Chapter 17. By the time we hit the street, it was too late to do anything useful, so Trixie flagged a cab and told me to meet her in the morning at 36 Wellington Avenue.

That's right downtown, I said. Yes, it is, she said, climbing into the taxi cab. What is that? I said out loud. I knew the block, but I was drawing a blank.

I'll see you there at nine, she said.

I have to get my car from lishes, I said. The good lieutenant had once again arranged a lift for us in the

back of a squad car, leaving me stranded. Then I guess you'll have to get up extra early, she said,

not understanding me. She closed the door before I could protest further and was gone. I looked at

my wristwatch.

10.15. Never let it be said that the cops don't know how to waste my time. I hoofed it north towards

my apartment where I would buy myself a drink and call it a day. It took a while to get there,

so I made it two, or possibly five. I hate getting up at the same time as everybody else.

Whatever I'd consumed the night before, it wasn't enough to keep me in bed.

I would have been prepared to swear that I had drank less than the decline in the level of brown liquor left in the bottle might suggest,

but since I was resolutely alone, my best alternate theory is that I was plagued by alcoholic shoemaker's

elves, which seemed somehow unlikely. The point is that I didn't have a real hangover,

and that wasn't why I hated getting up at that hour. Getting up was fine. Being up,

going anywhere at the same time that the rest of the city was going somewhere else, that was my problem.

Early, late didn't much matter to me.

I just disliked breaking stride constantly to keep from knocking people over,

and for some reason the general populace was too self-involved to scamper obligingly out of my way.

Maybe it was because it was a work day and they were all in character, ready

to play whomever they were supposed to be. They were important, and I was not frightening enough

to break them from that comfortable illusion. Perhaps I should invest in an eye patch.

...