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"He ell dressed the last time I saw him"

"That so?"

"His suit set him back three hundred and twenty dollars He happened to aze In a low voice he said, "Matt, you don't want people driving cars at you It's unhealthy You sure you don't want to lay it all out for me?"

"As soon as it's time, Eddie"

"And you're sure it's not ti I re at me, remembered what actually happened, and then re car all the way to the wall

"I'er and some bourbon and coffee I was a little surprised that the car had been stolen so far uptown They could have picked it up early on and parked it in hborhood, or the Marlboro man could have made a phone call between the ti's Which would , which I had already decided on the basis of the voice I'd heard over the telephone Or he could have-

No, it was pointless There were too many possible scenarios I could write for et naled for another cup of coffee and another shot, ether, and worked on it The tail end of otten in the way There was so I had learned from him, but the proble that had rung a very ot a dollar's worth of change and went over to the phone Jersey Inforave me William Raiken's number in Upper Montclair I called it and told Mrs Raiken I was from the Auto Theft Squad, and she said was surprised we had recovered her car so soon and did I happen to know if it was at all daed

I said, "I'm afraid we haven't recovered your car yet, Mrs Raiken"

"Oh"

"I just wanted to get some details Your car was parked at Broadway and One Hundred Fourteenth Street?"

"That's right On One Hundred Fourteenth, not on Broadway"

"I see Now, our records indicate that you reported the theft at approximately two a

"Yes Well, just about I went to where I parked the car and it wasn't there, of course, and ally, but soulations, but anyway they don't do any towing that far uptown, do they?"

"Not above Eighty-sixth Street"

"That's what I thought, although I always ht maybe I'd made a mistake and I actually left the car on a Hundred Thirteenth, so I went and checked, but of course it wasn't there either, so then I called my husband to have him pick me up, and he said to report the theft, so that hen I called you Maybe there was fifteen or twenty minutes bethen I missed the car and when I actually placed the call"

"I see" I was sorry now that I'd asked "And when did you park the car, Mrs Raiken?"

"Let ht o'clock short-story workshop and a ten o'clock course in Renaissance history, but I was a little early, so I guess I parked a little after seven Is that i the vehicle, Mrs Raiken, but we try to develop data to pinpoint the times when various cri," she said "What good does that do?"

I had alondered that myself I told her it was part of the overall crienerally had been told when I'd asked similar questions I thanked her and assured her that her car would probably be recovered shortly, and she thanked ood-bye to each other and I went back to the bar

I tried to deter Myjust what Mrs Raiken had been doing on the Upper West Side in the ht She hadn't been with her husband, and her last class must have let out around eleven Maybe she'd just had a few beers at the West End or one of the other bars around Columbia Quite a few beers, maybe, which would explain why she'd walked around the block looking for her car Not that it h beer to float a battleship, because Mrs Raiken didn't have a whole hell of a lot to do with Spinner Jablon or anybody else, and whether or not she had anything to do with Mr Raiken was their business and none of my own, and-

Columbia

Columbia is at One Hundred Sixteenth and Broadway, so that's where she would have been taking courses And soraduate courses in psychology and planning to ith retarded children

I checked the phone book No Prager, Stacy, because single women know better than to put their first naer, S, on West One Hundred Twelfth between Broadway and Riverside

I went back and finished ed ain, and made a note of the address and phone nu other than Stacy, I dropped a di seven ti up and retrieved et lucky