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"Sounds like your guy," Steffens said "The wife, plus he knew Whatshisname"

"Jack Ellery"

"Uh-huh Ellery worked for so--he’d move somebody, and a week or tn the line they’d have a break-in, lose their good stuff"

"And you knew Ellery?"

"I kneho he was, knew him to say hello to That was about it"

"And you’re a newspaperet that idea?"

"I don’t know Iin the footsteps of your fa muck," he said "Hell, I’m on the other side of that one I don’t rake the muck, I make it The Shame of the Cities That’s me, Matt I’m in local politics across the river Wipe out et an honest job"

He took out a slim black calfskin card case, handed me a card Vann Steffens, I read Your Friend in Jersey City No address, but a phone number with a 201 prefix

"Everybody needs a friend," he said "Especially in Jersey City You have a card?"

My sponsor’s a job printer, and I’ll never lack for business cards I dug one out for hihtbut your name and your number, and I already had ’eives you his card, you keep it Be bad ive me my card back, will you?"

I did, and he uncapped a pen and printed SCOOTER WILLIAMS on the back of the card in tiny block capitals, then consulted a little memo book and added an address and phone number The book was bound in black calf, and o," he said "You see him, won’t take you ten lanced at what he’d written The address was on Ludlow Street, so Scooter still had his cheap aparthborhood I looked across at Steffens, and wondered what he expected in return

He answered the question before I could ask it "You can pay for my drinks," he said, "and that’ll doJersey City, for Chrissake Doing favors for people is part ofout at the public trough Someday you’ll do ht be, Vann They won’t let hed "Oh, don’t you be so sure of that, uarantee you get to vote at least once in every precinct I’ll tell you what I’ll have one ive a damn who put the two bullets in Jack Ellery"

I told hi in the right places, stirring the pot with a question or an observation now and then He’d seemed like a blowhard at first, but I warether Maybe his manner softened when he felt less need to i’s--which

I took care of the check, and on the way out I re," I said "Maybe you’ll know this"

"If it’s a state capital, forget it I’h-Low Jack," I said "You happen to knohy they called him that?"

"I didn’t even know that they called hih-Low Jack? It’s a new one on ht you ht know"

"Daers "You know, I just ht know after all I bet it’s because Scooter was already taken"

XXI

HEY, MAN!" Big s teeth that hadn’t seen a dentist in a while "You’re the guy who called, right? You told me your name but that doesn’t mean I can reht, right Well, coirl’s coazines were heaped on a floral-patterned armchair He scooped theazines on a low tablechair for hiirl," he said "Around here, I’ood news is I don’t cost much"

The apartment wasn’t really that messy, and for a pot-smoker’s Lower East Side premises it probably ranked within a few points of the top As far as I could tell, it was clean enough underneath the clutter

I’d called hiht with Vann Steffens Before I dialed the nues, and there he was, Williams, Robt P, with the saivenand told me to look in the book, but he’d said favors were his stock-in-trade, and that one was easily perfor a few times, and when Williams picked up he was out of breath, as if he’d hurried to pick up before the ave my name and said I’d like to talk to him about Jack Ellery, and he repeated Jack’s name a couple of times, and then he said, "Oh, fuck, I heard about that What a terrible thing, huh? First I heard he killed himself, and that didn’t make sense I mean people do it all the time and it never makes sense, but he wasn’t the type Did you know hio"

"Yeah, me too But what I heard next was someone killed him, and that didn’t make sense either, because why in the hell would anybody want to kill Jack? Wha’d they do, shoot him?"

I said someone did just that, and he said that hat so I asked if I could come over and talk to hi around the place all day When did I want to come? Sometime in the afternoon?