I’m sorry you were arrested. I’m sorry you spent time in the big house. I don’t know how you got out without posting bail, but my compliments: that took some doing. I’m sorriest of all I blew up at you over Frenada’s finances. I don’t know who or how that strange data got into his LifeStory report, but it was bogus. When his sister tried to access one of the accounts, it turned out there was nothing there. For reasons I haven’t been able to find out, Carnifice may have wanted to discredit Frenada. At any rate they certainly have the technical wizardry to plant phony data on Frenada.

Anyway, I want you to know that I tried to do the right thing. I tried to tape a follow–up to my show explaining that I had received erroneous information about Frenada. The station wouldn’t allow the tape. I tried to print a story in the Star, but the editor blocked it. I’ve been asked to take a vacation for a few weeks to see if “I can regain a sense of proportion.”

If you’re alive and well, give me a call. On the other hand, if you’re really in danger of your life, V. I., I wish I could see you to tell you I’m sorry. And beg you not to die. I don’t think I could keep working in Chicago if you weren’t part of the landscape.

Murray

I pinned one of the flowers to my blouse and danced around the Berman gardens with it. I had a moment’s euphoric impulse to phone Murray, to relieve his own anxiety. We had worked out some amazing stunts together in the past. But I couldn’t afford to take risks right now, even for an old friend. Murray’s course this past summer had been too rocky for me to trust him based on one letter.

The day I heard from him was the same day that Morrell brought in the pictures I’d taken at Coolis. There were thirty–three: I hadn’t had time to shoot the whole roll. A few showed scenes in the jail, like the time CO Polsen was trying to pull down Dolores’s jeans, or the pustular burn on the arm of a woman in the kitchen. Where I’d had time to focus, however surreptitiously, the quality was good enough to make out detail.