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I don’t know that I did I tend to look like a cop irrespective of what I wear

The Cattle Baron was new to me, but pretty much what the name and location had led me to expect It was a steak house, all dark wood and red leather and polished brass, with Bass Ale and three Gerle-malt Scotch on the back bar The clientele were all men and they all wore suits, and most of the for a skinny guy with a skinny tie, and istered that he was looking right at me

I approached him, and he said, "Mr Scudder? Hal Hart If you weren’t with a law firht be with the investment house Very reputable line of mutual funds But I don’t suppose there’s any connection"

"Nor with the Scudder Falls Bridge"

"Well, I’d be ht try to sell es"

His tie had narrow diagonal stripes of red and navy, and it wasn’t skinny, and neither was anything else about him He’d replaced the cocaine with food and drink--beef and beer, by the look of him, and plenty of both His face was round and red, and there was a Rorschach of broken capillaries in both cheeks

I sat at his invitation, and when the waiter appeared I ordered club soda Hart’s glass stein was still half full of dark beer, but he tapped it with a forefinger and gave the waiter a nod "Dos Equis," he told al substance ever to come out of Mexico Sure you won’t have one?"

"Not right now," I said

I could have crossed him off the list then and there, because there was no way this hearty stockbroker had put two holes in Jack Ellery But that was the subject at hand, and I et to it The rooars and avarice, and I didn’t want to stay in it any longer than I had to

We talked sports until the drinks came He too had watched the Giants lose to Green Bay, and had stronger feelings than I about the coaching He was draining his glass just as the waiter arrived with a replacelass stein of its own Hart beamed at both our drinks, picked up his, and said, "Mr Scudder, I hope I’, but if I ever had an Uncle Kelvin this is the first I heard of him"

"I think I said Kelton," I said, "but it doesn’t matter, because he never existed And I’m not an attorney"

"Oh?"

"I’ into a recent hoot killed, if it wasn’t -lost uncle Kelvin?"

"A htly pop-eyed, but I hadn’t really noticed it until I said the nao ahead and fuck me with a stick Why in the hell would anybody kill Jack Ellery?"

"Uh--"

"If that crazy bastard doesn’t wind up givingHe’s surprised the shit out ofup alive, and then by turning up dead How’d he die?"

"He was shot to death"

"And they ruled out suicide?"

"Two bullets," I said "One in the forehead, the other in the mouth"

"If that’s suicide," he said, "it shows re will Jesus Christ" He drank soave hiet ho in the lobby, says he’s waiting for me I turn and look, and he stands up and says, ‘Crosby?’

"So it has to be so since anybody called me Crosby That’s my middle name I never liked Harold, which is what everybody called et it So when I got to Colgate I met my freshman roommate and stuck out my hand ‘H Crosby Hart,’ I announced, ‘and everybody calls ht ot into a little trouble You know about that, right?"

I nodded

"I was lucky enough to get out of it," he said, "because I had a clean record, and because I was a white ot a fresh start, and I decided I ought to have a new nao with it, and what’s funny is I already had one, becauseYou know, Prince Hal? Shakespeare?" He shook his head "These days it’s Harold, as in Harold-you’re-late-with-the-child-support"

"But this guy in the lobby called you Crosby"

He grinned "Bringing me back on track, aren’t you? Very nicely done, and I can see why they nae after you Across the Delaware, isn’t it?"

"I believe so"

"Guy in my lobby, and he calls ht away He looks vaguely familiar, and he also looks, you know, a little bit seedy, a little bit down on his luck Soood for himself in the years since He’s dead, huh?"