by the time kintyre got back, it was close to sunset. he entered a book-lined living room. there were a few good pictures, a small record player, his sabers hung on the wall by trig, the furniture bought used or made out of old boxes—otherwise little. he did not believe in cluttering life with objects.

he poured himself a stiff drink. glenlivet was his only expensive luxury. he sat down to savor it and perhaps think a little about bruce. there was no solid reason why the boy should have made so large a niche in kintyre's existence, but somehow he had. the emptiness hurt.

when the phone rang, kintyre was there picking it up before consciousness of the noise registered. he was not surprised to hear margery towne's voice.

"bob? you know?"

"yes. i'm sorry. i wish to hell i could tell you just how sorry."

"i can guess." her tone was flattened by the control she must be keeping on it. "we both loved him, didn't we?"

"i think everybody did."

"somebody didn't, bob."

"i suppose you heard through the police?"

"they were here a few minutes ago. do they know everything?"

"probably i gave them your name. they came to me first, for the identification."

"they were very nice about it and all that, but—"

silence whistled remotely over the wires.

"bob, could you come talk to me? now?"

"sure, pony. give me half an hour."

kintyre hung up one-handed, starting to undress with the other. he went through a shower and put on a suit in ten minutes.

margery's apartment was catercorner from his, with the university between. he parked his battered '48 de soto on the near side of the campus and walked across, hoping to hoof out some of the muscular tightness and set his thoughts in order.

level yellow light came through eucalyptus groves to splash on a cropped greensward and pompous white buildings, almost bare of mankind in this pause between baccalaureate ceremonies and summer classes. kintyre reflected vaguely that he would have to go through bruce's desk, finish his work, yes, and complete his study of the book of witches.... his mind drifted off toward a worried practical consideration. what could he do about margery?

he wanted to help her, if he could—double damnation, hadn't he tried before? at the same time he was not, repeat not, going to get himself involved. it would be unfair to both of them.

there were rules of the game, and so he had played it with her. you left wives and virgins alone: well, she was long divorced, and had slept around a bit since then. you neither gave to nor took from a woman. you made it perfectly clear you weren't interested in anything permanent. and when you broke it off, after a pleasant few months, you did it cleanly: he had the best excuse in the world, back in 1955, an academic grant that returned him to italy for a year of research in his specialty, the renaissance. (but she had been very quiet, the last few weeks; sometimes at night he had heard her trying not to cry.) back home again, you didn't resume old affairs: you were simply friendly, on such occasions as you happened to meet.

yes, of course. only then she took up with bruce, and bruce had wanted to marry her, and she had plainly been considering it, and now brace was dead and kintyre was on his way to console her. could you walk in her door and say: "hello, i still subscribe to the why-buy-a-cow philosophy so be careful, now you may weep on my shoulder"?

he realized he was sucking on a dead cigarette. he threw it away and stopped to light another. he was almost under the building which housed his own department.

"good evening."

kintyre looked up. jabez owens was walking toward him.

"hello," he answered. "how are you? excuse me, but i've got to—"

owens reached him and took his hand. "my dear old chap," he said in his most harvard accent, "i'm awfully sorry."

"hm?"

"young lombardi. i saw it in the papers. you know?"

"yes." kintyre looked coldly at owens. the writer was a tall man, the breadth of his shoulders attributable only in part to his tailor. he had straight ruddy features, dark wavy hair graying at the temples, blue eyes behind wrought-iron glasses, tweedy clothes with a scarf filling the v of the jacket, and a small calabash pipe in one pocket.

"i know he was murdered," said kintyre, watching the other's face.

"terrible. i remember once in sumatra—but that was long ago. see here," said owens candidly, "i know you know of my disagreements with the poor young fellow. why, it was only—when? thursday night we were at that party at clayton's. you must have heard us quarreling over his silly thesis. but this! de mortuis nil nisi bonum."

kintyre did not like owens. it was not so much the scholar raising his hackles at a rather lurid popularizer. what the devil, owens' books stirred up some public interest; they passed on some information, however distorted; and that was more than you could say for the average historiographic monograph. but during the whole week he had been in berkeley, one long theatrical performance had gone on, with jabez owens the plot, dialogue, director, producer, star, supporting cast, and claque. it grew monotonous.

wherefore kintyre said maliciously: "i'll be completing that thesis for him. doubtless i too will be forced to include a side glance at those borgia letters of yours. but it'll take me a while, i don't have all the facts and deductions at my fingertips as he did. so i suggest you hurry to hollywood and get that movie started."

owens laughed a well gauged laugh, neither too loud for this posthumous argument nor too small to sound genuine. "i'd love to take you on," he said. "nothing i like better than a good verbal fight, and that's what the boy was giving me. as a matter of fact, i may be staying here a few more days. or maybe not. but what i really stopped you for was to offer my sympathy and ask if i could help."

"what with?" asked kintyre. it stuck him as a bit of a coincidence that owens had happened to be passing by this special building at this moment.

"oh, i don't know. nothing, i suppose. you seem headed toward his, ah—" owens paused delicately—"his fiancée's place. i gathered from someone's remark, she lives in this area."

"uh-huh."

"charming girl. poor lombardi. she is so good a reason for not dying. please give her my regrets. ah—a moment more, if you will."

"yes?" kintyre was turning to go; he stopped.

owens flushed. "don't misunderstand me. it's none of my business, certainly. but i'd say at a guess i am a good fifteen years older than you, and perhaps—i suppose i needn't advise you. but i do want to help you. and her. see here, take her out tonight. i know they were living together. there'll be too many memories at her home." he nodded, almost awkwardly. "pardon me. i have to go now. i'll be seeing you."

kintyre stared after him. the deuce you say! i didn't think you had a genuine bone in your body.

he glanced at his watch. he was late. his steps lengthened, a hollow noise on the sunset pavement.

past the elaborate south gate, down a few shop-lined blocks of telegraph avenue, then left, slightly uphill, along a street of rooming houses and small apartments. margery's flat was here; or should you say it had been bruce's? he had gotten his mail, discreetly, at another address (which must now be overrun with sight-seers)—but this was theirs.

kintyre went upstairs. margery opened her door at his buzz and closed it again behind him.

bruce had moved in with her during the christmas holidays, half a year ago now, but the interior was still hers, airily modern. starting on bluff and nerve and a jerkwater college's art degree, she had made herself important to a local firm of decorators. bruce would have lived happily in a cave, if it had had book-shelves.

and yet somehow, thought kintyre as he waited for margery to speak—somehow, she had reshaped the place around him. the piano he played so well stood tuned for him; by now, most of the records were ones which he had shown her—quietly, even unconsciously—were good to have. she had matted and hung one of his inkbrush sketches, a view from albany hill toward the golden gate, whose contours brought you back for a second look.

and, of course, nearly all the books were his, and she had made an offside room into a study for him. when you added it up, maybe only the clothes and the parakeet were altogether her own.

i never affected her like this, thought kintyre. margery's apartments always felt nervous before. somehow bruce made this one peaceful.

"hello," he said, for she was evidently not going to speak first.

"hi." she went over to a glass-topped coffee table and opened a cigarette box. "thanks for coming."

"no thanks needed," he said. "could be you'll help me more than i will you."

she looked at him for a moment, and he realized it had been a tactless answer with too many unwanted implications. but then she picked up a cigarette and flicked a lighter to it. "drink?" she asked.

"well—you drink too much, pony."

"perhaps you don't drink enough," she said.

"i like the taste. i don't like being drunk."

"you're afraid to lose control, aren't you? sometimes, bob, i think that explains you. to you, life is a ride on a tiger, and you've got to keep the reins every minute."

"let's have none of these bad amateur psychoanalyses," he said, following her into the kitchen. he came up behind her and laid his hands on her waist. "and let's not fight. i'm sorry, marge. i'm sorry for bruce and for you."

her head bent. "i know, bob. don't bother with words." she put the cigarette to her lips, took a puff of smoke, blew it out, lowered the cigarette, and twisted about between his hands. her lips brushed his cheek. "go on, i'll mix. i want to keep busy."

he returned to the living room and prowled out his unrest for a few minutes. the piano caught his gaze, he saw ruled bescribbled sheets and went over to look. margery found him thus, when she came in with two glasses. "sit down," she invited.

he regarded her through careful eyes, trying to judge her needs—and her demands, for his own warning. she was a trifle on the short side, her figure was good though tending to plumpness, and even he could appreciate the effect of her simple green dress. her face was broad, with a slightly pug nose, very full lips, blue eyes under arched brows, a few freckles: "pert" was the word. reddish hair fell in a soft bob just below the ears, which carried extravagant hoops.

he nodded at the piano. "so bruce was composing again," he said.

"he was putting some poetry of his sister's to music, for some kind of little theater deal she has in preparation, over in the city."

"how was he doing? i can't read music."

"listen." she sat down at the piano. "i'm a lousy player myself, but this will give you the idea."

darkness was smoking in through the walls. she had to peer close to see the notes; her hands stumbled on the keys. and yet she created something gentle for him. afterward the sounds tinkled in his memory like rain in a young year.

she ended it with a destructive sweep of her knuckles across the board. as the jangled basses fell silent, she said roughly: "that's all. he never finished it."

"i wonder—" kintyre remembered not to sit on the couch; he found a chair. "i wonder if the world may not have lost even more than you and i, marge."

"i don't give a four-lettering damn about the world," she told him. she crossed the room and snapped the light switch. the sudden radiance was harsh to them, they both squinted. "i'd settle for having bruce back."

"so would i. naturally." he accepted the drink she offered and took a long swallow. it was heavy on the whisky and light on the soda. "and yet he was a scholar of unusual gifts. he even (he, my student) changed my opinions about some aspects of machiavelli's thought—emphasized the idealism—he would, of course. i remember him quoting at me, '... the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people.' isn't that exactly the sort of thing which would stick in bruce's mind?"

"'the best fortress.'" she stared into her glass. "it didn't help him much, did it?"

kintyre groped for another cigarette. he was smoking too much, he thought; he'd have a tongue like a fried shoe sole tomorrow.

"how much do you know?" he asked.

"only a little." the eyes she raised to him from the couch were desperate. "bob, what happened? who did it to him?"

"i can't imagine," he said tonelessly.

"but—could it have been an accident, bob? maybe by mistake for someone else—could it have been?"

"perhaps." i lie in my flapping front teeth. you don't use pliers on a man without getting his name straight.

"what was in the paper?" he asked. "i haven't seen."

"i don't know. i've been sitting here, ever since the policemen came. they asked me if i could guess—god!" she emptied her glass in three gulps.

"could you?" he murmured. "i find it hard to conceive of anyone who might hate bruce."

"there was gene michaelis," she said. "i've been thinking and thinking about him. he and his father. i met them once."

"yes. i'd forgotten that. but michaelis is a cripple now, remember? he couldn't—"

"bruce was called over to san francisco. someone called him on the phone. don't forget that. i can't forget it. i sat here while he talked! he didn't say what it was about, he just left. took the train. he seemed excited, happy. said he'd be out late and—" margery's breath snapped into her lungs. "bob! gene michaelis, sitting there and waiting for bruce to come in—and those great ugly hands of his!"

kintyre got up and went over to the couch. he sat down on its arm, next to her. she felt blindly for his fingers; her own were cold.

"the police think bruce was killed by professional criminals," he said. "can you imagine any reason why?"

"no." her head shook. "no. only gene michaelis—he swore that accident was bruce's fault. he almost had bruce thinking so. you didn't see bruce then. you didn't see how he was affected by it, his old friend biting at him like a dog, accusing him and his sister of—" she gave kintyre a blurred look. "that was how bruce and i started to live together. there was nothing else that would help him. he'd already proposed to me. i didn't want to get married again—to him—to get married. and he'd had no thought in his silly head of being anything but a gentleman. sure. i practically shanghaied him into bed with me. what else would get that thing off his mind, gene michaelis lying on the highway with both legs mashed? gene was the only person who ever hated bruce, and just being hated nearly destroyed him. he couldn't have made any other enemies—knowingly—he wasn't able to!"

that's not quite true, thought kintyre briefly. jabez owens.

margery's voice had risen raggedly, and her nails bit his palm. he stood up, pulling her after him by the wrist, and said: "come on. we're getting out of here."

"what?" she blinked at him, as if waking from sleep.

"you're tired and scared and lonesome and hungry, and none of it is good. we're going out to dinner, and we'll talk about bruce or whatever else you want, but we're going out."

"i have to work tomorrow," she protested.

"cannonballs! tell 'em you're down with twonk's disease and need the rest of the week off. now grab your purse."

she followed him then, shivering. he drove her car slowly, to give her and the drink within her time; he spoke of trivia.

she hung back a moment when he had parked outside one of oakland's first-class restaurants. "you can't afford this, bob," she said.

"if you mention money once again, i'm going to wash your mouth out with five-dollar bills," he snapped. "old greasy ones."

she smiled. "you know," she said, "you aren't so unlike bruce after all. i remember how he also used to go out of his way for people. and then once when i tried to praise him for it, he answered, 'ah, i'm no god damned saint.'"

"sounds like bruce," agreed kintyre.

"he worshiped you," she said over the cocktails. "did you know how much? you were everything he could dream of being, a traveler, an athlete, a scholar. he was even thinking of doing his military service in the navy, because that's where you were. and then you treated him as an equal! you did more to make him happy than anyone else."

"i'd say you did," he parried, embarrassed.

"you know you pushed that affair." she was a little drunk, he saw, but no harm in that: under better circumstances, he'd have called it a happy drunk. "remember how he and i first met? you were pub crawling with him one evening last year after you got back from europe. you ran into me at the mulled-wine place; i was eating piroshki and looked very unglamorous, but i thought i'd have some fun with you—oh, hell, bob, i thought there might be a chance to make you jealous—so i gave bruce a big play. and you were delighted!"

"i thought he needed a girl friend," he said. "there's more in life than books and beer."

"you pander," she chuckled. "i'll bet you gloated when you found we were living in sin."

he shrugged. "if you can call it sin. actually, bruce was a very domestic type. i hoped you'd marry him."

"sure," she said. "so i'm a very domestic type too, aren't i—ain't i—bob, i know you don't like to dance, and your dancing is awful, but shall we try it just once before dinner?"

afterward, when brandy and coffee were completing the meal, she said: "i'm still not sure if i was in love with bruce or not. i always liked him. i think i was beginning to love him."

"i should imagine it would be hard not to, under the circumstances."

"he was the first man i ever knew who was—(a)—" she ticked the points off on her fingers—"interesting; which the solid citizens back in ohio were not, not to me anyway—(b) reliable, which the local bohemians are not."

"please! call me what else you will, but not a berkeley bohemian."

"you don't count. you're in a classification all by yourself. 'reliable' was the wrong word. what do i mean? faithful; steady; loving. i guess that's it. loving—not himself, like most of these perpetual undergraduates; not—whatever you love, bob, there must be something but i've never found out what unless it's that sailboat of yours. bruce was loving of me. loving all the world, but including me."

"you could call him tender," agreed kintyre. "and yet he was a man. we took some rough hikes and pack trips, during the years we knew each other; and lately, after i got him interested in judo, he was doing very well. in the course of these amusements i've seen him get damaged now and then, sometimes rather badly. but he never admitted feeling any pain."

"i guess you'd consider that a virtue," she said.

they parked in the hills, with the eastbay cities like a galaxy of stars below them, san francisco an island universe across darkness. she sighed and leaned against him. he wondered, dimly alarmed, why he had come here.

"what are you going to do?" she asked him.

"me? in the next few days, you mean? oh, wind up his university work. call on his family; haven't seen them in a long time now. what about you?"

"carry on. what else is there?"

"i don't know," he said in his helplessness.

she turned to him and her fingers clawed at his coat. "bob, don't take me back to my place," she whispered. "not tonight. don't leave me alone."

"huh? but—"

"i know, i know, you're afraid i'll trap you—you conceited baboon. for christ's sake, let me sleep on your floor tonight, i won't touch a hair of your sanctimonious head, but don't leave me alone!"

for the first time since he came to her, she began to cry.

the telephone woke him. he turned over, not wholly oriented. there was a woman sleeping beside him, wearing a pair of his pajamas. where had he picked her up? wait. margery!

she slept very much like a child, curled in a ball. the pale foggy morning light touched a line of dried tears on her cheek. kintyre remembered how she had clung to him. nothing else had happened; she might have been his terrified young—no! that was a thought he clamped off before it had formed. let it be said only that he had been a friend to her last night, and no more.

he was already padding into the kitchen, to pick up the phone before it woke her. "hello," he said.

"dr. kintyre? moffat."

"oh—oh, yes, the officer. what is it?"

"i wondered if you knew what's become of miss margery towne. she isn't at home." the voice had a bland none-of-my-business-but-i-do-need-help overtone. had he spotted her car outside the house?

"i might be able to locate her, if it's urgent," said kintyre cautiously; for it was in truth none of moffat's business. "what's the trouble?"

"burglary."

"what?"

"a neighbor heard noises in her place last night. stewed about it for several hours, got no answer to the doorbell, finally called us. our man had to go up the fire escape and in a broken window. the thief's route. it's a mess in there."

"the devil you say!"

"the devil it might be, sir. there were valuables, jewelry and so on, lying in plain sight. they don't seem to've been touched. i suppose the burglar was looking for something else. have you any idea what it might have been?"