Chapter 9
Room 651
ORE DUST FROM the blast furnaces not far from the city had drifted over and stained the curtains of the two windows facing on the court a dirty reddish color. Room 336 wasn’t much of a suite, but it had a location I liked. The court was a small one— almost directly opposite was room 303. The shades were up in my room, with the lights off. In the other room the lights were on, and the shade of the one window was down. I couldn’t see much, but if there was any particular racket I could probably hear. And if the lights were on, maybe someone was inside.
It was dark, but it had only been dark a half hour or so. I flopped on the bed, smoked a pill, and thought things over. I’d spent an hour talking to a jeweler— about emeralds. I’d spent two hours in the morgue of the Post
