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Manny was eventhe report froe 13, cut down, carted off, burned

I continued as naïvely as possible: “You still got all his anie 13?”

“Er, yes,” Manny lied

“Roy can’t live without his Beasts And I went to his apartment the other day It was empty Someone had stolen all of Roy’s other cameras and miniatures Roy couldn’t live without those, either And he wouldn’t just run off Not without telling me, after twenty years of friendship So, hell, Roy’s dead”

Manny examined my face to see if he could believe it I worked up my saddest expression

“Find hi

“I just said—”

“Find him,” said Manny, “or you’re out on your ass, and you’ll never work at any other studio the rest of your life The stupid jerk’s not dead He was seen in the studio yesterday, et his daiven He comes back with a raise in salary It’s ti and we need him Find him, and your salary is raised, too Okay?”

“Does that ets to use that face, that head, he made out of clay?”

Manny’s color level sank “Christ, no! There’ll be a new search We’ll run ads”

“I don’t think Roy will come back if he can’t create his Beast”

“He’ll coood for him”

And g

et hiht

“No,” I said “He’s really dead—forever”