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The grains beyond age, the dark veins of herThames

After the first death, there is no other"

"London's daughter," I said

"As in the city of London But that must be what made me think of it Deep with the first dead lies Charles London's daughter"

"Read it again"

She did

"Except there's a door there somewhere if I could just find the handle to it It wasn't some nut that killed her It was someone with a reason, someone she knew Someone who purposely made it look like Pinell's handiwork And the killer's still around He didn't die or drop out of sight He's still around I don't have any grounds to believe that but it's a feeling I can't shake"

"You think it's Doug?"

"If I don't, I'm the only one who doesn't Even his wife thinks he did it She may not know that's what she thinks, but why else is she scared of what I'll find?"

"But you think it's soed radically after her death Maybe her dying had soes With so's obviously Whether he killed her or not"

"Maybe it affected other lives, too"

"Like a stone in a pond? The ripple effect?"

"Maybe I don't know just what happened or how I told you, it's aconcrete that I can point at"

"Your cop instincts, is that it?"

I laughed She asked as funny I said, "It's not so funny I've had all day to wonder about the validity of my cop instincts"

"How do youherfrohts ago I'd found out what a good listener she was, and she was no worse at it this time around

When I was done she said, "I don't knohy you're down on yourself You could have been killed"

"If it was really aattempt"

"What were you supposed to do, wait until he stuck a knife into you? And as he carrying a knife in the first place? I don't knohat a gravity knife is, but it doesn't sound like so you carry around in case you need to cut a piece of string"

"He could have been carrying it for protection"

"And the roll of h he's one of those closet cases who pick up gay men and rob them, and sometimes beat theht they are And you're worrying because you gave a kid like that a bloody lip?"

I shook ment wasn't sound"

"Because you were drunk"

"And didn't even know it"

"Was your judght that Puerto Rican girl got killed?"

"You're a pretty sharp lady, aren't you?"

"A fucking genius"

"That's the question, I guess And the answer is no, it wasn't I hadn't had ot echoes just the saht at theht at the fact that she thinks her husband ht have murdered his first wife"

"A very sharp lady"

"They don't co helps But you kept it so far inside you didn't even knoas there" She yawned "Being a sharp lady is tiring work"

"I can believe it"

"Want to go to bed?"

"Sure"

BUT I didn't stay the night I thought I ed to indicate that she was sleeping I lay first on one side and then on the other, and it was clear I wasn't ready to sleep I got out of bed and padded quietly into the other room

I dressed, then stood at theand looked out at Lispenard Street There was plenty of Scotch left but I didn't want to drink any of it

I leta cab I got uptown in ti's, but I said the hell with it and went straight to ot to sleep eventually

Chapter 14

I had a night of drea, Bandy, turned up in one of the dreams He wasn't really dead His death had been faked as part of some elaborate scam He told me all this, told me too that he'd always been able to talk but had been afraid to disclose this talent "If I'd only known," I marveled, "what conversations we could have had!"

I awoke refreshed and clearheaded and fiercely hungry I had bacon and eggs and hoht the First Avenue Slasher, or at the least had arrested soraph of the suspect bore a startling resemblance to the police artist's sketch that had run earlier That doesn't happen too often

I was on my second cup of coffee when Vinnie slid into the booth across from me "Woman in the lobby," he said