In the Midst of Death

cartons.

And then the desk, and then I got rid of the original bed, which I think George Washington must have slept in, and I bought that platform bed, which sleeps eight in a pinch, and little by little the whole place came together. I kind of like it. I don't think I'm ever going to move.

'It suits you, Doug.'

He nodded eagerly. 'Yeah, I think it does. A couple of years ago I started to twitch because it occurred to me that they could boot me out.

Here I got a ton invested in the place and what do I do if they raise my rent? I mean I was still paying by the week, for Christ's sake. Therent was up, it was maybe twenty bucks, but suppose they raise it to a hundred a week? Who knows what they'regonna do, you know? So what I did, I told 'emI'd pay a hundred and twenty-five a month, and on top of that I'd give them five hundred in cash under the table. For that I wanted a thirty-year lease.'

'And they gave it to you?'

'You ever heard of anybody with a thirty-year lease on a room onNinth Avenue ? They thought they had a real idiot on their hands.' He chuckled. 'On top of which they never rented a room for more than twenty aweek, and I was offering thirty plus cash under the table. They drew up a lease and I signed it.

You know what people pay for a studio apartment this size and this location?'

'Now?Two-fifty, three hundred.'

'Three hundred easy.I still pay one and a quarter. Inanother two or three years thisplace'll be worth five hundred a month, maybe a thousand if the inflation keeps up. And I'll still pay one and a quarter.

There's a guy buying up property all up and downNinth Avenue .

Someday they're going to start knocking down these buildings like ten-pins. But they'll have to either buy up my lease from me or wait until 1998 to knock the building down because that's how much time I got left on my lease.

Beautiful?'

'You got a good deal, Doug.'

'Only clever thing I ever did in my life, Matt. And I wasn't looking to be clever. It's just I'm comfortable here and I hate moving.'

I took a sip of my coffee. It wasn't much worse than what I'd had for breakfast. I said, 'How did you andBroadfield get to be such buddies?'

'Yeah, I figured that's why you were here. Is he crazy or something? Why did he go and kill her?

There's no point to it at all.'

'I know it.'

'He always struck me as an even-tempered guy. Men that size have to be steady or they do too much damage. A guy like me could have a short fuse and it wouldn't matter because I'd needa cannon to do any damage, butBroadfield - I guess he blew up and killed her, huh?'

I shook my head. 'Somebody knocked her over the head and then stuck a knife into her. You don't do that on an impulse.'

'The way you said it, you sound as though you don't think he did it.'

'I'm sure he didn't.'

'Jesus, I hope you're right.'

I looked at him. The large forehead and the thick glasses gave him the look of an extremely intelligent insect. I said, 'Doug, how do you know him?'

'An article I was doing once. I had to talk to some cops for research, and he was one of the ones I talked to. We hit it off pretty well.'

'When was that?'

'Maybe four, five years ago.Why?'

'And you're just friends? And that's why he decided to turn to you when he was on the spot?'

'Well, I don't think he has too many friends, Matt. And he couldn't turn to any cop friends of his. He told me once that cops don't usually have many friends off the force.'

That was true enough. ButBroadfield didn't seem to have many friends on the force, either.

'Why did he go toPrejanian in the first place, Doug?'

'Hell, don't ask me. AskBroadfield .'

'But you know the answer, don't you?'

'Matt- '

'He wants to write a book. That's it, isn't it? He wants to make a big enough splash to be a celebrity, and he wants you to write his book for him. And then he can do all the television talk shows andgrin that cute grin of his and call a lot of important people by their first names.

That's where you come into it. That's the only way you can come into it, and it's the only reason that would have sent him toAbnerPrejanian's office.'

He wouldn't look at me. 'He wanted it a secret, Matt.'