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"You really believe all this?"

"I's, then recrossed the very restrained about it No creaking boards, no host," he said

"I'll have nightht," she said "If I sleep at all"

I knocked on all the doors on the ter floors without gettinguseful to tell 's superintendent had a base on the next block, but I didn't see the point in looking him up He'd only been on the job for a matter of months, and the old woman in the fourth-floor-front apartment had told me there had been four or five supers in the past nine years

By the tilad to be on the street again I'd felt soo so far as to call it a ghost But it had felt as though so er's past orI couldn't say

I stopped at a bar on the corner of Dean and Smith They had sandwiches and a ry I had a quick drink and sipped a short beer chaser The bartender sat on a high stool drinking a large glass of what looked like vodka The other two custoe, were at the far end of the bar watching a ga back to the set

I flipped a few pages in h the Brooklyn book The day-care center where Barbara Ettinger had worked didn't seees to see if there was anything listed under another name at the same address There wasn't

The address was on Clinton Street, and I'd been away froh so that I had to ask directions, but once I'd done so it was only a walk of a few blocks The boundaries of Brooklyn neighborhoods aren't usually too well defined-the neighborhoods theely the invention of realtors-but when I crossed Court Street I was leaving Boerue wasn't difficult to see Cobble Hill was a shade or two tonier More trees, a higher percentage of brownstones, a greater proportion of white faces on the street

I found the nu on Clinton between Pacific and Around floor storefront offered supplies for knitting and needlepoint The proprietor, a plu about a day-care center She'd o after a health food restaurant had gone out of business "I ate there once," she said, "and they deserved to go out of business Believe ave me the landlord's na a busy signal so I walked over to Court Street and cliht of stairs There was just one person in the office, a young e round ashtray full of cigarette butts on the desk in front of him He chainsmoked while he talked on the phone The ere closed and the roohtclub at four in the ht hiain His own memory went back beyond the health food restaurant to a children's clothing store that had also failed in the saonna guess I'd say she'll be out in another year Howyarn? What happens, somebody has a hobby, an interest, so they open up a business Health food, needlepoint, whatever it is, but they don't know shit about business and they're down and out in a year or two She breaks the lease, we'll rent it in a month for that she pays It's a renter's hborhood" He reached for the phone "Sorry I can't help you," he said

"Check your records," I said

He told h the stateed from an assertion to a whine I sat in an old oak swivel chair and let him fumble around in his files He opened and closed half a dozen drawers before he came up with a folder and slapped it down on his desk

"Here we go," he said "Happy Hours Child Care Center So with it?"

"Happy hour's in a bar when the drinks are half price Hell of a thing to call a place for the kiddies, don't you think?" He shook his head "Then they wonder why they go out of business"

I didn't see anything the matter with the name

"Leaseholder was a Mrs Corwin Janice Corwin Took the place on a five-year lease, gave it up after four years Quit the preo in March" That would have been a year after Barbara Ettinger's death "Jesus, you look at the rent and you can't believe it You knohat she was paying?"

I shook ure" I looked at hiarette and lit another "One and a quarter Hundred and twenty-five dollars aup the oes out, or when her lease is up Whichever co address for Corwin?"

He shook his head "I got a residential address Want it?" He read off a number on Wyckoff Street It was just a few doors fro I wrote down the address He read off a phone nu He picked it up, said hello, listened for a few ot soet back to you in aup and askedelse He hefted the file "Four years she had the place," he said "Most places drop dead in the first year Make it through a year you got a chance Get through two years and you got a good chance You knohat's the probleot no need to o of it They open a business like they try on a dress Take it off if they don't like the color If that does it, I got calls to make"

I thanked him for his help

"Listen," he said, "I always cooperate It's ot a wo about anybody nah forI dropped another diain on the chance that I'd misdialed the first time When the same woman answered I broke the connection

When they disconnect a phone it's close to a year before they reassign the nued her nu from the Wyckoff Street address People, especially woh to shake off obscene callers