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"I still want to know"

"You s you won't like You said it yourself-soht be happier not knowing the reason"

"It's possible"

"But you'll run that risk"

"Yes"

"Well, I guess I can try talking with soot my pen and notebook froe, uncapped the pen "I ht as well start with you," I said

WE talked for close to an hour and I made a lot of notes I had another double bourbon andhim a cup of coffee She refilled it twice for his-on-Hudson in Westchester County They'd er sister Lynn was three Three years ago, some six years after Barbara's death, London 's wife Helen had died of cancer He lived there alone now, and every once in a while he thought about selling the house, but so far he hadn't gotten around to listing it with a realtor He supposed it was so he'd do sooner or later, whereupon he'd either arden apartment somewhere in Westchester

Barbara had been twenty-six She'd be thirty-five now if she had lived No children She had been a couple of nant when she died, and London hadn't even known that until after her death Telling er had remarried a couple of years after Barbara's death He'd been a caseworker for the Welfare Departe, but he'd quit that job shortly after the one into sales His second wife's father owned a sporting goods store on Long Island and after the er lived in Mineola with his wife and two or three children- London wasn't sure of the number He had come alone to Helen London's funeral and London hadn't had any contact with him since then, nor had he ever met the neife

Lynn London would be thirty-three in a raders at a progressive private school in the Village She'd been married shortly after Barbara was killed, and she and her husband had separated after a little over two years ofafter that No children

He hbors, friends The operator of the day-care center where Barbara had worked A coworker there Her closest friend froe Soave me bits and pieces and I could take it from there Not that any of it would necessarily lead anywhere

He went off on tangents a lot I didn't atteet a better picture of the dead wo him wander, but even so I didn't develop any real sense of her I learned she was attractive, that she'd been popular as a teenager, that she'd done well in school She was interested in helping people, she liked working with children, and she'd been eager to have a fah was of a woe froe she hadn't lived to attain I had the feeling that he hadn't known her terribly well, that he'd been insulated by his work and by his role as her father from any reliable perception of her as a person

Not uncommon, that Most people don't really know their children until the children have beco

WHEN he ran out of things to tell h my notes, then closed the book I told him I'd see what I could do

"I'll need some money," I said

"How much?"

I never kno to set a fee What's too little and what's too much? I knew I needed money-a chronic condition, that-and that he probably had it in fair supply Insurance agents can earn a lot or a little, but it seee to corporations was probably quite lucrative I flipped a ure of fifteen hundred dollars

"And ill that buy, Mr Scudder?"

I told him I really didn't know "It'll buy my efforts," I said "I'll work on this until I co or until it's clear toto coure I've earned yourI'll let you know, and you can decide then whether or not you want to pay ht not be comfortable with it"

He considered that but didn't say anything Instead he got out a checkbook and asked how he should make the check payable To Matthew Scudder, I told him, and he wrote it out and tore it out of the book and set it on the table between us

I didn't pick it up I said, "You know, I', well-staffed agencies who operate in a much more conventional manner They'll report in detail, they'll account for every cent of fees and expenses On top of that, they've got more resources than I do"

"Detective Fitzroy said as encies he could recommend"