All right, inspector. Maybe six drinks. Or maybe itwasn't the drinks at all. But sometimes you get thefeeling, don't you, that you can see a little way intothe future? Oh, you don't. Well, anyway. I might nothave been entirely in my right mind but I was beginningto feel pretty uncomfortable about all this. Well, anyonewould. Even you.

'Wayne,' I said. 'Stop right now. If you concentrate,he'll go away. Settle down a bit. Please. Take a deepbreath. This is all wrong.'

The brick wall on the other side of me paid moreattention. I know Wayne when he meets fellow collectors,They have these weekend rallies. You see them inshops. Strange people. But none of them as strange asthis one. He was dead strange.

'Wayne!'

They both ignored me. And inside my mind bits of mybrain were jumping up and down, shouting and pointing,and I couldn't let myself believe what they weresaying

OH, I'VE GOT THEM ALL, he said, turning back toWayne, ELVIS PRESLEY, BUDDY HOLLY, JIM MORRISON,JIMI HENDRIX, JOHN LENNON...

'Fairly wide spread, musically,' said Wayne. 'Have yougot the complete Beatles?'

NOT YET

And I swear they started to talk records. I remember MrFriend saying he'd got the complete seventeenth-, eighteenth-and nineteenth-century composers. Well, hewould, wouldn't he?

I've always had to do Wayne's fighting for him, eversince we were at primary school, and this had gone farenough and I grabbed Mr Friend's shoulder and wentto lay a punch right in the middle of that grinningmask.

And he raised his hand and I felt my fist hit an invisiblewall which yielded like treacle, and he took off his maskand he said two words to me and then he reached acrossand took Wayne's hand, very gently ...

And then the power amp exploded because, like I said,Wayne wasn't very good with connectors and the churchhall had electrical wiring that dated back practically to1800 or something, and then what with the decorationscatching fire and everyone screaming and rushing aboutI didn't really know much about anything until theybrought me round in the car park with half my hairburned off and the hall going up like a firework

No. I don't know why they haven't found him either.Not so much as a tooth?

No. I don't know where he is. No, I don't think heowed anyone any money,

(But I think he's got a new job. There's a collectorwho's got them all - Presley, Hendrix, Lennon, Holly -and he's the only collector who'll ever get a completecollection, anywhere. And Wayne wouldn't pass up achance like that. Wherever he is now, he's taking themout of their jackets with incredible care and spinningthem with love on the turntables of the night ...)

Sorry. Talking to myself, there.

I'm just puzzled about one thing. Well, millions ofthings, actually, but just one thing right at the moment.

I can't imagine why Mr Friend bothered to wear amask.

Because he looked just the same underneath, idio -officer.

What did he say? Well, I daresay he comes to everyonein some sort of familiar way. Perhaps he just wanted togive me a hint. He said DRIVE SAFELY.

No. No, really I'll walk home, thanks.

Yes. I'll mind how I go.