Free In the Midst of Death by Lawrence Block Page B

off quickly once the sun is down. I'll drive you toManhattan . Shall I do that? Sara's old enough to baby-sit for that length of time. I'll run youin, it's faster than the train."

    "Let me take the train, Diana."

    "Then I'll drive you to it."

    "I'd just as soon walk off some of the booze."

    She studied me,then nodded."All right."

    "I'll call you as soon as I know anything."

    "Or even if you don't?"

    "Or even if I don't."

    I reached out for her, but she backed away. "I want you to know I'm not going to cling, Matthew."

    "I know that."

    "You don't have to feel you owe me anything."

    "Come here."

    "Oh, my sweet man."

    And at the door she said, "And you'll go on working for Jerry. Is this going to complicate things?"

    "Everything generally does," I said.

    IT was cold outside. When I got to the corner and turned north, there was a wind with a lot of bite to it coming right up behind me. I was wearing my suit and it wasn't enough.

    Halfway to the subway stop I realized I could have borrowed an overcoat of his. A man with JerryBroadfield's enthusiasm for clothing was sure to have three or four of them, and Diana would have been happy enough to lend me one. I hadn't thought of it and she hadn't volunteered, and now I decided that it was just as well. So far today I'd sat in his chair and drunk his whiskey and taken his money and made love to his wife. I didn't have to walk around town in his clothes.

    The subway platform was elevated and looked like a stop on theLong Island Rail Road . Evidently a train had just gone through, although I hadn't heard it. I was the only person waiting on the westbound platform. Gradually other people joined me and stood around smoking.

    It's theoretically illegal to smoke in subway stations whether they're above or below ground. Almost everyone honors this rule below the surface of the earth, and virtually all smokers feel free to smoke on elevated platforms. I've no idea why this is so.Subway stations, above or below ground, are equally fireproof, and the air in both is so foul that smoke won't make it noticeably worse. But the law is obeyed in one type of station and routinely violated (andunenforced ) in the other, and no one has ever explained why.

    Curious.

    The train came eventually. People threw away their cigarettes and boarded it. The car I rode in was festooned with graffiti, but the legends were limited to the now-conventional nicknames and numbers.

    Nothing as imaginative as WE ARE PEOPLE TWO.

    I hadn't planned on fucking his wife.

    There was a point where I hadn't even considered it, and another point where I knew for certain that it was going to happen, and the two points had been placed remarkably close together in time.

    Hard to say exactly why it happened.

    I don't all that frequently meet women I want. It is a less and less frequent occurrence, either because of some facet of the aging process or as a result of my personal metamorphoses. I had met one such woman a day ago, and for a variety of reasons, some known and some unknown, I had done nothing about it. And now she and I would never have a chance to happen to each other.

    Perhaps some idiot cells in my brain had managed to convince themselves that, if I did not take DianaBroadfield on her living-room couch, some maniac would come along and slaughter her.

    The car was warm but I shivered as if I were still standing on the elevated platform exposed to the sharp edge of the wind. It was the best time of the year but it was also the saddest.Because winter was coming.

Chapter 7
    There were more messages waiting for me at my hotel. Anita had called again and Eddie Koehler had called twice. I walked over to the elevator, then turned and used the pay phone to call Elaine.

    "I said I'd call either way," I told her. "I don't think I'm going to drop over tonight.Maybe tomorrow."

    "Sure, Matt. Was it anything important?"

    "You remember what we were talking about before. If you could find out some more on that