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"I thought they had the place staked out"

"They did He walked right past them, picked up his key at the desk and went to his roo in the world," I said "He checked in the day before, just in case He was setting things up When he got the word that I was looking for him, he went back to my hotel, went up to his room, then went to my room and let hie He took off his clothes and sharpened his machete and waited for me to come home"

"And it almost worked"

"It should have worked He could have waited behind the door and killedOr he could have stayed in the bathrooet into bed But he got tooand that's what screwed him up He wanted us both naked when he took me out, so he waited in the bathrooet into bed because he was too keyed up, too excited Of course if I hadn't had the gun handy he'd have killed me anyway"

"He couldn't have been all alone"

"He was alone as far as the killings were concerned He probably had partners in the e for them and they may not Even if they do, there's no real way to ainst anybody"

He nodded "What happened to the brother? Ki"

"He hasn't turned up He's probably dead Or he's still running, and he'll live until his Colombian friends catch up with him"

"Will they do that?"

"Probably They're supposed to be relentless"

"And that rooht Well, if he's holed up somewhere in Queens, he can read about it in the paper and ask for his old job back"

He started to say soed his mind and took both our cups back to the kitchen to refill theave ht"

"You been to sleep at all?"

"Not yet"

"Myself, I doze off in a chair now and then But when I get in bed I can't sleep, I can't even lie there I go work out and take a sauna and a shower and drink some more coffee and sit around so your service"

"I stopped callingI take so attention Kim's dead and Sunny's dead and this Cookie's dead, and maybe the brother's dead, the boyfriend, and what's-his-name is dead The one you shot, I disremember his name"

"Marquez"

"Marquez is dead, and Calderуn disappeared, and Ruby's in San Francisco And the question is where's Chance, and the answer is I don't know Where I think I aht"

"So you said"

"Mary Lou isn't going to be turning tricks anylad she did it, she learned a lot froe in her life"

"Yeah, well, I called that one Didn't I tell you after the funeral?"

I nodded "And Donna thinks she can get a foundation grant, and she can earn s and workshops She says she's reached a point where selling herself is starting to underood if she could rant?"

"She thinks she's got a shot at it"

He grinned "Aren't you gonna tell ot a Hollywood contract and she's gonna be the next Goldie Hawn"

"Maybe toe and stay stoned and entertain nice ht"

He'd been pacing the floor Now he dropped onto the hassock again "Be a cinch to get five, six more of the in the world"

"You told me that once before"

"It's the truth,to be told what to do with their da in no more than a week's ti"

"What's that?"

"I don't think I can do that anyood pimp! And I liked it I tailored a life for myself and it fit me like my own skin And you knohat I went and did?"

"What?"

"I outgrew it"

"It happens"

"Sooes crazy with a blade and I'? It would have happened anyouldn't it?"

"Sooner or later" Just as I'd have left the police force even if a bullet of e," I said "It doesn't seeonna do?"

"Whatever you want"

"Like what?"

"You could go back to school"

He laughed "And study art history? Shit, I don't want to do that Sit in classrooain? It was bullshit then, I went into the fuckin' arht about the other night?"