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Show -134 "He was Jacob's friend in high school," I explained to Morgan, "but I never could stomach him. An ambitious little prick who always talked about himself." "You and I are supposed to go see him tomorrow at his office, Buck." Something in Jacob's manner caught our attention. Even Carlo looked up from his contemplation of the repeated pattern of pink roses and gray-green leaves in the kitchen linoleum. "It seems that while they were.laying out Adam at the funeral parlor a funny thing happened." Jacob dropped himself stiffly into a chair and stared past us. "And?" Alice said. "Well, what was it?" Jacob seemed to have forgotten we were there. He spoke to the wall. "The oddest thing-they were working him over and a bullet fell out of his head." "What?" Alice said. Her voice was flat and unnatural. "Shot," Jacob said. "It seems that Adam was shot before he fell in the river. With a twenty-two caliber rifle, they think." Carlo put a finger up to his temple and waggled it. "Ah," he said. His eyes opened wide, round and startled. I was afraid for him. "It must be some sort of mistake," Alice said. "Who'd want to shoot Adam?" "Nobody loved him but me," Carlo said. Certain men carry just beneath the skin a fierce itchy |