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He said, "You still think I killed her, don't you?"

"What does it matter what I think?"

"It matters to me"

I borrowed Durkin's line "Nobody pays me to think"

We were in the back booth of a coffee shop a few doors frohter than his skin tone I'd ordered a toasted English , but I hadn't been able to bring ht"

"I have what you ht call an alibi in depth A whole rooht I wasn't anywhere near that hotel"

"That's handy"

"What's that supposed toI could have hired it done"

I shrugged I felt edgy, sitting across the table from him, but more than that I felt tired I wasn't afraid of him

"Maybe I could have But I didn't"

"If you say so"

"God da ht?"

"No"

"Just a friend of a friend?"

"That's right"

He looked atin my eyes "You went to bed with her," he said Before I could respond he said, "Sure, that's what you did How else would she say thank you? The woe I hope that wasn't the only coot, Scudder I hope she didn't pay the whole fee in whore's coin"

"My fees arethat happened between us isa fix on where you're co fro anywhere I did a piece of work and I was paid in full The client's dead and I didn't have anything to do with that and it doesn't have anything to do withto do with her death Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't I don't know and I don't have to know and I don't honestly give a damn That's between you and the police I'm not the police"

"You used to be"

"But I'irl's brother and I' sword You think it ive a damn?"

"Yes"

I looked at him

He said, "Yes, I think it matters to you I think you care who killed her That's why I'ently "See," he said, "what I want is to hire you, Mr Matthew Scudder I want you to find out who killed her"

I took a while before I believed he was serious Then I did what I could to talk hi to Kim's killer, I told hi it They had the authority and the manpower and the talent and the connections and the skills I had none of the above

"You're forgetting so Far as they're concerned, they already knoho killed her They got no evidence so they can't do anything with it, but that's their excuse not to kill the They'll say, 'Well, we know Chance killed her but we can't prove it so let's work on sos to work on And if they did work on it, all they'd be looking for is so it onto me They wouldn't even look to see if there's so her dead"

"Like who?"

"That's what you would be looking to find out"

"Why?"

"Foryou to work for free I have a lot of ood fee"

"That's not what I meant Why would you wantI had any chance of finding hiet you off the hook because you're not on the hook The cops haven't got a case against you and they're not likely to come up with one What's it to you if the case stays on the books as unsolved?"

His gaze was calested

"How? It looks to ets a boost If the word on the street is that you killed her and got aith it, the next girl ants to quit your string is going to have so to do with her murder, I can see where you'd be just as happy to take the credit for it"

He flicked his index finger a couple tiainst his empty coffee cup He said, "Somebody killed a woet aith it"

"She wasn't yours when she got killed"

"Who knew that? You knew it and she knew it and I knew it My other girls, did they know? Did the people in the bars and on the street know? Do they kno? Far as the world knows, one ofaith it"