Page 10 (1/2)

They tell you not to let yourself get too hungry I hadn't had anything to eat since that hot dog in the park I thought of food and my stomach turned at the notion

I walked back to h every place I passed was a bar or a liquor store I went up toa couple of minutes early Half a dozen people said hello to ot some coffee and sat down

The speaker told an abbreviated drinking story and spent s that had happened to hie had broken up, his youngest son had been killed by a hit-and-run driver, he'd gone through a period of extended unemployment and several bad bouts of clinical depression

"But I didn't drink," he said "When I first ca so bad that a drink won't ram is not drink even if my ass falls off I'll tell you, so stubbornness That's okay I figure whatever works is fine with ot a cup of coffee and took a couple of Fig Newtons I could hear Kiain an ounce Aren't I lucky?"

I ate the cookies It was like chewing straw but I chewed theot into a long riff about her relationship She was a pain in the ass, she said the saht, My naot killed last night She hiredher that she was safe and she believed me And her killer connedI can do about it And it eats at me and I don't knohat to do about that, and there's a bar on every corner and a liquor store on every block, and drinking won't bring her back to life but neither will staying sober, and why the hell do I have to go through this? Why?

I thought, My naoddas all the ti each other We say Don't drink and go tois you're sober and we say Easy does it and we say One day at a time and while we natter on like brainwashed zoht, My naot to me I said, "My name is Matt Thanks for your qualification I enjoyed it I think I'll just listen tonight"

I left right after the prayer I didn't go to Cobb's Corner and I didn't go to Ar's, either Instead I walked to my hotel and past it and halfway around the block to Joey Farrell's on Fifty-eighth Street

They didn't have much of a crowd There was a Tony Bennett record on the jukebox The bartender was nobody I knew

I looked at the back bar The first bourbon that caught ht shot ater back The bartender poured it and set it on the bar in front of me

I picked it up and looked at it I wonder what I expected to see

I drank it down

Chapter 7

It was no big deal I didn't even feel the drink at first, and then what I experienced was a vague headache and the suggestion of nausea

Well, my system wasn't used to it I'd been away froone a full ithout a drink?

I couldn't reht Maybe twenty, maybe more

I stood there, a forear of the bar stool beside me, and I tried to deter didn't hurt quite so o On the other hand, I felt a curious sense of loss But of what?

"Another?"

I started to nod, then caught ht now," I said "You want to let me have soed a dollar for me and pointed me toward the pay phone I closed myself into the booth and took outcalls I spent a few die of the Dakkinen case and a couple ed into the squad room at Midtown North I asked to speak to Detective Durkin and a voice said, "Just a minute," and "Joe? For you," and after a pause another voice said, "This is Joe Durkin"

I said, "Durkin, my name is Scudder I'd like to know if you've et that naet inforive it If you haven't arrested the piive you a lead"

After a pause he said, "We haven't made any arrests"

"She had a pimp"

"We know that"

"Do you have his name?"

"Look, Mr Scudder-"

"Her pimp's name is Chance That may be a first or last name or it may be an alias There's no yellow sheet on him, not under that name"

"Hoould you know about a yellow sheet?"

"I'ot a lot of inforive it to you Suppose I just talk for a few ht"

I told hiave him a full physical description, added a description of his car and supplied the license nu and that one of them was a Ms Sonya Hendryx, possibly known as Sunny, and I described her "Friday night he dropped Hendryx at 444 Central Park West It's possible she lives there butto attend a victory party for a prizefighter named Kid Bascomb Chance has some sort of interest in Basco was throwing a party for hi I said, "Friday night Chance learned that the Dakkinen girl wanted to end their relationship Saturday afternoon he visited her on East Thirty-eighth Street and told her he had no objection He told her to vacate the apartment by the end of the month It was his apartment, he rented it and installed her in it"

"Just a minute," Durkin said, and I heard papers rustle "The tenant of record is a Mr David Goldman That's also the name Dakkinen's phone's listed in"

"Have you been able to trace David Golduess is you won't, or else Goldman'll turn out to be a lawyer or accountant Chance uses to front for him I'll tell you this much, Chance doesn't look like any David Goldht"