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I didn't say anything He picked up his cigarettes, offered me one I shook , blew out a colu down the dark hair that already lay flat upon his scalp

He said, "Could be there was so on the inside To Kim from Freddie, some shit like that You think that's it?"

"I don't know"

"You got a theory?"

I remembered what Danny Boy Bell had said If the boyfriend commanded such muscle, was so well connected, how come he hadn't shown her off? And if it was someone else with the muscle and the connections and the insufficient words to the wise, how did that someone else fit in with the boyfriend? Who was this accountant type who paid for hera smell of hi?

I reached into un, felt its cool reen glass that had started all of this I took it from my pocket and looked at it, and Durkin asked "

I nodded He took the piece of glass froht, dropped it back into the hotel," he reument"

"I know"

"Maybe she left it at the apartment Maybe someone took it from there"

"Who?"

"The boyfriend Let's say he didn't kill her, let's say it was an EDP like I said froet so you use the expressions they want you to use, you knoorks Let's say the psycho killed her and the boyfriend's worried he'll be tied into it So he goes to the apartht her other presents and he took them, too He would've taken the fur, too, but it was in the hotel Why isn't that theory just as good as the killer yanking the ring off her finger?"

Because it wasn't a psycho, I thought Because a psycho killer wouldn't be sendingh Danny Boy Bell Because a psycho wouldn't have worried about handwriting or fingerprints or towels

Unless he was some sort of Jack the Ripper type, a psycho who planned and took precautions But that wasn't it, that couldn't be it, and the ring had to be significant I dropped the piece of glass back into

Durkin's phone rang He picked it up, said "Joe Durkin" and "Yeah, right, right" He listened, grunting acknowledg a pointed look innotes on a ot us both coffee I couldn't remember what he took in his coffee, then remembered how bad the coffee was out of that ar to both cups

He was still on the phone when I got back to the desk He took the coffee, nodded his thanks, sipped it, lit a fresh cigarette to go with it I drank so soht ofwith the word sparkle? Hadn't the ring sparkled on Kiht striking it Or was I just fabricating the memory to reinforcering and no hard evidence that the ring had even existed A poeht ered that subconsciously? Or was I just identifying with the crew on the Yellow Brick Road, wishing I had a brain and a heart and a dose of courage?

Durkin said, "Yeah, it's a pisser, all right Don't go 'way, okay? I'll be right out"

He hung up, looked at me His expression was a curious one, self-satisfaction ht have been pity

He said, "The Powhattan Motel, you knohere Queens Boulevard cuts the Long Island Expressway? It's just past the intersection I don't know just where, Elht about where they run into each other"

"So?"

"One of those adult motels, waterbeds in soet cheaters, the hot-sheet trade, take a rooht if they get the volume, and a lot of it's cash, they can skim it Very profitable, motels like that"

"What's the point?"

"Guy drove up, rented a rooo Well, that business, you er noticed the car was gone, went to the roo on the door He knocks, no answer, he knocks again, still no answer He opens the door and guess what he finds?"

I waited

"Cop na that struck him was the similarity to e had at the Galaxy Doner That was hiet the medical evidence, direction of thrust, nature of wounds, all that, but it sure as hell sounds identical Killer even took a shower, took the toith him when he left"

"Was it-"

"Was it what?"

It wasn't Donna I'd just spoken to her Fran, Ruby, Mary Lou-