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In fact, the er of the apartment complex did not appear to understand how the patterns of transition had brought her to her current circumstances Her name was Lana Haverby She was in her forties, a well-tanned blonde in shorts and halter She had a good opinion of her sexual attractiveness She walked and stood and sat as if she were posing Her legs were okay, but the rest of her was far from prime She was thicker in thein hps and butt for her skie that they were not attractive but freakish The thin halter top exposed canyonesque clvage and accentuated the large turgid nipples, but it could not give her brsts the shape and uplift they so desperately needed When she wasn’t changing her pose or adjusting it, when she wasn’t trying to gauge what effect her body had on Frank and Tony, she seemed confused, distracted Her eyes didn’t always appear to be focused She tended to leave sentences unfinished And several ti room and at the threadbare furniture, as if she had absolutely no idea how she had co she’d been here She cocked her head as if she heard whispering voices, just out of range, that were trying to explain it all to her

Lana Haverby sat in a chair, and they sat on the sofa, and she looked at theshots of Bobby Valdez

"Yeah," she said "He was a sweetie"

"Does he live here?" Frank asked

"He livedyeah Apartment ninewas it? But not any more"

"He moved out?"

"Yeah"

"When was that?"

"This summer sometime I think it was"

"Was what?" Tony asked

"First of August," she said

She recrossed her bare legs, put her shoulders back a bit farther to elevate her brsts asdid he live here?" Frank asked

"I guess it was three months," she said

"He live alone?"

"You uy, anybody," Frank said

"Just him," Lana said "He was a sweetie, you know"

"Did he leave a forwarding address?"

"No But I wish he would have"

"Why? Did he skip out on the rent?"

"No Nothing like that I’d just like to knohere I could"

She cocked her head, listening to the whispers again

"Where you could what?" Tony asked

She blinked "OhI’d sure like to knohere I could visit hi on hi I was trying to get him into bed, but he was, you know, sort of shy"

She had not asked why they wanted Bobby Valdez, alias Juan Mazquezza Tony wondered what she would say if she knew her shy little sweetie was an aggressive, violent rapist

"Did he have any regular visitors?"

"Juan? Not that I noticed"

She uncrossed her legs, sat with her thighs spread, and watched Tony for his reaction

"Did he say where he worked?" Frank asked

"When he firstelse"

"Did he say what it was?"

"No But he was, you know, ood money"

"He have a car?" Frank asked

"Not at first," she said "But later A Jaguar two-plus-two That was beautiful, man"

"And expensive," Frank said

"Yeah," she said "He paid a bundle for it and all in cold hard cash"

"Where would he get that kind of ood bread at his new job"

"Are you sure you don’t knohere he orking?"

"Positive He wouldn’t talk about it But, you know, as soon as I saw that Jaguar, I knewhe wasn’t long for this place," she said wistfully "He wasquestions, but Lana Haverby had nothing more of consequence to tell them She was not a very observant person, and her recollection of Juan Mazquezza see at her store of ot up to leave, she hurried to the door ahead of thely, in what she evidently thought was a wildly provocative display She affected that ass-swinging, tippy-toe-walk that didn’t look good on any coquette over twenty-one; she was forty, a groonity and special beauty of her own age, trying to pass for a teenager, and she was pathetic She stood in the doorway, leaning back slightly against the open door, one long leg bent at the knee, copying a pose she’d seen in a ing for a coh the door, barely able to avoid brushing against her breasts He strode quickly down the walk toward the car, not looking back

Tony smiled and said, "Thanks for your cooperation, Miss Haverby"

She looked up at him, and her eyes focused on his eyesthe past fifteen lienuine pride,better and cleaner than had been there before "I’ to move up and out of here, too, you know, like Juan did I wasn’t always just a er at Las Palmeras I moved in some, you know, pretty rich circles"

Tony didn’t want to hear what she had to tell him, but he felt trapped and then mesmerized, like the man as stopped in the street by the Ancient Mariner

"Like when I enty-three," she said "I orking as a waitress, but I got up and out of that That hen the Beatles, you knoere just getting started, like seventeen years ago, and the whole rock thing was really exploding then You know? A good-looking girl back then, she could connect with the stars, o just about everywhere with the big groups, travel all over the country with them Oh, , man, those were so you couldn’t have or do They had it all, those groups, and they spread it around, you know And I ith them I sure was I slept with some very famous people, you know Household naan to list bestselling rock groups from the sixties Tony didn’t kno many of theined she’d been with, but he noticed that she never roups, not people

He had never wondered what becaroupies, those bouncy child-woers-on in the rock music world But now he knew at least one way they could end up They trailed after the current idols, offering inarticulate praise, sharing drugs, providing convenient receptacles for the sperht to tiirl like that had been burnt out by too much booze and too much pot and too much cocne and maybe a little heroin, when the first hard wrinkles carew a shade too deep, when the pneu, she was eased out of one group’s bed--and discovered that, this ti to take her in If she wasn’t averse to turning tricks, she could stillthat way, for a few years But to some of them that was a turn-off; they didn’t think of theirlfriends" For a lot of thee was out, for they’d seen too ly settle for a tame domestic life One of them, Lana Haverby, had taken a job at Las Palht of as te free rent until she could reconnect with the beautiful people

"So I won’t be hereon soon Any ti Like really good vibrations, you know?"

Her situation was ineffably sad, and Tony could think of nothing to say that would make a difference to her "UhwellI sure wish you all the luck in the world," he said stupidly

He edged past her, through the door

The gleam of vitality vanished froain, shoulders back, chest out But her face was still weary and drawn Her belly was still straining at the waistband of her shorts And her hps were still too big for girlish games "Hey," she said, "if you’re ever in the mood for some wine and, you know, a little conversation"