A young man in a tan jacket waited at the foot of the stairs looking ill at ease. Dean recognized Jackie Rudman, the employee from World Wide Insurance in Philadelphia. He remembered the young man mentioning he had a sister in Parkside. Dean offered him a seat but he declined.

"Sis needed me to babysit," he said, as if to apologize for his weekday presence in Parkside. "I just thought I'd stop by."

"Nice to see you," Dean said, waiting to hear the real reason for Rudman's visit.

"I worked with Jeff, see? All the guys told you what a straight arrow he was." He moved from one foot to the other. "But that ain't so."

"Go on."

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"I saw Jeff having lunch with this girl just a few weeks ago. I got thinking about it and figured maybe you ought to know."

"Why didn't you say something when I was in the office?"

"Look, I'm just trying to help," he answered defensively.

"There are a lot of business reasons to have lunch with a girl, or anyone else," Dean offered.

"Not with this girl. It was Cece Baldwin. Take my word for it, there was no business reason for Jeff to be having lunch with Cece Baldwin-just monkey business. I ought to know. And she quit two weeks ago." Dean started to say something but Rudman shoved a piece of paper at him. "Here. This is her address. I don't want to start nothing-don't tell her it was me who told you." He turned and left without another word.

Dean waited until he was home before looking at the address Rudman had given him. He had stopped off for a bowl of spaghet­ti so it was 7:00 before he dialed the girl's Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania number. The ringing went unanswered, but at least the phone hadn't been disconnected.

Fred came in just as Dean was hanging up. Dean explained about his visit from Byrne's fellow employee and the young man's story about the possible girl friend. Fred didn't seem surprised. "Churchy la fem," he said, on his way up the stairs to bed. Dean expected a spirited argument at the very least, but tomorrow was Wednesday, Atlantic City day, and Fred needed a good night's sleep.

Wednesday morning dawned with air so crisp Dean was awake before the alarm, awake to a knock down gorgeous day, "one of the ten best" prattled a cheery voice on the kitchen table radio. Even the drive to the Poconos went well, with Dean only making two wrong turns. Baratto and Winston were alone in the safe house when Dean entered.

"Where are the rest of the federal troops?" Dean asked as he took the cup of coffee Winston offered.




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