kemp88sada

@@@@@ "A little odd, maybe, but not completely strange," Wireman said"If you were a widower with young daughters, would you want to take your bootlegger's last receipt with you into your new life?" I considered it, and decided he had a point but I'd probably destroy it, along with my stash of French postcards"We'll never know how much incriminating paperwork he did destroyExcept for having a little drinkie now and then with his pals, his hands may have been 975 relatively clean He put a hand on my shoulder And if something's out to get us, maybe something else is looking out for usIsn't that possible?" "It would be nice to think so, anywayLet's see if there's anything else ii It seemed at first there wasn'tWe poked around all the downstairs rooms and found nothing but near-disaster when my foot plunged through the flooring in what must once have been the dining roomWireman and Jack were quick, however, and at least it was my bad leg that went down; I had my good one to brace myself with There was no hope of checking above ground-level The staircase went all the way up, but beyond the landing and a single ragged length of rail beside it, there was only blue sky and the waving fronds of one tall cabbage palmThe second floor was a remnant, the third complete toastWe started back toward the kitchen and our makeshift step-down to 976 the outside world with nothing to show for our exploration but an ancient note announcing a booze deliveryI had an idea what cera might mean, but without knowing where Perse was, the idea was useless Why else make it so fucking hard to get here? Wireman was in the lead, and he stopped so suddenly I ran into himJack ran into me, whacking me in the butt with the picnic basket "We need to check the stairs," Wireman saidHe spoke in the tone of a man who can't believe he has been such a dumb cluck "I beg pardon?" I asked "We need to check the stairs for a ha-haI should have thought of that first thing "What's a ha-ha?" I ask