped without injury

Down on West Street, near the Hudson docks, a prostitute had beenauthority cop in Corona was still in critical condition Two days ago I'd read how he'd been attacked by two un He had a wife and four children under ten

The telephone didn't ring I didn't really expect it to I couldn't think of any reason for Chance to return my call outside of curiosity, and perhaps he remembered what that had done to the cat I could have identified nore than Police Officer Scudder, or Detective Scudder- but I didn't like to run that kind of ga to let people juive them a push

So I'd have to find hi to do In the es I left with his service would fix my name in his head

The elusive Mr Chance You'd think he'd have awith the bar and the fur upholstery and the pink velvet sun visor All those touches of class

I read the sports pages and then went back to the hooker stabbing in the Village The story was very sketchy They didn't have a na about twenty-five years old

I called the News to see if they had a na out that infor notification of kin, I suppose I called the Sixth Precinct but Eddie Koehler wasn't on duty and I couldn't think of anyone else at the Sixth who ot out my notebook and decided it was too late to call her, that half the women in the city were hookers and there was no reason to suppose she'd been the one to get sliced up underneath the West Side Highway I put the notebook away, and ten ain and dialed her number

I said, "It's Matt Scudder, Kim I just wondered if you happened to speak to your friend since I saw you"

"No, I haven't Why?"

"I thought Ito get back to o out and look for hi out?"

"Not a word"

"Good If you see hied And if he calls and wants you to ht away"