“We weren't close. I just want to know what happened to him.”

     “His body was discovered yesterday morning,” Dela Cruz said. “He had been dead several hours. We can't be exact.” He flicked the speck off his finger. “One shot with a .45 automatic. The shell casing was recovered.”

     “Can I see the report?”

     “Our information is secondhand from Bacolod,” Agoncillo said. “This is only preliminary.”

     Two days and they had no report. I looked at Dalzell to see how he took this. He was watching the women in the lobby. There was almost a stream of them, young Filipinas going to the elevators with men, Americans and Japanese mostly, going up with men and coming down alone, walking quickly across the marble and out into the night.

     “The report is due in Manila tomorrow morning,” said Dela Cruz.

     “Where was he found?”

     “I understand it was a squatters' area on the fringe of the city,” said Dela Cruz.

     “Is that a bad neighborhood?”

     “All squatter areas are bad,” said Agoncillo.

     “What about witnesses?”

     “There are none, we understand,” said Dela Cruz. “Since he was not found until several hours after he was killed, we can assume there are no witnesses to the actual crime.”

     “You mean nobody has rushed out and said they saw it.”

     “That is correct.” Stiffly.

     “It doesn't mean witnesses don't exist. They just haven't been found.”

     “True.”

     “What's a squatters' area—some kind of slum?”

     “It is a place where people have erected unauthorized dwellings,” Agoncillo said. “They pay no rent and their homes are ramshackle.”