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Maybe that was the risk On a fateful day, you stood in the rain in Boston and caught your death of cold

He toughed it out, and shortly before two a cab pulled up and a h in a hat and coat, neither of thereen Keller’s heart quickened It could have been Thurnauer-it could have been anybody-and the fellow did stand looking across at the right house for a longoff down the street Keller gave up watching hiot a couple of houses away He retreated into the shadoaiting for Thurnauer

Who showed up right on time Two on the button on Keller’s watch, and there was the ot out of his cab because he wasn’t wearing a hat The mop of brown hair was a perfect field lance

Do it now?

It was doable Just because he had keys didn’t mean he had to use them He could dart across the street and catch up with Thurnauer before the man had the front door open Do him on the spot, shove him into the vestibule where the whole world wouldn’t see hiht himself in seconds

That way he wouldn’t have to worry about the girlfriend But thereon the street, so out theat the rain And he’d be awfully visible racing across the street in his green coat And the letter opener was still in its box, so he’d have to use his hands

And by the tihed all these considerations the moment had passed and Thurnauer was inside the house

Just as well If a roll in the hay was going to cost Thurnauer his life, let him at least have a chance to enjoy it That was better than rushing in and doing a slapdash job Thurnauer could have an extra thirty or forty oddam rain and have a cup of coffee

At the lunch counter, feeling only a little like one of the lonely guys in his Edward Hopper poster, Keller remembered that he hadn’t eaten all day He’d somehow missed breakfast, which was unusual for him

Well, it was a high-risk day, wasn’t it? Pneumonia, starvation-there were a lot of hazards out there

Eating would have to wait He didn’t have the time, and he never liked to work on a full stoish, slowed your reflexes, spoiled your judgment Better to wait and have a properhe went to the ift box, which he discarded He put the letter opener in his jacket pocket where he could reach it in a hurry You couldn’t cut with it, the blade’s edge was rounded, but it cah to penetrate several layers of cloth? Just as well he hadn’t acted on the spur of the et out of his coat and jacket and shirt, and then the letter opener would have an easier tireen coat, picked up his u to it, really

The keys worked He didn’t run into anybody in the entryway or on the stairs He listened at the door of the second-floor apart, and let himself in

He put down his umbrella, took off his coat, slipped off his shoes, anda hallway to the bedroo from, and it here the woman, a slender dishwater blonde with translucent white skin, was sitting cross-legged on the edge of an unly vulnerable, and Keller hoped he wouldn’t have to hurt her If he could get Thurnauer alone, if he could do theseen, then he could let her live If she saw hi, and a ed with a dark green towel around his waist The guy was coed to wind up in the wrong apartuy had taken off his hair before he got in the shower

Thurnauer walked over to the bed, irl, stubbing it out in an ashtray "I wish to God you’d quit," he said

"And I wish you’d quit wishing I would quit," she said "I’ve tried I can’t quit, all right? Not everybody’s got your goddauet out of the habit of chewing guum, like a herd of cows"

"Or the patch," he said "Why can’t you wear a patch?"

"That was arette," she said

"You know, you’ve said that before, and much as I’d like to believe it-"

"No, you ot withto sarette away from me, did it have to be ," she said "You’re daht I can buy more"

"Go take a shower," Thurnauer said

"I don’t want to take a shower"

"You’ll cool off and feel better"

"You mean I’ll cool off and you’ll feel better Anyway, you just took a shower and you ca a shower"

"Take one"

"Why? What’s the et me out of the room so you can make a phone call?"

"Mavis, for Christ’s sake…"

"You can call soirl who doesn’t so to hell," Mavis said "I’o take a shower And put your hair on, will you? You look like a da and Thurnauer was hunched over her ot a hand over hisit deftly between two ribs and driving it hole; by the ti, it had already happened His body convulsed once, then went slack, and Keller lowered hi Keller could be out the door before she was out of the shower But as soon as she did colance that he was dead, and she’d scream and yell and carry on and call 911, and who needed that?