5
One of the cops in the blue-and-white elbowed the other. “Now that,” he said, “is a serious comparison shopper.”
His partner laughed. “Oh God,” he said in an effeminate voice as the man in the business suit and gold-rimmed glasses finished his study of the merchandise on display and went inside. “I think he jutht dethided on the lavender handcuffths.”
The first cop choked on a mouthful of lukewarm coffee and sprayed it back into the styrofoam cup in a gust of laughter.
6
A clerk came over almost at once and asked if he could be of help.
“I wonder,” the man in the conservative blue suit replied, “if you have a paper . . .” He paused, appeared to think deeply, and then looked up. “A chart, I mean, which shows pictures of revolver ammunition.”
“You mean a caliber chart?” the clerk asked.
The customer paused, then said, “Yes. My brother has a revolver. I have fired it, but it’s been a good many years. I think I will know the bullets if I see them.”
“Well, you may think so,” the clerk replied, “but it can be hard to tell. Was it a .22? A .38? Or maybe—”
“If you have a chart, I’ll know,” Roland said.
“Just a sec.” The clerk looked at the man in the blue suit doubtfully for a moment, then shrugged. Fuck, the customer was always right, even when he was wrong . . . if he had the dough to pay, that was. Money talked, bullshit walked. “I got a Shooter’s Bible. Maybe that’s what you ought to look at.”
“Yes.” He smiled. Shooter’s Bible. It was a noble name for a book.
The man rummaged under the counter and brought out a well-thumbed volume as thick as any book the gunslinger had ever seen in his life—and yet this man seemed to handle it as if it were no more valuable than a handful of stones.
He opened it on the counter and turned it around. “Take a look. Although if it’s been years, you’re shootin’ in the dark.” He looked surprised, then smiled. “Pardon my pun.”
Roland didn’t hear. He was bent over the book, studying pictures which seemed almost as real as the things they represented, marvellous pictures the Mortcypedia identified as Fottergraffs.
He turned the pages slowly. No . . . no . . . no . . .
He had almost lost hope when he saw it. He looked up at the clerk with such blazing excitement that the clerk felt a little afraid.
“There!” he said. “There! Right there!”
The photograph he was tapping was one of a Winchester .45 pistol shell. It was not exactly the same as his own shells, because it hadn’t been hand-thrown or hand-loaded, but he could see without even consulting the figures （which would have meant almost nothing to him anyway） that it would chamber and fire from his guns.
“Well, all right, I guess you found it,” the clerk said, “but don’t cream your jeans, fella. I mean, they’re just bullets.”
“You have them?”
“Sure. How many boxes do you want?”
“How many in a box?”
“Fifty.” The clerk began to look at the gunslinger with real suspicion. If the guy was planning to buy shells, he must know he’d have to show a Permit to Carry photo-I.D. No P.C., no ammo, not for handguns; it was the law in the borough of Manhattan. And if this dude had a handgun permit, how come he didn’t know how many shells came in a standard box of ammo?
“Fifty!” Now the guy was staring at him with slack-jawed surprise. He was off the wall, all right.
The clerk edged a bit to his left, a bit nearer the cash register . . . and, not so coincidentally, a bit nearer to his own gun, a .357 Mag which he kept fully loaded in a spring clip under the counter.