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"Didn't sleep here last night?"

"No"

He nodded He had turned to face uarded and hard to read I hadn't seen that look on his face before

He said, "You speak to all irls?"

"All but Sunny"

"Yeah You didn't see her yet, huh?"

"No I tried her a few tiet any answer"

"You didn't"

"No I had a ht, but when I called back she wasn't there"

"She called you last night"

"That's right"

"What time?"

I tried to reot back a little after ten Thefor me I don't knohat tie slip but they don't always bother Anyway, I probably threay the slip"

"No reason to hang onto it"

"No What difference does itold flecks in the deep brown eyes He said, "Shit, I don't knohat to do I'm not used to that Most of the time I at least think I knohat to do"

I didn't say anything

"You'refor me But I don't know as I'm sure what thatat, Chance"

"Shit," he said "Question is, howback to is whether I can or not I do trust you I mean, I took you to my house, man I never took anybody else to my house Why'd I do that?"

"I don't know"

"Ithe lines of, Look at the class this here nigger has got? Or was I inviting you inside for a look at ot to believe I trust you But aht to do it?"

"I can't decide that for you"

"No," he said, "you can't" He pinched his chin between thuht Sunny Couple of tiet no answer Well, okay, that's cool No et to put it on Then I called again, one-thirty, two o'clock ain no answer, so what I did, I drove over there Naturally I got a key It's my apartment Why shouldn't I have a key?"

By now I knehere this was going But I let him tell it himself

"Well, she was there," he said "She's still there See, what she is, she's dead"

Chapter 22

She was dead, all right She lay on her back, nude, one ar back over her head and her face turned to that side, the other are just below her breast She was on the floor a few feet from her unmade bed, her auburn hair spread out above and behind her head, and alongside her lipsticked mouth an ellipse of vomit floated on the ivory carpet like scuhs, the carpet was dark with urine

There were bruises on her face and forehead, another on her shoulder I touched her wrist auto for a pulse, but her flesh was far too cold to have any life left in it

Her eye was open, rolled up into her head I wanted to coax the eyelid shut with a fingertip I left it alone

I said, "You "

"Don't lie to me You tossed Kim's apartment after she was dead You must have looked around"

"I opened a couple of drawers I didn't take anything"

"What were you looking for?"

"I don't know, ht to know about I found some money, couple hundred dollars I left it there I found a bankbook I left it, too"

"What did she have in the bank?"

"Under a thousand No big deal What I found, she had a ton of pills That's how she did this here"

He pointed to ainnumerable jars and bottles ofprescription labels The patient's nah the prescriptions had been written by different physicians and filled at different pharmacies, both nearby One prescription had been for Valium, the other for Seconal

"I always looked in her"Just automatically, you know? And all she ever had was this antihistaht and it's a regular drugstore in there All prescription stuff"

"What kind of stuff?"

"I didn't read every label Didn't want to leave any prints where they shouldn't be From what I saw, it's mostly downs A lot of tranks Valiu pills like the Seconal here A couple things of ups, like whatchacallit, Ritalin But s I never heard of You'd need a doctor to tell you what everything was"

"You didn't know she took pills?"

"Had no idea Come here, look at this" He opened a dresser drawer carefully so as not to leave prints "Look," he said, pointing At one side of the drawer, beside a stack of folded sweaters, stood perhaps two dozen pill bottles