e pic into his file case. Then he stopped. His
face went blank. He pulled the pic out and looked at it again. He felt
as if some nagging thought were trying to come to the surface, but
nothing clicked, so he dropped the pic back into the file and went to
the cooler where he opened an early-morning can of beer before sacking
out. A hell of a life, he thought, wandering through nighttime Manhattan
watching for people to take their mental pants down so he could get
shots of their naked inner backsides.

He finished the beer and went in to take a shower.

Funny about that hit case. The guy had the damnedest expression on his
face. Kind of like he was thinking, _Okay, so what do I do now?_

Fifteen minutes later, Les was asleep.

* * * * *

There was always a certain tension involved in Frank Corson's visits to
Rhoda Kane's apartment, with Rhoda usually slightly on edge, waiting for
one of Frank's outbursts.

An outburst consisted of his suddenly springing to his feet with a
scowl and announcing: "Goddamn it, I don't belong here!"

Rhoda always followed the same script at the beginning of these traumas
by inevitably asking, "Why, darling? Why must you say that?"

"Oh, hell, Rhoda! I don't want to hurt you but--"

"Darling, you know I'll go to your room with you if you'd be more
comfortable there."

He strode to the window angrily and, for Rhoda, there was that
indescribably sweet and exciting reaction she always got from his
nakedness. _Like a Greek god standing there, she thought_, and it
thrilled her even though she knew she was being a little subjective
about it.

She smiled with tender, understanding amusement as she realized Frank's
pattern never varied. His outbursts never came until the first fierce
need of her had been assuaged; this was to her liking because her need
was as great.

Reacting according to current, "broad-minded" thinking and Manhattan
sophistication, she regarded herself and Frank as having a "good
physical relationship." Which individual need was the greatest, she had
never been able to say. But there certainly was something extraordinary
about it. In analyzing it, she'd arrived at the conclusion that they'd
been able, on the basis of personal rapport, to function in a completely
uninhibited manner; thus, some of their love-making, when lifted out of
context and surveyed objectively, might have been called abnormal. Rhoda
did not think so, however; or, if