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"That's somebody who's into this shit pretty heavy," he said "Somebody who's scared to run out And I didn't know about it That gets to me, Matt You read that note?"
The note was on the vanity, anchored with a bottle of Norell cologne I nudged the bottle aside with the back of my hand and carried the note over to theShe'd written it in brown ink on beige notepaper and I wanted to read it in decent light
I read:
Kim, you were lucky You found someone to do it for you, I have to do it uts I would use theI could change h the rest of the way But I haven't got the guts and the razor blade didn't work
I hope I took enough this tiood tiood tihth inning All the cheering stopped Nobody's even keeping score anyrabbed the brass ring and it turned her finger green
Nobody's going to buyto saveto catch up and catch on All the good tione
I looked out theacross the Hudson at the Jersey skyline Sunny had lived and died on the thirty-second floor of a high-rise aparth I hadn't seen any trace of garden beyond the potted palms in the lobby
"That's Lincoln Center down there," Chance said
I nodded
"I should have put Mary Lou here She likes concerts, she could just walk over Thing is, she used to live on the West Side So I wanted to move her to the East Side You want to do that, you know Make a big change in their lives right away"
I didn'tI said, "She do this before?"
"Kill herself?"
"Try to She wrote 'I hope I took enough this tih?"
"Not since I've known her And that's a couple years"
"What does she mean when she says the razor blade didn't work?"
"I don't know"
I went to her, examined the wrist of the arm stretched out above her head There was a clearly perceptible horizontal scar I found an identical scar on her other wrist I stood up, read the note again
"What happens now, ot out my notebook and copied what she'd written word for word I used a Kleenex to remove what prints I'd left on it, then put it back where I'd found it and anchored it again with the cologne bottle
I said, "Tell ht"
"Just what I already told you I called her and I got a feeling, I don't knohy, and I came here"
"What time?"
"After two I didn't notice the exact tiht upstairs?"
"That's right"
"The doorman see you?"
"We sort of nodded at each other He knows me, thinks I live here"
"Will he remember you?"
"Man, I don't knohat he reets"
"He just eekends or was he on Friday as well?"
"I don't know What's the difference?"
"If he's been on every night he ht remember he saw you but not reet you"
In the si vodka stood on the sink board with an inch's depth of liquor left in it Beside it was an elass in the sink held a residue of what looked like a e in the reek of her vomit You didn't need to be ether Pills, washed doith a batch of strong screwdrivers, their sedative effect boosted by the alcohol
I hope I took enough this tiht the impulse to pour the last of the vodka down the drain
"How long were you here, Chance?"
"I don't know Didn't pay attention to the time"
"Talk to the doorman on the way out?"
He shook his head "I went down to the basee"
"So he wouldn't have seen you"
"Nobody saw me"
"And while you were here-"
"Like I said I looked in the drawers and closets I didn't touch "
"You read the note?"
"Yeah But I didn't pick it up to do it"
"Make any phone calls?"
"My service, to check in And I called you But you weren't there"
No, I hadn't been there I'd been breaking a boy's legs in an alley three -distance calls"
"Just those two calls,distance You can just about throw a rock from here to your hotel"