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"But you called me Or was that before you spoke to him?"

"Once before and once after The first call was because I was angry with you for standing ry withtold what to do I'ather he refused to give it to you Do you still want one?"

Did I? I couldn't recall nohat I'd planned to do with it Maybe I'dit to everyone who sold icepicks

"Yes," I said "I still want one"

"Well, I can supply thatI can't give you at the mo I've got oing to be busy this evening"

"With group therapy"

"How did you know that? Did I ood ht's also iht after therapy but by then I generally feel as though I've been through the wringer After school to, and by the time that's over- Look, could you coot a free period from one to two Do you knohere I teach?"

"A private school in the Village, but I don't knohich one"

"It's the Devonhurst School Sounds very preppy, doesn't it? Actually it's anything but And it's in the East Village Second Avenue between Tenth and Eleventh The east side of the street closer to Eleventh than Tenth"

"I'll find it"

"I'll be in Room Forty-one And Mr Scudder? I wouldn't want to be stood up a second ti's I had a haer and a small salad, then soht, and when Billie came in a half-hour before his shift started I went over to hiht," I said

"Oh, you were okay," he said

"It was a long day and night"

"You were talking a little loud," he said "Aside from that you were your usual self And you knew to leave here and ht"

Except I hadn't ht

I went back to my table and had another bourbon and coffee By the tione I'd shaken off the headache fairly early on, but the feeling of being a step or two off the pace had persisted throughout the day

Great system: The poison and the antidote come in the same bottle

I went to the phone, dropped a di why I didn't want to talk about a dead dog, and that was as close as we'd coful conversation in years

I dialed Jan's nuet it out The nuht there at hand

"It's Matthew," I said "I wondered if you felt like company"

"Oh"

"Unless you're busy"

"No, I'm not As a matter of fact, I' in for a quiet evening in front of the television set"

"Well, if you'd rather be alone-"

"I didn't say that" There was a pause "I wouldn't want to "

"Neither would I"

"You reet here?"

"I reme her bell according to the code and stood at the curb She tossedelevator

She earing a skirt and sweater and had doeskin slippers on her feet We stood looking at each other for aShe took out the two bottles, one of Teacher's Scotch, the other of the brand of Russian vodka she favored

"The perfect hostess gift," she said "I thought you were a bourbon drinker"

"Well, it's a funny thing I had a clear head the other ht be less likely to giveto drink tonight," she said

"Well, it'll keep Vodka doesn't go bad"

"Not if you don't drink it Let ht"

It was stilted at first We'd been close to one another, we'd spent a night in bed together, but ere nevertheless stiff and aith each other I started talking about the case, partly because I wanted to talk to someone about it, partly because it e had in common I told her how my client had tried to takewith it anyway She didn't seem to find this unusual

Then I talked about Pinell

"He definitely didn't kill Barbara Ettinger," I said, "and he definitely did commit the icepick murder in Sheepshead Bay I didn't really have much doubt about either of those points but I wanted to have my own impressions to ith And I just plain wanted to see him I wanted some sense of the man"

"What was he like?"

"Ordinary They're always ordinary, aren't they? Except I don't know that that's the right word for it The thing about Pinell is that he looked insignificant"