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I turned the water off and got dressed again

Jesus, I felt like a caged lion I picked up the phone I ht have called Chance but you couldn't just call the son of a bitch, you had to call his service and wait for hi that I called Jan, as still out, and I called Durkin He wasn't there either, and once again I decided against leaving a e

Maybe he was at that place on Tenth Avenue, unwinding with a couple of belts I thought about going over there and looking for hi for, that all I wanted was an excuse to walk through the door of that bucket of blood and put my foot upon the brass rail

Did they even have a brass rail? I closed my eyes and tried to picture the place, and in an instant I was recalling everything about it, the smells of spilled booze and stale beer and urine, that dank tavern sot nine days and you went to two , and you've never been closer to a drink What the hell's the matter with you?

If I went to Durkin's boozer I'd drink If I went to Farrell's or Polly's or Aro crazy, and when I went crazy enough I'd get away froo out, to one bar or another, and I'd drink

I hth day and there was no reason why I couldn't get through the ninth I sat there and every now and then I looked at my watch and soot to be eleven o'clock and I went downstairs and hailed a taxi

There's a hts a week at the Moravian Church on the corner of Thirtieth and Lexington The doors open about an hour before ot there and took a seat, and when the coffee was ready I got myself a cup

I didn't pay attention to the qualification or the discussion I just sat there and let myself feel safe There were a lot of newly sober people in the roo a hard time Why else would they be there at that hour?

There were so yet, too They had to put one of them out, but the others didn't h one more hour

When the hour was up I helped fold the chairs and empty the ashtrays Another chair folder introduced hi I'd been sober I told hi back"

They always say that

I went outside and signaled a passing cab, but when he cut over and started to brake I changed ine as he drove away

I didn't want to go back to the roo, bluffed my way past her doorman, let myself into her apartment I knew there was a closetful of booze there but it didn't bother me I didn't even feel the need to pour it down the sink, as I'd done with the bottle of Wild Turkey earlier

In her bedroo for the green ring I picked up the ivory bracelet, unfastened the clasp, tried it for size on ot some paper towels from the kitchen and wrapped the bracelet carefully, put it in my pocket

Maybe Jan would like it I'd pictured it on her wrist a few ti the funeral service

If she didn't like it she didn't have to wear it

I went over, picked up the phone The service hadn't been disconnected yet I supposed it would be sooner or later, just as sooner or later the aparts removed from it But for noas still as if she'd just stepped out for aanyone Soot undressed and went to sleep in her bed I didn't change the linen, and it seemed to me that her scent, still faintly discernible, constituted a presence in the rooht off to sleep

I woke up bathed in perspiration, convinced that I'd solved the case in a dreaot out of there

There were several es at my hotel, all of them froht before and a couple of ti

When I called her she said, "I've been trying to reach you I would have called you at your girlfriend's but I couldn't remember her last naht, but left it unsaid

"I'ht have talked to hiet hold of him The only way I know is to call his service-"

"That's the only way I know"

"Oh I thought you ht have a special number"

"Only the service"

"I've called there He always returns his calls I've left, God, I don't kno es and he hasn't called me back"