I dropped the gun in a pocket, opened the door. 'Most people call,' I said.

'The fellow down there was reading. I didn't want to disturb him.'

'That was considerate.'

'That's my trademark.' His eyes were taking me in, appraising me. They left me to scan my room. 'Nice place,' he said.

The words were ironic but the tone of voice was not. I closed the door, pointed to a chair. He remained standing. 'It seems to suit me,' I said.

'I can see that. Spartan, uncluttered.'

He was wearing a navy blazer and gray flannel slacks. No topcoat. Well, it was a little warmer today and he had a car to get around in.

He walked over to my window, looked out of it. 'Tried you last night,' he said.

'I know.'

'You didn't call back.'

'I didn't get the message until a little while ago and I wasn't where I could be reached.'

'Didn't sleep here last night?'

'No.'

He nodded. He had turned to face me and his expression was guarded and hard to read. I hadn't seen that look on his face before.

He said, 'You speak to all my girls?'

'All but Sunny.'

'Yeah. You didn't see her yet, huh?'

'No. I tried her a few times last night and again around noon today. I didn't get any answer.'

'You didn't.'

'No. I had a message from her last night, but when I called back she wasn't there.'

'She called you last night.'

'That's right.'

'What time?'

I tried to remember. 'I left the hotel around eight and got back a little after ten. The message was waiting for me. I don't know what time it came in. They're supposed to put the time on the message slip but they don't always bother. Anyway, I probably threw away the slip.'

'No reason to hang onto it.'

'No. What difference does it make when she called?'

He looked at me for a long moment. I saw the gold flecks in the deep brown eyes. He said, 's.h.i.t, I don't know what to do. I'm not used to that. Most of the time I at least think I know what to do.'

I didn't say anything.

'You're my man, like you're working for me. But I don't know as I'm sure what that means.'

'I don't know what you're getting at, Chance.'

's.h.i.t,' he said. 'Question is, how much can I trust you? What I keep coming back to is whether I can or not. I do trust you. I mean, I took you to my house, man. I never took anybody else to my house. Why'd I do that?'

'I don't know.'

'I mean, was I showing off? Was I saying something along the lines of, Look at the cla.s.s this here n.i.g.g.e.r has got? Or was I inviting you inside for a look at my soul? Either way, s.h.i.t, I got to believe I trust you. But am I right to do it?'

'I can't decide that for you.'

'No,' he said, 'you can't.' He pinched his chin between thumb and forefinger. 'I called her last night. Sunny. Couple of times, same as you, didn't get no answer. Well, okay, that's cool. No machine, but that's cool, too, 'cause sometimes she'll forget to put it on. Then I called again, one-thirty, two o'clock maybe, and again no answer, so what I did, I drove over there. Naturally I got a key. It's my apartment. Why shouldn't I have a key?'

By now I knew where this was going. But I let him tell it himself.

'Well, she was there,' he said. 'She's still there. See, what she is, she's dead.'

TWENTY-TWO.

She was dead, all right. She lay on her back, nude, one arm flung back over her head and her face turned to that side, the other arm bent at the elbow with the hand resting on her rib cage just below her breast. She was on the floor a few feet from her unmade bed, her auburn hair spread out above and behind her head, and alongside her lipsticked mouth an ellipse of vomit floated on the ivory carpet like sc.u.m on a pond. Between her well-muscled white thighs, the carpet was dark with urine.

There were bruises on her face and forehead, another on her shoulder. I touched her wrist automatically, groping for a pulse, but her flesh was far too cold to have any life left in it.

Her eye was open, rolled up into her head. I wanted to coax the eyelid shut with a fingertip. I left it alone.

I said, 'You move her?'

'No way. I didn't touch a thing.'

'Don't lie to me. You tossed Kim's apartment after she was dead. You must have looked around.'

'I opened a couple of drawers. I didn't take anything.'

'What were you looking for?'

'I don't know, man. Just anything I ought to know about. I found some money, couple hundred dollars. I left it there. I found a bankbook. I left it, too.'

'What did she have in the bank?'

'Under a thousand. No big deal. What I found, she had a ton of pills. That's how she did this here.'