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"No, of course not She wouldn’t spew all of this to souy, and if she did he’d never pass it on to me"

"Then--"

"She told me But can we cut to the chase, Pablo? She wants to call it off"

"The client"

"Right"

"Wants to call off--"

"The contract She wanted us to do soed her mind"

"When did this happen?"

"In his hospital roo out of hih her mind?"

"Uh--"

"Okay, she’s in his room, he’s unconscious, nobody’s around, and it occurs to her that she can finish the job and no one will be the wiser Pinch a tube shut, pull one out, pour so in his IV--there’s a dozen ways to do it, and she realizes she loves hih I’ll spare you the eirl talk, but the bottoain and just wants him to live and be hers"

"Dot--"

"You know, saht to be so names as I am, but now and then it slips out How’s Hilda?"

"Hilda?"

"If you have to call , Pablo, well, Hilda’ll do No, come to think of it, it won’t It’s too close to my official name these days Make it Flora, okay?"

"If you say so How did she get in touch with you?"

"She didn’t, Pablo I got in touch with her How? I picked up the phone and called her"

"Who gave out her number?"

"Nobody, but how many Joanne Hudepohls are there? Her cell phone’s listed, so I dialed it, and she answered on the first ring You’d have thought she aiting for my call"

"What phone did you--"

"Easy there, Pablo A new phone, bought for cash and unregistered Saot her nule search, and I used a costaff There won’t be any trail, paper or electronic, and as soon as all of this is over the Joanne phone goes in a storm drain"

"Maybe you should ditch it now"

"I ht need to talk to her some more"

He frowned "Why, for God’s sake?"

"Once she got that we didn’t burn her house down--"

"She knew somebody else did And she only ht"

"So she knows about the other guy, and that soirlfriend?"

"Gotta be Or the girlfriend’s jealous husband"

"The girlfriend’s irlfriend has to be the connection"

"And the girlfriend, and thus the other guy, ht try again She’s hired people froency to protect her husband in the hospital, and she’ll keep the he pulls through," he said "But why do we care?"

"Pablo, that sounds so cold ‘Why do we care?’ A s in the balance, and his wife is in peril, and you ask a question like that"

"And if I wait long enough," he said, "maybe you’ll answer it"

"Opportunity," she said "I hear it knocking Pablo, get soet back to you"

Forty-Two

He spent a restless night, got up early, and found coffee poured and breakfast ready when he got downstairs She said she hoped he liked huevos rancheros, and told hianic poultry fare cockerel

"One-stop shopping," she said "I’d call it a Mexican breakfast, but according to Jeb, a Mexican breakfast is a cigarette and a glass of water Do you suppose that’s an ethnic slur? I suppose I could ask Rosita"

"Rosita?"

"That’s right, you haven’tyour room even as we speak More coffee?"

No perfue There’d been so the dinner hour, and he’d found a way to let it go without giving offense, and he had every reason to feel relieved

But was it relief that he felt? Not entirely He’d dodged a bullet, but what he felt was the skimpy self-satisfaction of a dieter who’d passed up dessert

Martin Roh struck Keller as a man who’d never passed up a dessert in his life, and there was nothing skimpy about his self-satisfaction, or his satisfaction with life in general He was a big h, and he showed up fifteen minutes early for his ten thirty appoint the place," he said, "and then I didn’t Your directions turned out to be foolproof Marty Ro Colliard and Bowden, and Lou Colliard specifically askedHe’d met your husband on several occasions, he’d valued him as a customer, and…"

There was h they were seated across froh had said yes to coffee, and hadn’t protested when a plate of cookies accompanied it "Homemade," he announced, after a bite "Have one?"