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"I can tell"

"Sit"

"Thank you"

Mallinger pulled out a chair opposite irls at the bar you could roust if you’re working," I told her

"I caht"

"Why wouldn’t I be all right?"

"Getting run off the highway, seeing a guy’s head half blown off--it shook ht be you see a lot of that sort of thing in the big city"

I raisedyour sorrows, are you?" she asked

"Did you co ?"

"No"

To prove it, she waved at the bartender The bartender i asked

"I’ve been thinking about Chief Bohlig," she said

"Oh?"

"I believe him I don’t think there’s a cover-up I think he dumped the file because it was thirty years old He du to your own behavior," I told her "You can’t iine why someone else would Like most honest people, Chief, you think everyone is basically honest, too They’re not"

"That’s a cynical attitude"

I watched her out of the corner of ht," I said "You are s our beverages After a few er asked, "What kind of music do you like?" I don’t think she really cared It was just so to say

"Jazz mostly, but also blues, soh"

"Not even if I thought it was funny"

"I listen to Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart"

"Ah, the big bands What’s funny about that?"

Mallinger didn’t say Instead, she took another sip of her gimlet Thus fortified, she said, "What happened today, do you want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly"

"No?"

"Talk, society tells us these days So upsets you, talk about it Talk to family Talk to friends To qualified therapists Whatever Talk your probleuys like ht in Korea, who saw hell up close and personal, they didn’t talk about it Yet they built a nation of astonishing strength and vitality Talk is overrated"

"That er said

I watched her while she took a sip of vodka