Page 4 (1/2)

"I'istered, Prager wasn't letting on She conveyed his continued puzzlement "The Hit-and-Run Cooperative," I said "The Michael Litvak project It's a confidential matter, I'm sure he'll want to see me"

I was sure he wouldn't want to see me at all, actually, but she repeated my words and he couldn't really avoid it "He'll see you now," she said, and nodded her curly little head at a door lass with a rather io The decor was traditional, in sharp contrast to the harsh s of the reception room The walls were paneled in dark wood-individual boards, not the plywood stuff The carpet was the color of tawny port wine There were a lot of pictures on the walls, all of theer

I had seen his picture in the papers I'd scanned in the microfilm room at the library Just head-and-shoulder shots, but they had prepared er man than the one who now stood up behind the broad leather-topped desk And the face in the Bachrach photo had beamed with calm assurance Noas lined with apprehension pinned in place by caution I approached the desk, and we stood looking each other over He see whether or not to offer his hand He decided against it

He said, "Your naht"

"I'm not sure what you want"

Neither was I There was a red leather chair ooden arms near the desk I pulled it up and sat in it while he was still on his feet He hesitated a moment, then seated himself I waited for a few seconds on the off chance that he

I said, "I mentioned a name before Michael Litvak"

"I don't know the name"

"Then I'll mention another Jacob Jablon"

"I don't know that name, either"

"Don't you? Mr Jablon was an associate of ether"

"What kind of business would that be?"

"Oh, a little of this, a little of that Nothing as successful as your line of work, I'm afraid You're an architectural consultant?"

"That's correct"

"Large-scale projects Housing develop"

"That's hardly classified information, Mr Scudder"

"It must pay well"

He looked at me

"Actually, the phrase you just used 'Classified information' That's what I really wanted to talk to you about"

"Oh?"

"My associate Mr Jablon had to leave town abruptly"

"I don't see how-"

"He retired," I said "He was a er, and he came into a sum of money, you see, and he retired"

"Perhaps you could come to the point"

I took a silver dollar out of ave it a spin, but, unlike Spinner, I kept er's face instead of on the coin He could have taken that face to any poker ga he played his cards right

"You don't see many of these," I said "I went into a bank a couple of hours ago and tried to buy one They just stared at ht a dollar was a dollar, you know? That's the way it used to be It sees is worth two or three bucks, and the collector value is even higher I had to pay seven dollars for this thing, believe it or not"

"Why did you want it?"

"Just for luck Mr Jablon has a coin just like this one Or at least it looked the same to me I'm not a numismatist That's a coin expert"

"I knohat a numismatist is"

"Well, I only found that out today, while I was finding out that a dollar's not a dollar any more Mr Jablon could have saved me seven bucks if he'd left his dollar withelse that's probably worth a little ave s Sohter's name, and some other names I mentioned Michael Litvak, for exanize, is it?"

The dollar had stopped spinning Spinner had always snatched it up when it started to wobble, but I just let it drop It landed heads

"I thought since those papers had your naht like to own the else to say I picked up the silver dollar and gave it another spin This ti for quite a while on the leather desk top Then it glanced off a photograph in a silver fraer picked up his desk phone and pushed a buzzer He said, "That's all for today, Shari Just put the o ahead hon the home now Fine"

Neither of us spoke until the door of the outer office opened and closed Then Prager leaned back in his chair and folded his hands on his shirt front He was a rather plump man, but there was no spare flesh on his hands They were slender, with long fingers

He said, "I gather you want to take up where-as his na like that"

"I'"

"No," he agreed "I a" He looked past hter Stacy went through a difficult period in her life In the course of it, she had a very unfortunate accident"

"A little boy died"

"A little boy died At the risk of sounding callous, I'll point out that that sort of thing happens all the tis-children, adults, what does it ht of Estrellita Rivera with a bullet in her eye I don't know if anything showed in my face

"Stacy's situation-her culpability, if you want to call if that-stemmed not from the accident but from her response after the fact She didn't stop If she had stopped, it would not have helped the boy at all He was killed instantly"

"Did she know that?"

He closed his eyes for a moment "I don't know," he said "Is that pertinent?"

"Probably not"

"The accident… if she had stopped as she should have done, I'm sure she would have been exonerated The boy rode his tricycle right off the curb in front of her"