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"I wasn't going to ask"

"What's the story?"

"I'o in Polly's"

"Maybe he's "

"So?"

I shrugged "Probably nothing Thanks for the surveillance work, away"

"Do I get a badge?"

"And a decoder ring"

"Neat," she said

I waited hi attention toan interest in hiht at hied me from Polly's I wasn't sure I'd seen him there, just felt I'd noticed him somewhere or other If he'd picked me up at Polly's, then it wasn't hard to tie hie; she could have set up the date in the first place in order to put a tag on me But even if he had been at Polly's, that didn't prove anything; he could have pickedmyself hard to find Everybody knehere I lived, and I'd spent the whole day in the neighborhood

It was probably around nine thirty when I noticed him, maybe closer to ten It was almost eleven when he packed it in and left I had decided he was going to leave before I did, and I would have sat there until Billie closed the place if necessary It didn't take that long, and I hadn't thought it would The Marlborohis tiin 's He was too active and western and outdoorsy, and by eleven o'clock he had mounted his horse and ridden off into the sunset

A few minutes after he left, Trina came over and sat down across from me She was still on duty, so I couldn't buy her a drink "I have more to report," she said "Billie has never seen hiain, he says, because he does not like to serve alcoholic beverages to o into detail You could probably ask him What else? Oh, yes He ordered beer Two of theer dark, if you care"

"Not awfully"

"He also said-"

"Shit"

"Billie rarely says 'shit' He says 'fuck' a lot, but rarely 'shit,' and he didn't say it now What's the matter?"

But I was up from the table and on lass with a towel He said, "You er"

"My mind moves slow That customer you had-"

"The Marlboro man, Trina calls hiot around to washing his glass yet, did you?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I did This is it here, as best I recall" He held it up for my inspection "See? Spotless"

"Shit"

"That's what Jimmie says when I don't wash the gloves, I have just done soerprints?"

"Uh-huh"

"I thought that only worked on the tube"

"Not when they colass Shit If he ever coain, which would be too lass with a towel and put it some place very safe"

"That's the idea"

"If you'd told ht of it"

"All I was interested in was seeing the last of him I don't like people like him anywhere, and especially in bars He made two beers last an hour apiece, and that was just fine with me I was not about to push drinks on him The less he drank and the sooner he left, the happier he made me"

"Did he talk at all?"

"Just to order the beers"

"You catch any kind of an accent?"

"Didn't notice it at the time Let me think" He closed his eyes for a few seconds "No Standard American nondescript I usually notice voices, and I can't dredge up anything special about his I can't believe he's from New York, but what does that prove?"

"Not too much Trina said you didn't like his eyes"

"I didn't like theave me It's hard to describe I couldn't even tell you what color they were, although I think they were light rather than dark But there was so about them, they stopped at the surface"