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Mac was leafing through the file He glanced over at Andy with impatience "Don’t you have soht you wanted "

"I’ll take care of it I’m sure you’re overloaded as it is"

Andyidea Mac shook his head and sighed slightly as the door closed I watched hiar stub from one corner of his mouth to the other He looked up with surprise, as if he’d just realized I was standing there "You want to fill me in on this?"

I told hi the fact that the file had sat on Darcy’s desk for three days before it ca her In business, it’s smarter not to bad- in, that there weren’t any estimates yet, but the claim looked routine as far as I could see I debated mention ofI hadn’t identified as bothering me and I felt it iser to stick to the facts

The frown on Mac’s face formed about thirty seconds into my recital, but what alarmed me was the silence that fell when I was done Mac is a ives pop quizzes He seldo in this case

"You want to tell me what this is about?" I asked

"Did you see the note attached to the front of this file?"

"What note? There wasn’t any note," I said

He held out a California Fidelity memo form, maybe three inches by five, covered with Jewel’s curlicue script "Kinsey… this one looks like a stinker Sorry I don’t have time to fill you in, but the fire chief’s report spells it out He said to call if he can give you any help J"

"This wasn’t attached to the file when it came to me"

"What about the fire department report? Wasn’t that in there?"

"Of course it was That’s the first thing I read"

Mac’s expression was aggrieved He handed me the file, open to the fire-department report I looked down at the familiar STFD form The incidental information was just as I remembered The narrative account I’d never seen before The fire chief, John Dudley, had suation with a no-nonsense state now attached to the file ended with a line to the same effect

I could feelto assert itself I said, "This isn’t the report I saw" My voice had dropped into a range I scarcely recognized He held his hand out and I returned the file