He took out another photo of a very dead Kenneth Hawkins. Twenty minutes later, Stone answered the front door, then stepped out onto the stoop and closed it behind him. Is not being able to trace an email really that catastrophic? No, Murfin said, he wouldntve. He was silent for a moment and then his face broke into one of his dirty smiles. “Jesus, its sweet though, isn’t it? You get a labor union to strike the public employees in ten or twelve of the biggest cities in the country just two months before election. Now who’s gonna benefit from that?” He didnt pay the slightest attention to me, Mr. Mason. I had Ruth flag him down. After we got in the cab I told him where I wanted him to go, but I was seated in such a position that I was directly behind his back. He turned around and saw Ruth, but I dont think he even gave me a good look— and, of course, I was dressed differently. In fifteen minutes both drivers were on their way in new cars. Youre really trying to nail my ass, arent you? I turned that over to a laboratory technician to determine whether or not it was blood. Everything to do with it, Ed, Stone replied. He brought Eagle up to date on everything that had happened, while Dino checked his messages and made some calls. You didnt like him? Herb Fisher. Works smoothly, Mason said. It was Murfin who broached the subject of paying me half of my ten-thousand-dollar fee in advance. Vullo listened quietly to my reasoning although he started nibbling at his fingernails again. The little finger on his left hand seemed to be giving him particular trouble. When I was through with my pitch, he picked up his phone, spoke quietly into it, and then looked at me after he hung it up.The check will be in shortly, Mr. Longmire. By the time I arrived at Connecticut Avenue and M Street I had composed thirty-six lines of doggerel, which I dictated into a small portable tape recorder, shouting some of the lines, even declaiming them to make myself heard above the Fords clatter. They rhymed, they scanned, and they were as sticky as honey and twice as sweet. Now, just a moment, Hamilton Burger said. Your taxicab, in common with all Red Line Cabs, is equipped with a taximeter which starts in operation when you pull your flag down, is that right? Hundermark had smiled gently again.Well, yes, Im sure that they will be able to do that. Maybe, but dont count on us. Well see you when we see you. Ill call you when we land. Im sorry. Sometimes Im on call at night, and once awoken I never get back to sleep..