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I went over to St Paul's The speaker told a horrible story in a chatty matter-of-fact fashion Both his parents had died of alcoholism, his father of acute pancreatitis, his mother of suicide committed while drunk Two brothers and a sister had died of the disease A third brother was in a state hospital with a wet brain

"After I was sober a fewhow alcohol kills brain cells, and I got worried about how ht have So I went to my sponsor and told him as on e It's possible But let s are from one day to the next? Can you find your way to thee that all right' 'Well then,' he said, 'you got all the brain cells you need for the ti' "

I left on the break

There was another ht back and he was out again I leftanother look at Donna's poe

It was Durkin He said, "Hey, Matt I just wanted to say I hope I didn't give you the wrong ieneral," he said "Once in a while the whole business gets to me, you knohat I mean? I have the need to break out, drink too much, run off at the mouth I don't make a habit of it but once in awhile I have to do it"

"Sure"

"Most of the tis you try not to look at, and every now and then I have to get all that shit out of et out of line there toward the end"

I assured hi I wondered how clearly he recalled the previous evening He'd been drunk enough to be in a blackout, but not everybody has blackouts Maybe he was just a little vague, and uncertain how I'd taken his outbursts

I thought of what Billie's landlady had told hiet it," I said "It could happen to a bishop"

"Hey, I got to remember that one It could happen to a bishop And probably does"

"Probably"

"You getting anywhere with your investigation? Co?"

"It's hard to tell"

"I knohat youI can do for you-"

"Matter of fact, there is"

"Oh?"

"I went over to the Galaxy Doner," I said "Talked to an assistant ned"

"The fanature on it The nao through the cards for the past few natures, and how they co He couldn't authorize it"

"You should have slipped hietting at But you could have him pull the printed cards He wouldn't do it for , but he'd hop to it if a copfor ato lead anywhere

"It ht," I said

"You think whoever did it stayed at the hotel before? Under some other name?"

"It's possible"

"But not his own na cute So ind up with, assuot very lucky and there was a card to be found and we actually came up with it, e'd have is another alias for the same son of a bitch, and ouldn't be any closer'n we are now to knoho he is"

"There's another thing you could do, while you were at it"

"What's that?"

"Have other hotels in the area check their registrations for, oh, the past six istrations? Co about?"

"Not printed registrations Have the about hotels like the Galaxy Doner, e Most of theistrations on coistrations in five or ten minutes, but not unless someone with a tin shield asks 'eot?"

"You pull the appropriate cards, look for a guest named Jones, probably with the first initial C or the initials CO, and you co and see if you find hi you see where it leads I don't have to tell you what to do with a lead"

He was silent again "I don't know," he said at length "It sounds pretty thin"

"Maybe it is"

"I'll tell you what I think it is I think it's a waste of time"

"It's not a waste of all that much time And it's not that thin Joe, you'd do it if the case wasn't already closed in your mind"

"I don't know about that"

"Of course you would You think it's a hired killer or a lunatic If it's a hired killer you want to close it out and if it's a lunatic you want to wait until he does it again"

"I wouldn't go that far"

"You went that far last night"

"Last night was last night, for Christ's sake I already explained about last night"

"It wasn't a hired killer," I said "And it wasn't a lunatic just picking her out of the blue"

"You sound like you're sure of it"

"Reasonably sure"

"Why?"

"No hired hitoes crazy that way What did he hit her, sixty times with a machete?"

"I think it was sixty-six"

"Sixty-six, then"

"And it wasn't necessarily alike a machete"