He liked Jane, and he thought it was nice of Zack to give a party for her, but he just wasn't in the mood. He had seen Sandy for the first time in months a few weeks before, at Mike's. She had called him and asked if she could meet him there, and when she had, all she had wanted from him was five hundred dollars. She begged him, saying that she needed a place to live, and she didn't have a dime. And he'd been afraid it would go right into her arm. She looked terrible, and it had broken his heart to see her like that, but he knew there was nothing he could do for her and she was in such bad shape he hadn't even mentioned a divorce to her. He finally gave her what cash he had, a little more than three hundred dollars, and she had almost run out the door. But she had called him again that day, and she sounded frightened this time. She asked if she could see him that night at eleven o'clock, and just to be sure he didn't miss her, he had left Zack's place quietly forty-five minutes before that.
