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Mrs Poaveto reach the Corwins She knew at once who I was talking about but had no idea how I could reach them

"We didn't keep in touch He was a nice fellow, Eddie, and he used to bring the children over for dinner after she moved out, but then when he moved we lost contact It's been so many years I'm sure we had his address at one point but I can't even remember the city he moved to It was in California, I think Southern California"

"But she moved out first?"

"You didn't know that? She left him, left him flat with the two kids She closed the whatcha you know he's got to find a day-care center for his own children I' out on her own children"

"Do you knohere she e, I suppose To pursue her art As"

"Her art?"

"She fancied herself a sculptor I never saw her work so for all I know she h There was a wo A nice apartuy, two beautiful children, and she even had a business that wasn't doing too badly And she walked away fro shot "Did you happen to know a friend of hers naer?"

"I didn't know her that well What was that naer? Why is that naer was murdered down the block from where you lived"

"Just before we moved in Of course I remember now I never knew her, naturally, because as I said it was just before we moved in She was a friend of the Corwins?"

"She worked for Mrs Corwin"

"Were they that way?"

"What way?"

"There was a lot of talk about thein My husband and I told each other we didn't have to worry about lightning striking twice in the same place, but privately I was still worried Then those killings just stopped, didn't they?"

"Yes You never knew the Ettingers?"

"No, I told you"

An artist in Greenwich Village A sculptor Of the J Corwins I'd been unable to reach, had any lived in the Village? I didn't think so

I said, "Would you happen to remember Mrs Corwin's maiden name?"

"Remember it? I don't think I ever knew it in the first place Why?"

"I was thinking shean artistic career"

"I'm sure she did Artistic career or not, she'd want her own name back But I couldn't tell you what it was"

"Of course she could have re your pardon?"

"I don't think she remarried," Mrs Pomerance said There was a sharpness to her tone and I wondered at it I asked her what made her say that

"Put it this way," she said "Sculpture or no sculpture, she'd probably live in Greenwich Village"

"I don't understand"

"You don't?" She clicked her tongue, impatient with my obtuseness "She left her husband-and two children-but not to run off with another man She left him for another woman"

JANICE Corwin's maiden name was Keane It took a subway ride to Chambers Street and a couple of hours in various offices of the Department of Records and Information Services to supply this kernel of infor clearance I kept needing the permission of soe licenses first, and when that failed to pan out I had a shot at birth certificates Mrs Poes of the Corwin children, but she was pretty sure the youngest's name was Kelly and that she'd been five or six when her mother left She'd been seven, it turned out; she'd be around fifteen now Her father was Edward Francis Corwin, her mother the former Janice Elizabeth Keane

I wrote the name in my notebook with a sense of triumph Not that there was much likelihood that it would slip my mind, but as a symbol of accomplishment I couldn't prove that I was an inch closer to Barbara Ettinger's killer than I'd been when Charles London sat down across froood It was plodding work, generally pointless work, but it let et to use all that often and they tingled from the exertion

A couple of blocks from there I found a Blarney Stone with a steam table I had a hot pastra color set mounted over the bar It was tuned to one of those sports anthology shows they have on Saturday afternoons A couple of guys were doing so the much attention to their efforts By the tih and a stock-car race had replaced them Nobody paid any attention to the stock cars, either

I called Lynn London again This time when her machine picked up I waited for the beep and left my name and number Then I checked the phone book