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In er was on the obit page under a two-column headline Just his obituary, with the stateunshot wound It was apparent, all right I was not hter e slip again She had called around nine the night before, and the first edition of the Times wouldn't have hit the street before eleven or twelve
So that meant she'd learned my name from the police Or that she had heard it earlier, froain I did not ine that there was anything I wanted to hear fro I wanted to say to her The fact that her father was ashe would learn froe he'd purchased from me So far as the rest of the world was concerned, his case could remain in the Open file forever The police didn't care who had killed hied to tell thee The line was busy I broke the connection and tried Huysendahl's office He was out to lunch I waited a few ain, and it was still busy I stretched out on the bed and closed
"Mr Scudder? My na and earnest voice "I'ht I wound up taking the train so I could be with o"
"I see Well, would it be possible for me to talk with you? I'm at Grand Central, I could come to your hotel or meet you wherever you say"
"I'm not sure how I could help you"
There was a pause Then she said, "Maybe you can't I don't know But you were the last person to see my father alive, and I-"
"I didn't even see hi to see hiht But the thing is… listen, I'd really like toI could help you with over the telephone-"
"Couldn't I meet you?"
I asked her if she knehere my hotel was She said she did, and that she could be there in ten or twentyup and wondered how she had kno to reach me I'm not in the telephone book And I wondered if she'd known about Spinner Jablon, and if she'd known about me If the Marlboro …
If so, it was logical to believe that she'd hold ue the point-I felt responsible myself But I couldn't really believe she'd have a cute little gun in her handbag I'd ragged Heaney about watching television I don't watch all thatwhich tinal Then Stacy called fro dark hair, straight, parted in the , narrow face and dark, bottomless eyes She wore clean well-tailored blue jeans and a lian sweater over a si the legs off another pair of jeans I decided it was highly unlikely there was a gun in it
We confirgested coffee, and ent to the Red Flaave us the coffee, I told her I was very sorry about her father but that I still couldn't iine why she wanted to see me
"I don't knohy he killed himself," she said
"Neither do I"
"Don't you?" Her eyes searched o, s down a child and freaking out sufficiently to drive away froirl seated across the Formica table from me She now seemed alert and aware and responsible, wounded by her father's death but strong enough to ride it out
She said, "You're a detective"
"More or less"
"What does that mean?"
"I do some private work on a free-lance basis None of it as interesting as itfor my father?"
I shook my head "I'd seen him once last week," I said, and went on to repeat the cover story I'd given Jim Heaney "So I really didn't know your father at all"
"That's very strange," she said
She stirred her coffee, added ain She took a sip and put the cup back in the saucer I asked her why it was strange
She said, "I sawat ot home from classes He took me out for dinner He does that-did that-once or twice a week But usually he would call e it He said he just had the i hoht word? He was agitated, he was unsettled about so He was always inclined to be a ht, very depressed when they weren't When I was first getting into Abnorot tremendous echoes of my father I don't mean that he was insane in any sense of the word, but that he had the sas They didn't interfere with his life, it was just that he had that type of personality"
"And he was depressed the night before last?"
"It was more than depression It was a combination of depression and the kind of hyperactive nervousness you can get on speed I would have thought he had taken sos I had a period of drug use a few years ago and he made it pretty clear how he felt, so I didn't really believe he was on anything"
She drank soun in her purse This was a very open girl If she had a gun she'd have used it immediately