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"Thanks," I said I got Ebony’s personal telephone nuether I was re-lieved that the valet service brought her car first I watched her pull away in a little red Alfa-Romeo My car appeared I tipped the fellowmy panty hose behind the knee The valet slammed the door and I turned the key Honest to God, it started right up and I felt a surge of pride The daas

I drove ho the yawning air of eed and the dead heads on the zinnias and olds had multiplied Henry’s house stood silent, his back door looking blank Usually the scent of yeast or cinnamon lies on the air like a heady perfume Henry’s a retired coive up his passion for kneading dough and proofing bread If he isn’t in the kitchen, I can usually find hi the flower beds or stretched out on a chaise in-venting crossword puzzles filled with convoluted puns

I let ed back into jeans,with relief I hauled the mower out of the toolshed and had a run at the yard, and then I got down on my hands and knees and clipped all the dead blosso I put the laay I went inside and typed upin , too

Since Rosie’s was closed, I ate dinner at ho a cheese-and-pickle sandwich, which entertained hton and I didn’t have any-thing else in the house to read, so I switched on my little portable television set

So a little thin

6

Tuesday er had an office to go to, I could well have waited until later in the , but I like the place at that hour It’s quiet and half empty, so there’s no cohts are neatly reracked The mirrors are clean and the air doesn’t s apparatus are a curious pheno man-ual labor the Industrial Revolution relieved us of Lifting weights is like a meditation: intermittent periods of con-centrated activity, with intervals of rest It’s a good ti, as one can do little else I did ab crunches first; thirty-five, then thirty, then twenty-five I adjusted the bench on one of the Nautilusseatedtwo plates The guys lift anywhere from ten to twenty plates, but I work just as hard, and I’ cha back over the details of the frame-up… a clever piece of work, dependent on a nuether just as they had The phone call to Mac herty, but who put her up to it? Surely she didn’t cook up that trouble by herself Someone had access to the Wood/Warren file, and while it was possible that the office keys had been lifted froh to make a mockup of a fire-department report? That must have been done by soations usually follow a foruarantee that all the paper switch-ing could be done in the necessary sequence Darcy could have ht have, or even Mac But why?

I worked through biceps and triceps Since I jog six days a week, ym is the three A’s -arms, abs, and ass-a routine that takes forty-five min-utes three times a week I was finished by 7:15 I went hoain, dressed in jeans, turtleneck, and boots Darcy was due at work at 9:00, but I’d spotted her three days out of five having breakfast first, coffee and a Danish in the coffee shop across the street She used the time to chitchat, read the newspa-per, and do her nails

There was no sign of her when I got there at 8:00 I bought a paper and settled into the back booth where she usually sits Claudine cah the door in a lightweight wool coat She stopped when she saw me, checked her stride, and slid into an empty booth halfway down I picked upthe sour look that crossed her face when she realized what I was up to

"Mind if I join you?" I asked

"Well, actually, I’d prefer to have the tiaze