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According to the story's last paragraph, five other persons had been killed in or around the victi in the year since their murder There'd been no indication whether those five murders were solved, or whether the kid in custody was suspected of theain I'd put the book aside and find er Donald Gilman had started to say that her father probably suspected soht himself and left the name unsaid

The husband, probably The spouse is always the first suspect If Barbara hadn't apparently been one of a series of victirilled six ways and backwards As it was, he'd been interrogated automatically by detectives from Midtown North They could hardly have done otherwise He was not only the husband He was also the person who had discovered the body, co froation The ranted that the killing was the work of the Icepick Prowler, so his questions had concentrated on Barbara's schedule, on her possible propensity for opening the door for strangers, on whether shesuspiciously Had she been bothered recently by obscene telephone calls? People hanging up without speaking? Suspicious wrong nu had essentially assumed the subject's innocence, and the assuh at the tier's manner to arouse suspicion

I tried, not for the first tier It seemed to me that I must have met him We were on the scene before Midtown North came to take the case away from us, and he'd have had to be so the body sprawled on the linoleuht have formed some impression, but I couldn't remember him at all

Perhaps he'd been in the bedroo with another detective or with one of the patrolmen who'd been first on the scene Maybe I'd never laid eyes on hiether I had by that ti any number of recently bereaved They couldn't all stand out in sharp relief in the cluttered warehouse of h My client hadn't said whom he suspected, and I hadn't asked, but it stood to reason that Barbara's husband headed the list London wouldn't be all that upset by the possibility that she'd died at the hands of someone he didn't even know, so to him But for her to have been killed by her own husband, a man London knew, a man who had been present years later at London's wife's funeral-

There's a phone in h the switchboard, and it's a nuisance placing them that way even when I don't care if the operator listens in I went down to the lobby and dialed

"Scudder," I said "I could use a picture of your daughter Anything as long as it's a good likeness"

"I took albums full of pictures But most of theraph, I suppose?"

"As late as possible How about a wedding picture?"

"Oh," he said "Of course There's a very good picture of the two of the room I suppose I could have it copied Do you want me to do that?"

"If it's not too ested he bring it to his office Monday I said I'd call and arrange to pick it up He asked if I'd had a chance to begin the investigation yet and I told him I'd spent the day in Brooklyn I tried him on a couple of na to him He asked, tentatively, if I had any leads

"It's a pretty cold trail," I said

I rang off without asking him who he suspected I felt restless and went around the corner to Aro back to e to it

I sat at the bar with a couple of nurses fro up her third week in Pediatrics "I thought I'd like the duty," she said, "but I can't stand it Little kids, it's so much worse when you lose one Some of them are so brave it breaks your heart I can't handle it, I really can't"

Estrellita Rivera's ione I didn't try to hold onto it The other nurse, glass in hand, was saying that all in all she thought she preferred Sambucca to Amaretto Or ht

Chapter 6

Even if I couldn't recall er, I had a picture of him in my mind Tall and raw-boned, dark hair, pallid skin, knobby wrists, Lincolnesque features A pro with his i an unremembered dream After a quick breakfast I went down to Penn Station and caught a Long Island Railroad local to Hicksville A phone call to his house in Mineola had established that Ettinger orking at the Hicksville store, and it turned out to be a 225 cab ride from the station

In an aisle lined with squash and racquet-ball equiper," he said "What can I do for you?"

He was about five-eight, a chunky one-seventy Tightly curled light brown hair with red highlights The plue white teeth, with the upper incisors slightly bucked, consistent with the squirrel ie He didn't look remotely familiar, nor did he bear any resemblance whatsoever to the rail-splitter caricature I'd dreamed up to play his part

"My name's Scudder," I said "I'd like to talk to you privately, if you don't uarded "Karen?" he said "What about her?"