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"Matthew Scudder"

She repeated it Then she said, "Barbara Ettinger Oh, if you kne that na to be sorry I answered the phone Well, Mr Scudder, I'll be seeing you in an hour"

Chapter 8

Lispenard is a block below Canal Street, which puts it in that section known as Tribeca Tribeca is a geographical acronyle Below Canal, just as SoHo derives froanin violation of the housing code in spacious and inexpensive lofts The code had since beenand SoHo had turned chic and expensive, which led loft seekers further south to Tribeca The rents aren't cheap there either now, but the streets still have the deserted quality of SoHo ten or twelve years ago

I stuck to a well-lighted street I walked near the curb, not close to buildings, and I did ive an impression of alertness Confrontations were easily avoided in those empty streets

Janice Keane's address turned out to be a six-story loft building, a narrow structure fitted in between two taller, wider and s It looked cra s ran the width of the facade on each of its floors On the ground floor, shuttered for the weekend, was a wholesaler of plumber's supplies

I went into a claustrophobic hallway, found a belland three short I went out to the sidewalk, stood at the curb looking up at all those s

She called down fro in that light I gave h the air and jangled on the pavement beside me "Fifth floor," she said "There's an elevator"

There was indeed, and it could have accorand piano I rode it to the fifth floor and stepped out into a spacious loft There were a lot of plants, all deep green and thriving, and relatively little in the way of furniture The doors were oak, buffed to a high sheen The walls were exposed brick Overhead track lighting provided illumination

She said, "You're right on tiize There's coffee"

"If it's no trouble"

"None at all I' to have a cup myself Just let me steer you to a place to sit and I'll be a proper hostess Milk? Sugar?"

"Just black"

She left rouped around a high-pile rug with an abstract design A couple of eight-foot-tall bookcases reached a littleand helped screen the space from the rest of the loft I walked over to theand looked down at Lispenard Street but there wasn't a whole lot to see

There was one piece of sculpture in the roo in front of it when she came back with the coffee It was the head of a woh-cheekboned, broad-browed mask of unutterable disappointment

"That's aze turns ood"

"Thank you"

"She looks so disappointed"

"That's the quality," she agreed "I didn't know that until I'd finished her, and then I saw it for ood eye"

"For disappointht, a little more well-fleshed than was strictly fashionable She wore faded Levi's and a slate-blue chamois shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows Her face was heart-shaped, its contours accentuated by a sharply defined 's peak Her hair, dark brown salted with gray, hung ale and well-spaced, and a touch of mascara around them was the only les to one another and set our coffee s on a table made from a section of tree trunk and a slab of slate She asked if I'd had trouble finding her address and I said I hadn't Then she said, "Well, shall we talk about Barb Ettinger? Maybe you can start by telling me why you're interested in her after all these years"

SHE'D e of Louis Pinell's arrest It was news to her that the Icepick Proas in custody, so it was also news that her former employee had been killed by so for a killer with a ht have been easier Yes"

"And it ht be easier now just to look the other way I don't remember her father I must have met him, after the murder if not before, but I don't have any recollection of him I remember her sister Have you met her?"

"Not yet"

"I don't knohat she's like now, but she struck me as a snotty little bitch But I didn't know her well, and anyway it was nine years ago That's what I keep coo"

"How did you hborhood Shopping at the Grand Union, going to the candy store for a paper Maybe Ia day-care center Maybe she heard it fro she walked into the Happy Hours and asked if I needed any help"

"And you hired her right away?"

"I told her I couldn't pay herexpenses I started it for a duhborhood, and I needed a place to dump my own kids, so I found a partner and we opened the Happy Hours, and instead of du them and everybody else's, and of course my partner came to her senses about the time the ink was dry on the lease, and she backed out and I was running the whole show myself I told Barb I needed her but I couldn't afford her, and she said she et what I paid her but it wasn't a whole lot"

"Was she good at her work?"

"It was essentially baby-sitting There's a liht for a o, so I enty-nine at the tier"

"She enty-six when she died"

"Jesus, that's not very old, is it?" She closed her eyes, wincing at early death "She was a big help to h at what she did She seemed to enjoy it most of the time She'd have enjoyed it enerally"