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610 Mary lit a fresh cigarette"Well, both Dave and John were as rich as Croesus - Dave with his land and building speculations, John with his mills - but Davis was a peacock and Eastlake was more of a plain brown wrenJust as well for him, because you know what happens to peacocks, don't you?" "They get their tailfeathers chopped off?" She took a drag on her latest cigarette, then pointed the fingers holding it at me as she jetted smoke from her nostrils"That would be correct, sirIn 1925, the Florida Land Bust hit this state like a brick on a soap bubbleDave Davis had invested pretty much everything he had in what you see out there She waved at the zig-zaggy streets and pink buildings"In 1926, Davis was owed four million bucks on various successful ventures and collected something like chanel jewelry thirty thousand It had been awhile since I'd ridden on the tiger's neck - which was what my father called overextending your resources to the point where you had to start juggling your creditors and getting creative with your paperwork - and I'd never ridden that far up, even in The Freemantle 611 Company's early, desperate daysI felt for Dave Davis, long dead though he must be "How much of his own debts could he cover? Any?" "He managed at firstThose were boom years in other parts of the country "You know a lot about this "Suncoast art is my passion, EdgarSuncoast history is my hobbySo Davis survived the Land BustI imagine he sold his stocks on the bull market to cover his first round of lossesAnd friends helped him "Eastlake?" "John Eastlake was a major angel, and that's aside from any of balenciaga dix motorcycle Dave's bootleg hooch he may have stored out on the Key from time to time "Did he do that?" I askedThat was another time and another FloridaYou hear all sorts of colorful Prohibition-era booze-running stories if you live down here awhileBooze or no booze, Davis would have been flat broke by Easter of '26 without John EastlakeJohn was no playboy, didn't go nightclubbing and cathousing like Davis and some 612 of Davis's other friends, but he'd been a widower since 1923, and I'm guessing that old Dave might have helped a pal with a gal from time to time when his pal was feeling lonelyBut by the summer of '26, Dave's debts were just too highNot even his old pals could save him "So he disappeared one dark night "He disappeared, but not by the dark of the moon That was not the Davis styleIn October of spy bag replica 1926, less than a month after Hurricane Esther knocked the living hell out of his life's work, he sailed for Europe with a bodyguard and his new gal-pal, who happened to be a Mack Sennett bathing beauty The gal-pal and the bodyguard got to Gay Paree, but Dave Davis never didHe disappeared at sea, without a trace "This is a true story you're telling me?" She raised her right hand in the Boy Scout salute - the image slightly marred by the cigarette smoldering between her first two fingersIn November of '26, there was a memorial service right over there She pointed toward where the Gulf twinkled between two bright pink art deco buildings"At least four hundred people 613 attended, many of them, I understand, the sort of women who were partial to ostrich feathersOne of the speakers was John gucci bag black EastlakeHe tossed a wreath of tropical flowers into the water She sighed, and I caught a waft of her breathI had no doubt that the lady could hold her liquor; I also had no doubt that she was well on her way to squiffy if not outright drunk this afternoon "Eastlake was undoubtedly sad about the passing of his friend," she said, "but I bet he was congratulating himself on surviving EstherLittle did he know he'd be throwing more wreaths into the water less than six months laterNot just one daughter gone but twoThree, I suppose, if you count the eldestShe eloped to AtlantaWith a foreman from one of Daddy's mills, if memory servesAlthough that's hardly the same as losing two in the GulfGod, that must have been hard "THEY ARE GONE," I said, remembering the headline Wireman had quoted She glanced at me chanel necklace sha