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“
My Nick was very picky about how he looked—he was in the
clothing business, after all—all his stuff was special. Perfect fit. To a tee.
”

Eric sighed.
“
Can we be a little more specific? His jacket, his shirt—what was so special about them?
”

“
They just fit good is all I meant.
”

“
And his pants just
‘
fit good
’
too, right? Not tailor-made or like_ that?
”

“
He had his pants fit tight. I
’
ve always favored pants that fit that way.
”

“
And his shoes?
”

“
Boots.
”

“
His boots, then.
”

“
Funny about them. Remember me saying my Nick wasn
’
t big? It bothered him. He worked in a store for big people and he said that
’
s why he did it, but I know the reason he did it was to please me, to turn me on good.
”

“
Did what?
”

“
Designed those boots. Had them made. Hundreds they cost, but worth it. He was four inches taller with those boots on—
”

“
—
the blond
!”
Eric said, and now he was out of his chair, looking at Haggerty.
“
The son of a bitching blond.
”

Haggerty had seen Eric excited before, but never more than this, and in a few minutes they h
ad said good-bye to Mrs. Herodo
tos, thanked her, wished her well with her mourning, and then they were headed toward the Bloomingdale
’
s area, Eric explaining how Billy Boy had made himself bigger so no one would notice him, and then while Eric talked Haggerty began to remember the giant who spoke to them as they had walked out of Hero
’
s where the dead Nick had fallen, neck broken, naked.

It wasn
’
t only that he knew what the other guy looked like now, Eric was just as sure where he
’
d hit next—the same area he
’
d been lucky in so far, and Haggerty said maybe but you
’
re guessing and Eric said bullshit I
’
m guessing, I
’
m on a hot streak, and remember he came right back to Hero
’
s after he
’
d pulled the job and the Oliver woman had gotten it less than two blocks away.

So what we
’
ve got to do, Eric decided—it was after two by now and very cold but Eric insisted on walking around the Upper East Side because it helped him figure things, and what he was trying, to figure was how best to blanket the East Side, how many men it would take, and how long, logically, before Billy Boy came into
view. It was a big area, Haggerty said, and of course it was, but what it depended on, Eric said, was if he could sell Captain Haig on his notion, and why did he have to pick this day to imply the man was
a
putz?
Because if the Captain would free up only a few men, it would take a long time, and a long time meant that Billy Boy would be broke and somebody else would have a neck that angled off strangely. A week at the outside should do it, Eric felt, and Haggerty felt that was possible but optimistic, but Eric said no, he was blazing, and if Haig would really help, they should be able to nail Winslow inside of five days. Maybe three if God was on their side. Eric kept walking, kept narrowing the amount of time down, and yes, he was lucky, sure he was probably running a hot streak, but not even in his wildest imaginings did Eric expect to see Billy Boy less than a city block in front of him, leaving a porno house on First Avenue, walking slowly away …

… Billy Boy left the porno house feeling cheated. He
’
d gotten kind of a crush on Marilyn Chambers years ago, when he saw her in
Behind the Green
“
Door,
probably the last time he was legal on the outside. She
’
d been the Ivory Snow Girl or the Ivory Snow Baby or something, so there wasn
’
t any doubt she had a great face, a face you wanted to touch easy, not one you wanted to hurt. And yesterday, he
’
d seen
Insatiable
and if she was a great actress when she
’
d been a kid, now she was better than anything Hollywood had. Maybe Monroe might have been able to do what Chambers could do lying on a pool table, but all the others out there, they stunk. He was so horny afte
r
Insatiable
he went right out and bought a broad and then went back and caught the flick again.

If Marilyn Chambers had one drawback it was she didn
’
t act a lot. Not many pictures. Three. The first one and this one and one in the middle with
“
Eve
”
in the title. He couldn
’
t remember any more than that, just the
“
Eve.
”
He asked the Duchess about it but she wasn
’
t into movies, porno or Hollywood, being blind, but he saw in the paper an ad for a movie over on First that had the word
“
Eve
”
in the title. It didn
’
t say any stars, just
The Return of Eve
and the address, so he told the Duchess where he was going and she wished him luck.

But it hadn
’
t been Marilyn Chambers at all. It was a bunch of skinny girls and dumb-looking guys running around in woods that
were supposed to be the Garden of Eden. Billy Boy hated how stupid the plot was. And he hated that he couldn
’
t spot his Marilyn. But most of all what he hated was the drunks. There were drunks slopping all over their seats, mumbling and singing and saying
“
take it all, baby
’’
and Billy Boy said
“
shut up
”
out loud a couple times but that didn
’
t work and the last time someone answered
“
make me
”
and he thought about going up to the guy and clubbing him except that would draw attention and he didn
’
t want to do that, not now, because he was running low on bread and as soon as the flick was over he figured on going over to the area he
’
d been lucky in so far and waiting until someone rich came along and then he
’
d be loaded again. But if he caused trouble in the theatre, that wasn
’
t good; when you were gonna go to work, it was the last thing you wanted.

“
Woooo-eeeee
”
a black guy shouted from the rear and up front another black guy shouted
“
Maaaah-muhhh.
”
And then they both laughed. At what? Some people were really assholes, Billy Boy thought, trying to get with the stupid story. And now off to the left another plastered guy began to sing:
“
I did it all, I did the whole fuckin
’
thing myyyyyyyy waaaaaaaay.
”

What kind of people do they let in here?
Billy Boy wondered. He got up. from his seat and moved to the back of the place, looking for an usher but there wasn
’
t one. So he went to the box office door where there was a little slit you could talk through and he said to the fat lady inside when was the Marilyn Chambers part.

“
The what, the what?
”

Billy Boy repeated his question.

“
Ya think we
’
re the Music Hall? We don
’
t sell popcorn either.
”
Then she turned away from him and went back to whatever it was she
’
d been doing.

Billy Boy could feel his hand just itching to turn into a fist, but no, that would be drawing attention, so he left the lady, stood at the back of the house a few minutes longer, then decided he
’
d been had, this was the wrong
“
Eve
”
and, feeling cheated, he walked out into the night, turned left, started uptown.

Across the way he saw an old couple. He slowed for a better glimpse, then decided against them, they didn
’
t look like they were loaded. Old and poor, who needed them?

Another couple drew his attention now, younger, up ahead, a guy with his arm around the girl. The guy looked flush, his coat
new with a fur collar, so maybe he
’
d take-the guy and then rape the girl, not a bad combo, especially if she was pretty or had tits.

Just then she turned to look at the guy, and not only wasn
’
t she pretty, she wasn
’
t young, she could have been his mother, for Chrissakes, and who wanted to rape something like that, a bag.

You
’
re lookin
’
for the easy way, Billy Boy told himself—just
‘
cause it was cold and late didn
’
t mean you had to knock off the first ones you see. People were like trains, if you missed one, there was always another coming along. And the dumbest thing to do, the worst thing, the
unluckiest
thing was to rush it, to hurry. No hurry, Billy Boy told himself. No hurry, take it slow.

Then he
sensed
something.

Behind him.

Up ahead in the next block was a new building being built, a fence still around it, but before you reached it there was a shop, a shop with mirrors and old shit in the window and when Billy Boy got there, without moving his head, keeping his head dead front, he could see for a moment before him.

Two of them.

Closing.

He began to move a little faster
…

…
Eric said
“
He spotted us,
”
cutting off Haggerty, who had started to say
“
I haven
’
t got my gun have you got yours?
”
but once the interruption happened, Haggerty changed his tack.

“
I don
’
t think he has.
”

“
Frank, goddamit listen to me, I read this guy, and I
’
m telling you he saw us in that antique shop window. And yes I
’
ve got mine.
”

“
That
’
s one massive son of a bitch,
”
Haggerty said.

Eric nodded.

“
You remember when we brought in that football guy? He was another monster.
”

Eric stared ahead at the giant blond, maybe a half block ahead now.

“
We were great that night,
”
Haggerty went on.

“
Forget about the football player, all right?
”

“
We were some team when we brought him in, I
’
m here to tell you—he broke my nose and damn near separated your shoulder
but we nailed the bastard. Too bad he turned out to be the wrong guy.
”

“
This isn
’
t the wrong guy, goddamit.
”

“
Well if he
’
s who you say he is and he spotted us where you say he spotted us, why is he just walking along?
”

“
He thinks slow, he doesn
’
t know what to do, he
’
s making up his mind, I
’
m telling you that
’
s him and I
’
m right—I
’
m on a hot streak, never forget that.
”

“
You better be,
”
Haggerty said, and probably he would have said more, a lot more, because God knew Eric was bright, nobody brighter, nobody around with an arrest record to match him, but sometimes he went off on these wild-ass hunches, and sometimes the hunches paid
o
ff but other times you busted your nose on the wrong guy
’
s fist, so Haggerty had a lot to get off his chest, except once the blond guy broke into a run none of it seemed to matter…