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She went through the wallet quickly, then handed it back to me I returned it to uess it's you, all right I don't think she'd let a stranger into her aparth Or a husband"

"You think her husband killed her?"

"Married people always kill one another Sometimes it takes them fifty years"

"Any idea who her lover may have been?"

"It , but she could have had an itch to experihed I asked her as so funny

"I was trying to think where she would have hbor, maybe, or the male half of soh she could have met men on the job We had plenty of ht years old"

"Not very proether true So the kids in, or pick them up after work There are situations more conducive to flirtation, but I had daddies come on to me while they collected their children, and it probably happened to Barbara She was very attractive, you know And she didn't wrap herself up in an old Mother Hubbard when she caure and she dressed to show it off"

The conversation went on a little longer before I got a handle on the question Then I said, "Did you and Barbara ever beco her eyes when I asked the question, and they widened in response "Jesus Christ," she said

I waited her out

"I' where the question came from," she said "Did somebody say ere lovers? Or a?"

"I was told you left your husband for another woman"

"Well, that's close I left my husband for thirty or forty reasons, I suppose And the first relationship I had after I left hier He'd hborhood before that particular shit hit the fan Unless he happened to talk to soether and cried on each other's shoulder about hooet stabbed or they run off with each other Was it Doug?"

"No It was a wo on Wyckoff Street"

"So Oh, it must have been Maisie! Except that's not her name Give me a minute Mitzi! It was Mitzi Poet her first name I just spoke with her on the telephone"

"Little Mitzi Pomerance Are they still married? Of course, they'd have to be Unless he left, but nothing would propel her away froe was heaven even if it ative emotion that ever threatened to co back to visit the kids was the look on that twit's face e passed on the stairs" She sighed and shook her head at the ely enough, I never had anything going with anybody, ot together with afteras the first woman I ever slept with in er"

"Was I? I recognized that she was attractive That's not the sahed the notion "Maybe," she conceded "Not on any conscious level, I don't think And when I did begin to consider the possibility that I o to bed with a woman, I don't think I had any particular woman in mind As a matter of fact, I don't even think I entertained the fantasy while Barbara was alive"

"I have to ask these personal questions"

"You don't have to apologize Jesus, Mitzi Polet by now But you only spoke to her over the phone"

"That's right"

"Is she still living in the saet them out of there with a crowbar"

"Somebody did A buyer converted the house to one-fahborhood?"

"More or less They moved to Carroll Street"

"Well, I hope they're happy Mitzi and Gordon" She leaned forward, searched ht?"

"Pardon?"

"You're a drunk, aren't you?"

"I suppose you could callin the air for a hter cut in, full-bodied and rich " 'I suppose you could callman' Jesus, that's wonderful Well, I suppose you could call ood deal worse, and it's been a long day and a dry one How about a little so to cut the dust?"

"That's not a bad idea"

"What'll it be?"

"Do you have bourbon?"

"I don't think so" The bar was behind a pair of sliding doors in one of the bookcases "Scotch or vodka," she announced

"Scotch"

"Rocks? Water? What?"

"Just straight"

"The way God lasses filled about halfway, one with Scotch, the other with vodka She gave meto select a toast, but evidently she couldn't think of one "Oh, what the hell," she said, and took a drink

"WHO do you think killed her?"

"Too early to tell It could have been somebody I haven't heard of yet Or it could have been Pinell I'd like ten minutes with him"

"You think you could refresh his et soather details and soak up impressions, and then the answer pops into your mind out of nowhere It's not like Sherlock Holmes, at least it never was for h there's a psychic element to the process"

"Well, I can't read palms or see the future But maybe there is" I sipped Scotch It had that medicinal taste that Scotch has but I didn't mind it as much as I usually do It was one of the heavier Scotches, dark and peaty Teacher's, I think it was "I want to get out to Sheepshead Bay next," I said