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"I&039; out on you, am I?"

"No" He sounded fairly amused "Of course you aren&039;t

I know it&039;s not easy for you at ti"

I waved once at him from the shore as the launch started to cut its way across the sound He was looking back, but didn&039;t respond Not having ht vision, he couldn&039;t see ot back in the car and drove off to one of the better hotels I&039;d found earlier that evening

After some personal cleanup, I padded downstairs to find soh to scrape ain The lobby was as deserted as a church on Saturday night This was no city hotel with twenty-four-hour clerks to keep you company The man who&039;d checked ned expression

Not dressed for a walk, I was too restless to just sit in my room with the radio on I was at a loss for activity until I spotted the pay phone A whole pocketful of change was going to waste in ot an operator on the line

Bobbi answered on the first ring and we exclaimed our hellos and "I miss yous" for a while, and she assuredo and New York

"New York is old news," I told her "We&039;re on Long Island now"

"Why? You taking so up a lead"

"A good one?"

"Doesn&039;t look it, but Charles wants to be thorough"

"What got you up there?"

"This and that Wewe turned up Maureen&039;s old boyfriend"

There was a long pause on her end "He&039;s like you?"

"Yeah"

"How like you? I mean, what&039;s he like?"

"Well, he&039;s no Dracula, if that&039;s what you&039;re worried about"

"I was, a little"

"If anything, he&039;s sort of a cross between a lounge lizard and Captain Blood"

"Captain who!"

Consideringreference to bring up I quickly explained about Sabatini&039;s pirate-hero

"You don&039;t like hi Barrett and not Sabatini

"It&039;s mutual, believeotten involved with hi at uess"

"What type is that?"

"The type who always has woht now it looks like he&039;ll be stringing two of the with both of them?" she asked, always one for clarity

"It&039;s heading that way--and try this on: they all live in the same house One of them has money and the other&039;s all ready to seduce him"

"Then he&039;s some kind of a twenty-four-carat idiot," she sniffed "The sa for trouble Sooner or later his s out You can&039;t keep news like that from a woman--we&039;re naturally suspicious"

"You suspicious about me?"

"Of course not, I know you&039;ll never meet anyone else who&039;s better in bed with you than I aot reed

And we steamed up the lines with similar talk until an operator broke in to say our time was up and did ant another threein; I could alested I dropped in nored her

"Listen, Bobbi I want to ask you so"

"You know the answer to that is yes"

"Thanks, but it&039;ll have to wait until I&039;m back"

"Damn," she said cheerfully

"I just wondered, would you ever tip a cab driver five bucks?"

She was shocked "Five bucks? You think I&039;?"

"Would you ever?"

"Only if I were delirious and lost on the South Side in a sleet storm on Christmas Eve"

"So what kind of woman tips a cabbie five bucks?"

"One that doesn&039;t knohat it&039;s worth You&039;re talking about the idle rich, honey--someone who never had to work for it"

"That&039;s what I thought"

"What&039;s this got to do with things?"

"I&039;ll find that out to back?"

"I don&039;t know, baby Expect me when you see me"

She et yourself a raincoat The papers say there&039;s a hurricaneup the coast and headed your way I don&039;t want you catching cold from all that wet"

I wasn&039;t certain I could still catch a cold, but took the senti to bundle up for her sake We said good-bye until the operator cut in again, and then hung up

The rest of the night went by like paint drying, though I spent so out a note to Escott about Bobbi&039;s views on tipping I didn&039;t kno useful it would be, but thought it worth pointing out again After his return I planned to make another visit to the Francher estate, with or without Barrett&039;s per up in the Glenbriar Inn again My trunk was in the sah from the wall so I could lift the lid Escott was there this time, stretched out on his bed, and contentedly up to his neck in newsprint, past and present

"So what happened in Bridgeport?" I asked, when , as you athered by our return here I went to taxi companies and examined police, hospital, and as ue records for Jane Does"

He got a sharp look froht have thought to use an alias, so I searched for Barretts, Fles, and Franchers as well as Does and Dumonts There is no official indication she stopped at all in Bridgeport She h it, but then one could say there is no real evidence she ever crossed the sound in the first place"

All that footwork and probably a hangover to boot, no wonder he looked stretched and discouraged "What&039;d you think of my note?" I&039;d left it on top of my trunk in Port Jefferson for him to find

Now he sly inclined to agree with the insights the two of you have concerning that excessive tip All our roads appear to lead back to the Franchers A new beginning is in order and we need to start with the out to the house again tonight to see if I can fix up a private little talk with E Unless Barrett got one of the ht for the part"

"What about Laura?"

"Too tall Maureen and Eht and build"

"Excellent point"

"You get any eneral lassitude peruessed that he&039;d been working his butt off in one of the taverns again

"Most of the talk was about a hurricane that&039;s been co massive death and destruction to arrive here soon, and people are busy tying things down in preparation There&039;s already been a little rain"

I groaned inside Not so h rain to last a few lifetimes; much more and I&039;d be tempted to move to Death Valley

"Perhaps you should wait until it blows over," he suggested

"Nah, I&039;o crazy if I have to sit around a hotel roo the wallpaper"

"I see your point"

"Look, Charles, this could take a lot of ti just to wait out in a damp car?"

"Put that way, it does sound "

"Besides, you did all that work today; it&039;s uo on withoutof rest"

Lightly put, but he was tired, and I felt better for having him safe at the Glenbriar--away from Barrett and any unforeseen problems

I wore a dark shirt and black pants with aped at me as if I were an out-of-place as were beco with that Democrat in the White House

The rented Ford was in a gravel lot behind the inn I braved a stiff breeze and a few thick drops of rain and nosed it onto the road

The possibility of Barrett discoveringabout my unlawful trespass of his employer&039;s property kept al entry was so froht I planned to be very, very careful

Preoccupied with the evening ahead, I took a wrong turn and foundin adown heavily and the wind gusted against the car, rocking it I couldn&039;t go back, the road was too narrow for a U-turn, and I didn&039;t want to chance getting stuck in one of the steep ditches running along either side of the paving I squinted ahead for a crossroad or driveway to use

Aless than half the posted speed liht at the front , hts only bounced off a shiht vision was no good for this kind of a mess The speedometer pointer dropped down below tentoo fast

Escott had had the right idea about a quiet evening resting up It was past tiht At this point I wasn&039;t all that sure of findingto the Francher estate Even if I did reach it, I was facing a long walk through the woods, and I could hardly conceal hout the house Unless the hurricane blew it into the sound, the place would still be there to I had of its presence I hit the brakes, skidded badly, but stopped just short of back-ending a car stopped in the road I punched usted, I decided to pull around and hoped no one was co up in the other lane to hit ray curtain of water My headlights just caught the bright blue-and-yellow check design on the trunk of the car

Glenbriar was only a small town and John Henry Banks was soain before our business was ended, but I suddenly got very cold inside The uneasy feeling persisted the longer I sat and thought about it, getting worse instead of better as I tried to coht Scowling at the rain, I sed back my fears and levered out of the car into the hurricane

It was like standing under Niagara, except the water was horizontal instead of vertical because of the wind I put my back to it, steadied ered over to the passenger door of the cab It was on the lee side and offered so to bowl me over

I couldn&039;t see inside thefor all of the water strea down I thumped on the door a few ti a lovers&039; rendezvous and opened it

As it turned out, I wasn&039;t interrupting anything It was all finished by now

Banks was heeled over on his right side, one ar off under the dashboard His eyes sagged open, looking at nothing His pockets were turned out and a few stray coins littered the floor Blood covered his head and face and flooded the seat where he lay The red sht

Maybe I said so I don&039;t know The shock had hit like a block of ice, leavingit for me, my hand went out in a futile effort to find a pulse

"Cha"

I jumped like I&039;d touched a hot wire Banks was alive

"nged" Nonsense slurred from his slack mouth His eyes were still open and fixed He was unaware of me

I leaned in close "Banks, who did it?"

"Change," he said clearly

Disturbed by e of the seat and hit the floor The sound as it landed was lost, masked over by the storm

"Who hit you, Banks? Who did it?"

"Not"

"Who was it? Did you know him?"

"Lie"

I didn&039;t dare o to find it A house with a phone could be only yards away, but invisible in the rain Maybe I could flag down another car if it passed by

"Was it a man? A woman?"

"Tall"

"Who, Banks?"

"F-fine"

"Banks!"

His eyes were still open, but he&039;d slipped away My hand was touching his neck and I felt it happen The knowledge spread up froht to the brain and coiled down my spine One second he was a man with dreams and needs and desires like the rest of us, and the next he was an inert, empty carcass

A slow and sticky kind of sickness started inits way up I quickly backed out of the cab, holding on to the door for support, and sucked in drafts of cold air and rain I did not voh it would have been a kind of release My condition doesn&039;t always allow me the luxury of a hu to the back of o away

I checked Banks He was dead, I&039;d not made a mistake The side of his head was smashed in, hard The killer had been very fast; so fast that Banks had had no tiers

The bile surged inside Maybe I was going to be sick, after all I backed out again, the rain whirling around me, and leaned on the cab for support

I heard a close, sharp thud

My feet slipped away fro my chin hard on the wet roof

Thud

I felt the second blow and sprawled flat onroad Water bounced up fro my eyes

The third wasroad surface Whoever was doing it could bring a lot of

The fourth

I couldn&039;t hear the rain hissing anymore The world was reduced to cottony silence and the softly pulsing light beneath ht was gone

I don&039;t remember the sixth or seventh

Just as well