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PENELOPE PULLS IT OFF

It was ti up, for disposal The host was truly dead and the other guests had fled Toe and well-known to be practical souvenirs of his happy summer at the Palazzo Otranto

Over the months, he&039;d built up a collection The dead strewed their treasures any which way Working by day, when elders were in their caskets and new-borns lulled with last night&039;s blood, he&039;d harvested select, portable iteyptian ruby scarab, with seven pinpoint flaws in the pattern of the big dipper; a tiny, withered brown hand which ht be a child&039;s or a chiold; a dear little Corot no bigger than an icon An enorht be able to do so with the loot; he was a collector and a dealer in rare, unprovenanced artifacts

He did not, of course, hide his haul in his rooht count as evidence He&039;d found a loose floorboard in a forgotten attic and made himself a hidey-hole If the cache were discovered, servants would be blamed In his tie Princess Asa insisted they be branded on their foreheads Did a facial scar that read &039;thief&039; in Moldavian hamper chances of future employment in Europe?

Presently, Asa was mad She&039;d always been ed She was no longer the imperious monster Penelope called her &039;Princess Havisha dress and aged years every day she refrained fro blood At the end of the month, she&039;d have to find a new house to haunt

It was about midday He was on a last look around Some of the recently flown dead had carelessly left behind itea&039;s crypt-like cell, he found a silver dagger An old weapon, not like the bland scalpel they&039;d found in Dracula&039;s heart The worke keen This was an assassin&039;s knife

It struck hiain how odd it was that so many of the dead owned silver knick-knacks The metal was poison to them It was either an ostentatious defiance of ainst their own kind With Dracula gone, there&039;d be secret wars of succession Penelope had lectured hi with not a little relish that half the surviving elders would perish in the internecine squabbles And a good job too, she said; it was tienerations He pocketed the dagger, wondering if he should keep the thing More andar an euest rooht size He carefully packed his souvenirs, wrapping thes, but he estiood few years He thought about France It was ti, he hauled the case - heavy, but not impossible - downstairs He&039;d take the Ferrari, but only as far as the Stazione Centrale It was too flashy, too easy to trace

The case became heavier on the second staircase He switched to his left hand and dropped it Toed and swollen, throbbed likethe tingling in his depleted veins His elbows and knees didn&039;t quite work

The suitcase slithered down to the next landing Tom stumbled after it There was only the main staircase to the hallway, then the front door He took hold of the case&039;s handle, but couldn&039;t lift it He considered jettisoning one of the heavier items - the falcon, perhaps? - but rejected the idea as absurd This was his nest egg

He hugged the suitcase to his chest like a sack of potatoes and stood It was like lifting an anchor The weight pulled him to the lip of the stairs His vision blurred A dizzy spell struck He wanted to pitch himself down the stairs and break his own silly neck

His hip struck the balustrade and the case balanced on the long marble sweep Tom smiled It could slide the case down this last staircase, letting the bannisters take the weight

He deserved this loot He deserved the life it&039;d buy hi towith each other, he went down step by step, case sliding easily beside hih the front door, he&039;d never look back And he&039;d never let a dead wooing, Mr American?&039;

Penelope&039;s voice wasn&039;t raised, but it rang in his head

He turned, ot free and slithered down the bannisters like a prankish small child, then ski-ju open Treasures glittered

To the balustrade himself

He couldn&039;t raise his eyes to Penelope&039;s face He felt her looking down at hiiven permission,&039; she said

His chin hit the stairs and he lost his grip He rolled over, breathing heavily, and looked up at a fuzzy, distant ceiling He exposed his throat to the dead woman

Her face appeared, upside-down

He had only one chance to escape One treasure he had not packed in the case

Penelope knelt by hiht pet a dog She leaned forward to kiss - to bite - his neck

Toer he&039;d pocketed into Penelope&039;s ribs But her side wasn&039;t where he thought it would be

She twisted easily away froer pinched his wrist, digging enough to jolt pain through his whole arer fell out of his hand

&039;So, our vampire killer is exposed&039;

Doors opened and people ca on marble

&039;Inspector Silvestri,&039; Penelope said &039;Good afternoon&039;

Toe

&039;There&039;s such a thing as being too clever, Tom dear,&039; Penelope whispered She kissed hiue licked hi one side of his face