her that made her squirm on the orange plastic seat

Sure," she said, and then in case he had misunderstood her statement or its intensity, said again,

Swell," he said, removing his hand. "Meet you

Still carrying his towels, he found the orderlies' lounge down the hall. Inside was a tall, dark-haired man, drinking coffee and studying a typewritten sheet. When Remo entered, he hurriedly put the sheet away, but Remo had already recognized it: it was the patient list from intensive care.

Remo poured himself some unwanted coffee. His

thought of drinking a mud created from boiling

"Huh?" the dark-haired man said, his eyes nearly watering behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

'You know what I mean. You running the pool?"

15

"C'mon, pal," Remo said, "I've got to get back on duty. Who's on the list? Mrs. Grayson? What days you got left?"

The thin man blinked several times behind his liJce a squared.off stack of hay

glasses, then said slowly, "Twenty-first and twenty-

fifth-" "Gone," Remo said. He looked up from the list.

"Hell," Remo said. "She'll go before that but give me the twenty-first."

"It'll cost you fifty," the orderly said.

"Got it right here," Remo said, reaching into his pocket. But of course his cash was in the pocket of his black chinos, underneath the white hospital trousers he was wearing. So he drove his fingertips through the bottom of the empty pocket, ripping the fabric, then reached through the hole into his chino pocket and brought out a roll of bills.

As he pretended to count off fifty dollars, Remo said, "I've heard that some of you guys are pulling the plugs on these patients. That doesn't seem fair."

The thin orderly grinned. "Everybody's got the same chance. If Mrs. Grayson lives to your day, and you pull the plug on her and nobody notices and she conks, well, then you're the winner." He grinned. "It's simple. Everybody's got an equal chance to get the pool."