It wouldn't stop a full-blown
Force 5, but it... It wouldn't stop a full-blown
Force 5, but it usually worked if I took a dose
early enoughI swallowed one with a Coke from the
bar fridge, started to leave, and saw the light on
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the phone flashingI almost left it, then
realized the message might be from Wireman
It turned out there were half a dozen messages
The first four were more congratulations, which
fell on my aching head like pellets of hail on a
tin roofBy the time I got to Jimmy's - he was
the fourth - I had begun punching the 6-button on
the keypad, which hurried me on to the next
messageI was in no mood to be stroked
The fifth message was indeed from Jerome Wireman
He sounded tired and stunned"Edgar, I know
you've got a couple of days earmarked for family
and friends, and I hate like hell to ask you this,
but can we get together at your place
omega automatic watches this
afternoon? We need to talk, and I mean really
Jack spent the night here with me at El Palacio -
he didn't want me to be alone, that's one helluva
good kid - and we were up early, hunting for that
red basket she was on about, andBetter late than never, right? She wanted you
to have it, so Jack took it over to Big PinkThe
house was unlocked, and listen, Edgarsomeone's
been inside
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Silence on the line, but I could hear him
breathingThen:
"Jack's severely freaked, and you got to prepare
for a shock, muchachoThough you may already have
an idea-"
There was a beep, and then the sixth message
startedIt was still Wireman, now rather pissed
off, which made him sound more like himself
"Fucking short-ass message tape! Chinche pedorra!
Ay! Edgar, Jack and I are going over to Abbot-
Wexler A brief pause as he worked to
keep it
men's gucci wallet togetherthe funeral home she wanted
I'll be back by oneYou really ought to wait for
us before you go in your houseIt isn't trashed
or anything, but I want to be with you when you
look in that basket and when you see what got left
in your studio upstairsI don't like to be
mysterious, but Wireman ain't putting this shit on
a message-tape anybody might listen toAnd
there's one more thingOne of her lawyers called
Left a message on the machine - Jack and I were
still up in the fucking atticHe says I'm her
sole beneficiary
iii
I punched 0 for the hotel operatorAfter a short
wait, she gave me the number of the Abbot-Wexler
Funeral ParlorA robot answered,
offering me a truly amazing array of deathoriented
services ("For Casket Showroom, push 5")
I waited it out - the offer for an actual human
being always comes last these
chanel red black handbag days, a booby-prize
for boobs who can't cope with the twenty-first
century - and while I waited I thought about
Wireman's messageThe house unlocked? Really? My
post-accident memory was unreliable, of course,
but habit wasn'tBig Pink did not belong to me,
and I had been taught since earliest childhood to
take especial care of what belonged to othersI
was pretty sure I had locked the houseSo if
someone had been inside, why hadn't the door been
forced?
I thought for just a moment of two little girls in
wet dresses - little girls with decayed faces who
spoke in the grating voice of the shells under the
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house - and then pushed the image away with a
shudderThey had been only imagination, surely,
the vision of an overstrained mindAnd even if
they had been something moreghosts didn't have
to unlock doors, did they?
bay bag chloe They simply passed
right through, or drifted up through the
floorboards
By God, I had almost missed my cueI pushed 0,
and after a few bars of something that sounded
vaguely like "Abide with Me," a professionally
soothing voice asked if it could help meI
suppressed an irrational and very strong urge to
say: It's my arm! It's never had a decent burial!
and hang upInstead, cradling the phone and
rubbing a spot over my right eyebrow, I asked if
Jerome Wireman was there
"May I ask which deceased he represents?"
A nightmare image rose before me: a silent
courtroom of the dead, and Wireman saying Your
Honor, I object
"Elizabeth Eastlake," I said The voice warmed, became
provisionally human"He and his young friend have
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stepped out - they were going to work on Ms
Eastlake's obituary, I believeI may have a
message for
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