'That's right.'

He looked at me, and his gaze was like a too-bright light shining in my eyes. 'You went to bed with her,' he said. Before I could respond he said, 'Sure, that's what you did. How else would she say thank you? The woman only spoke one language. I hope that wasn't the only compensation you got, Scudder. I hope she didn't pay the whole fee in wh.o.r.e's coin.'

'My fees are my business,' I said. 'Anything that happened between us is my business.'

He nodded. 'I'm just getting a fix on where you're coming from, that's all.'

'I'm not coming from anyplace and I'm not going anywhere. I did a piece of work and I was paid in full. The client's dead and I didn't have anything to do with that and it doesn't have anything to do with me. You say you had nothing to do with her death. Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't. I don't know and I don't have to know and I don't honestly give a d.a.m.n. That's between you and the police. I'm not the police.'

'You used to be.'

'But I'm not anymore. I'm not the police and I'm not the dead girl's brother and I'm not some avenging angel with a flaming sword. You think it matters to me who killed Kim Dakkinen? You think I give a d.a.m.n?'

'Yes.'

I looked at him.

He said, 'Yes, I think it matters to you. I think you care who killed her. That's why I'm here.' He smiled gently. 'See,' he said, 'what I want is to hire you, Mr. Matthew Scudder. I want you to find out who killed her.'

I took a while before I believed he was serious. Then I did what I could to talk him out of it. If there was any kind of trail leading to Kim's killer, I told him, the police had the best chance of finding and following it. They had the authority and the manpower and the talent and the connections and the skills. I had none of the above.

'You're forgetting something,' he said.

'Oh?'

'They won't be looking. Far as they're concerned, they already know who killed her. They got no evidence so they can't do anything with it, but that's their excuse not to kill themselves trying. They'll say, 'Well, we know Chance killed her but we can't prove it so let's work on something else.' G.o.d knows they got plenty other things to work on. And if they did work on it, all they'd be looking for is some way to hang it onto me. They wouldn't even look to see if there's somebody else on earth with a reason for wanting her dead.'

'Like who?'

'That's what you would be looking to find out.'

'Why?'

'For money,' he said, and smiled again. 'I wasn't asking you to work for free. I have a lot of money coming in, all of it cash. I can pay a good fee.'

'That's not what I meant. Why would you want me on the case? Why would you want the killer found, a.s.suming I had any chance of finding him? It's not to get you off the hook because you're not on the hook. The cops haven't got a case against you and they're not likely to come up with one. What's it to you if the case stays on the books as unsolved?'

His gaze was calm, steady. 'Maybe I'm concerned about my reputation,' he suggested.

'How? It looks to me as though your reputation gets a boost. If the word on the street is that you killed her and got away with it, the next girl who wants to quit your string is going to have something else to think about. Even if you didn't have anything to do with her murder, I can see where you'd be just as happy to take the credit for it.'

He flicked his index finger a couple times against his empty coffee cup. He said, 'Somebody killed a woman of mine. n.o.body should be able to do that and get away with it.'

'She wasn't yours when she got killed.'

'Who knew that? You knew it and she knew it and I knew it. My other girls, did they know? Did the people in the bars and on the street know? Do they know now? Far as the world knows, one of my girls got killed and the killer's getting away with it.'

'And that hurts your reputation?'

'I don't see it helping it any. There's other things. My girls are afraid. Kim got killed and the guy who did it is still out there. Suppose he repeats?'

'Kills another prost.i.tute?'

'Kills another of mine,' he said levelly. 'Scudder, that killer's a loaded gun and I don't know who he's pointed at. Maybe killing Kim's a way for somebody to get at me. Maybe another girl of mine is next on his list. I know one thing. My business is hurting already. I told my girls not to take any hotel tricks, that's for starters, and not to take any new johns if there's anything funny about them. That's like telling them to leave the phone off the hook.'

The waiter drifted over with a pot of coffee and refilled our cups. I still hadn't touched my English m.u.f.fin and the melted b.u.t.ter was starting to congeal. I got him to take it away. Chance added milk to his coffee. I remembered sitting with Kim while she drank hers heavily diluted with cream and sugar.

I said, 'Why me, Chance?'

'I told you. The cops aren't going to kill themselves. The only way somebody's going to give this his best shot is if he's earning my money for it.'

'There's other people who work private. You could hire a whole firm, get 'em working around the clock.'

'I never did like team sports. Rather see somebody go one on one. 'Sides, you got an inside track. You knew the woman.'

'I don't know how much of an edge that gives me.'

'And I know you.'

'Because you met me once?'

'And liked your style. That counts some.'

'Does it? The only thing you know about me is I know how to look at a boxing match. That's not a whole lot.'

'It's something. But I know more than that. I know how you handle yourself. And I've asked around, you know. A lot of folks know you and most of 'em said good things about you.'

I was silent for a minute or two. Then I said, 'It could have been a psycho that killed her. That's what he made it look like so maybe that's what it was.'

'Friday I learn she wants out of my string of girls. Sat.u.r.day I tell her it's cool. Sunday some crazy man flies in from Indiana and chops her up, just by coincidence. You figure?'

'Coincidences happen all the time,' I said, 'but no, I don't think it was coincidence.' G.o.d, I felt tired. I said, 'I don't much want the case.'

'Why not?'

I thought, Because I don't want to have to do anything. I want to sit in a dark corner and turn the world off. I want a drink, d.a.m.n it.

'You could use the money,' he said.

That was true enough. I hadn't gotten all that much mileage out of my last fee. And my son Mickey needed braces on his teeth, and after that there'd be something else.

I said, 'I've got to think it over.'

'All right.'

'I can't concentrate right now. I need a little time to sort out my thoughts.'

'How much time?'