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The first thing to do, he thought, was change his nu less obvious than four-four-four Like what? He ran three-nu to find one that was clunkier and less ht-one? Two-nine-four? Any nuht about it long enough And, if he enuinely unremarkable, one a person just couldn’t hold in his mind, then hoould he re numbers at random How many coh school , but, likesince found its way out of his memory bank

He sat down at his desk, picked up a pencil and realized you didn’t need a formula The numbers started at zero-zero-zero and ran to nine-nine-nine A thousand combinations, that’s how many there were Ten times ten times ten, that was the formula, if formulas were important to you It sounded like a lot, a thousand, but when you thought about it you realized it wasn’t so o he’d done a job for the old ht of it in years, but he remembered now that the briefcase had been locked, not with a key but with a three-number code, one of those triple dials where you had to line up the nuet the case open He’d used a pair of pruning shears instead, cutting right through the leather flap, but it struck him now, years and years later, that he could have opened the case without ruining it It would have taken more time, but it wouldn’t have taken forever

More like two hours, he realized Maybe even less than that If you were systematic about it, you could easily try ten or fifteen combinations a minute Ten a minute was a hundred minutes, and what did that a shears had taken no time at all Of course it had taken him a while to find the shears, and before that he’d sawed at the flap ineffectually with a kitchen knife But that was beside the point A thousand co, not with a briefcase lock and not with a telephone answering machine, either You’d dial the number and let the machine pick up, and then you’d punch in as many of your three-number codes as you could in the thirty seconds or so that the htany et the right combination And then you’d have a chance to erase the his combination wouldn’t help And hoould Dot feel if she called up and punched in four-four-four and nothing happened? It would be a slap in the face, and not a very effective one, either, because she could run the combinations until she cracked the code

Of course he could tell her ahead of tiet ed the nuood idea And, if she asked what the new nu so unot it written down," he’d say, and let it go at that

And, if she wanted to, she’d get the new number However you looked at it, he couldn’t keep her out of his answering machine Unless…

Well, he could change his phone nuits, well, that added up to ten million combinations, and it would take forever and cost a fortune, because you’d get nine ot a new nues to protect Because no one would be able to call hi Dot, as his most frequent caller in the first place

Maybe he should just leave everything the way it was Dot had probably been right to check his er He’d liked Louise, she was a nice wo to turn into Chatty Cathy the minute somebody mentioned a murderer’s thumb, well, that made her a definite loose end

And Dot had snipped her off

Iloves and a little flowered hat She hadn’t mentioned a hat, and it was hard to picture her in a hat, but it sort of fit Gloves and a hat, and a poisoned chocolate in her handbag And tidying up afterward, and going home

Jesus

Suppose she hadn’t done it Suppose she’d told hi up the potential mess he’d made Could he have taken care of Louise?

Probably You did what you had to do Once or twice over the years he’dto know someone he’d been hired to take out There was that fellow in Roseburg, Oregon, set up by the government as a quick printer, secure as could be in the Witness Protection Program Keller had liked thedown there But in the end you did what you had to do You steeled yourself and got the job done

He’d forgotten the guy’s nainal one and the new one the feds gave hiot what he looked like, too Couldn’t picture hiht to be

He pictured Louise as he re in her chair, the bowl of chocolates at her side But the features were already growing less distinct in his ray

Good

Twenty-six

Keller put his coffee cup down, and within seconds the busboy filled it up again He’d been wondering just how long he could sit over one cup of coffee, and it was beginning to look as though the ansas forever Because they never let the cup get empty, and how could they expect you to leave while you still had coffee in front of you?

He let the coffee cool and looked out theThe coffee shop was at the corner of Crosby and Bleecker, and froli it was a little like watching paint dry No one ever went in or out of it, and hardly anybody even walked past it, as that block of Crosby Street didn’t get much in the way of pedestrian traffic

Keller drank a little ain, and looked up to see aHe was short and wiry, built like a jockey, and he earing a distressed leather jacket and carrying a metal toolbox

He carried it to the corner and into the coffee shop, and caht over to Keller’s table "Piece of pie," he said

"Most people say ‘piece of cake,’ " Keller said