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He wasn't looking atthat he didn't re into the future and watching it go down the drain

"Just what I was afraid of," he said again "I kept telling hi happened to him, he said, a friend of his would knohat to do with those… those pictures But he had nothing to fear fro to fear fro, and he knew that But ould I do if he died? 'You better hope I live forever,' that's what he said" He looked up at me "And now he's dead," he said "Who are you?"

"Matthew Scudder"

"Are you froo"

He blinked "I don't know… I don't knohy you're here," he said He sounded lost and helpless, and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had started to weep

"I'm sort of a freelance," I explained "I do favors for people, pick up the odd dollar here and there"

"You're a private detective?"

"Nothing that for"

"I see"

"Here I read this iteht put me in a position to do a favor for a person A favor for you, as a ured thatthat you'd like to have your hands on Well, you know, keeping ht coht be some kind of a reward offered"

"I see," he said He started to say so He picked it up and started to tell the secretary that he wasn't taking any calls, but this one was from His Honor and he decided not to duck it I pulled up a chair and sat there while Theodore Huysendahl talked with the Mayor of New York I didn't really pay much attention to the conversation When it ended, he used the interco Then he turned to ht be a reward"

I nodded "To justify my time and expenses"

"Are you the… friend Jablon spoke of?"

"I was a friend of his," I adht knohere they are"

He rested his forehead on the heel of his hand and scratched his hair The hair was aand not too short; like his political position, it was designed to avoid irritating anyone He looked at ain

Levelly he said, "I would pay a substantial sum to have those pictures in hand"

"I can understand that"

"The reould be… a generous one"

"I thought it probably would be"

"I can afford a generous reward, Mr… I don't think I got your naood at names, actually" His eyes narrowed "As I said, Mr Scudder, I can afford a generous reward What I cannot afford is for that htened up in his chair "I aovernor of the State of New York"

"So a lot of people say"

"More people will say it I have scope, I have iination, I have vision I'm not a party hack in debt to the bosses I' to enrich overnor The state needs leadership I could-"

"Maybe I'll vote for you"

He smiled ruefully "I don't suppose it's time for a political speech, is it? Especially at a time when I'm so careful to deny that I'm a candidate But you must see the i

"Did you have a specific reward in her it is, the ether and thought it over "One hundred thousand dollars"

"That's quite generous"

"That's what I would pay as a reward For the return of absolutely everything"

"Hoould you know you got everything back?"

"I've thought of that I had that probleotiations were co in the same room with him I knew instinctively that I would be at his ave hih them sooner or later and be back for more money Blackmailers always are, from what I understand"

"Usually"

"So I paid him so much a week A weekly envelope, old bills out of sequence, as if I were paying ranso all my tomorrows" He leaned back in his wooden swivel chair and closed his eyes He had a good head, a strong face I suppose there must have been weakness in it, because he had shown this weakness in his behavior, and sooner or later your character shows up in your face It takes longer in some faces than in others; if there eakness there, I couldn't spot it

"All my tomorrows," he said "I could afford that weekly payment I could think of it"-that quick, rueful s one What worried me was ht come to pass should he die My God, people die every day Do you kno e day?"