the same thing. I memorized it quickly.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be up about nine-thirty.”

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll go out.”

I shook my head. “Stay home. What do you usually do nights?”

She nearly blushed. “Watch television,” she said. “My husband is old.”

I could see why she wanted to kill him. A woman like her needed to be loved plenty. She was wasted on an old guy.

I got back to business. “Stay home tonight,” I said. “Watch television. I’ll make like a burglar and take care of him, then you give me time to get away and call the cops. That way if I should get picked up, you can say I wasn’t the murderer. Get it?”

She nodded. I asked for the cash, and she passed it to me under the table. I gave it a quick count and pocketed it.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll see you tonight.” I waited for her to get up and leave, but she didn’t move.

“You’re young for this business, aren’t you?” I almost broke out laughing.

“Not that young,” I said. “It beats petty larceny.”

She kept looking at me. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“I haven’t got one,” I said. It was the truth. I had had ten names in the past year and a half, and I was between aliases at the moment.

She was still staring at me. “Do you live around here?”

“Yes.”

“Take me to your room.”

I hadn’t expected it, but it wasn’t a shock. I stood up, threw a dime on the table for the beer, and led the way. She didn’t say a word.

When we reached my room I discovered I had been right—the suit couldn’t hide her perfection.

When she left, still without a word, I lay on my back staring at the cracks in the ceiling. Tonight would be a pleasure. Bodies like that should not be wasted on rich old men. I felt like a public servant.

I dressed again and went back to the bar, reclaiming my table and watching another beer get flat. I read some more of the Spanish poetry, but it was anticlimactic. I had made love to a poem, and the printed page cannot compete with that.

Then he came in, and I saw he was another client. He looked no more at home in Eddie’s Bar than she had. He looked a little like my uncle Charlie, and I liked him right off. He didn’t hesitate, but came right over and sat down.

“I have a job for you,” he said. “Al sent me. Here’s your fee and the address of the party in question.” He slipped an envelope under the table, and I pocketed it.

“I’ll be home,” he said. “In case they ever pick you up, I’ll refuse to identify you. Force an entrance, do your job, and leave.”

He was one hell of a guy, businessman right down the line. I don’t normally enjoy people telling me the way to operate, but I didn’t mind it coming from him. He was sharp.

I nodded, and asked him when he wanted the job done.

“Tonight,” he said.

I shook my head. “I can’t make it,” I said. “How’s tomorrow?”

“Tonight,” he said. “It has to be tonight.”

I thought for a minute. I didn’t relish the idea of two jobs in one night. It just doubled the chances of getting caught. But I could use the money, and I knew I couldn’t stall him. “All right,” I said. “I’m not sure on the time, but I’ll make it tonight.”

He didn’t waste any time. He stood up and left. The heads in the bar followed him until he reached the door, then returned to their glasses of port. I returned to the Spanish poetry.

I read for about an hour, threw another dime on the table, and left. I walked up to my room, placed the money in a strongbox, and put two hundred dollars into my wallet. I’d need two guns tonight, one for each job. I hoped that Sam had them on hand.

Then I glanced at the address and flushed the slip of paper and the envelope down the hall toilet. I walked downstairs, and I got all the way to Sam’s hockshop before it hit me.

I bought one gun. I bought a Luger with a silencer, and loaded it. It cost one hundred dollars across the counter, with no record of sale.

Sam was a good businessman himself. I could be sure that the gun would never be traced to me, and that was important. I made it back to my room and ate dinner.

Dinner was the