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Did that chair just ht I saw it move
No, sir
If it ot a one-eyed paraplegic brother
Yes, sir With a learning disability
Does he have a harelip, too?
No, sir
The first thing you said was true
Astonished, I said, It was?
You knoas
And what first thing was that, sir?
That the drug facilitated psychic powers for twelve hours
Twelve to eighteen Yes, I reht you would
That’s why you’re the chief of police
Don’t try sucking up to me, Harry
No, sir That wouldn’t ith you
I’d love to blow your face off
I can feel your passion, sir
You take a pill a day, he said
Yes, sir, a multivitamin
The psychic pill The tele-what pill
Telekinesis, sir
You take one a day
I guess I have to admit it, sir
Did that inkwell just un?
It’s in my face, sir
If that inkwell moves
Good-bye face Yes, sir
We had developed an intricate litany
You would have thought ere in a Catholic rectory
So you have to admit it, do you?
Yes, sir I have to admit it
So you have a supply of the pills
Yes, sir I have quite a supply
I want those pills
I should warn you, sir
Warn me what?
Telekinesis isn’t what it’s cracked up to be
Look at my face, Harry
I feel bad about that, sir
Shut up, shithead
Yes, sir
I think it’s everything it’s cracked up to be
One of the redheaded gunmen appeared in the doorway behind Hoss Shackett
Oh, Lordy, I said
Shackett grinned Soo, Mr Sinatra
I wished Mr Sinatra would deal with the redhead
But he had probably moved on to Paradise Just my luck
You’re in a corner now, aren’t you, Harry?
I can’t catch a break
The new arrival was the redhead with the methamphetamine teeth
Don’t try that trick withsomeone’s behind me
Someone is behind you, sir
So I’ll turn and look, and you’ll go for me
No, sir He’s a friend of yours, and no friend of un, Harry?
It’s in my face, sir
Give me your pills
I don’t have them with me, sir
Where are they?
In onna blow your face off, Harry
Not without those pills, sir
I’ll torture it out of you Don’t think I won’t
I haven’tme with the over-the-shoulder look
No reason to scam you, sir He’s really your buddy
The redhead disprovedHoss Shackett in the head
I let out an expletive that see with, not fro chief Staggering, I fell; and falling, I fell upon theexclaet off the dead worabbed at me, clutched me, and by the tiibbering like someone who had barely escaped the House of Usher or any other place of Poe’s creation
Get up, said the redhead
I’ with me?
Are you spastic?
Are you blind?
Don’t speak harshly to me, he said
Do you see all these dead people?
Do they bother you--dead people?
You have no idea, I said
They are just people, except dead
What--then I’hastly Yes, precisely
I had invented a neat organizational chart for these people The redheads were bottoement Shackett was at or near the top If I ever hosted a dinner party, I assumed I knew exactly how they should be seated
Instead, this redhead’s attitude suggested that he not only had the temerity to whack the chief but also the authority His rotten teeth seemed not to be proof of low status, after all, but perhaps a fashion choice
Do you have to point that gun at my head?
Would you prefer I point it at your chest?
Yes In fact, yes
You’ll be just as dead either way
But I’ll be a prettier dead this way
It’s loaded with door-busters
If you’re going to killto kill you
You’re not going to kill me?
Most likely, yes But one never knows
What do you want from me? I demanded
First, I want to talk to you
This never works out well
Have a seat
What--here?
On the sofa
I can’t talk with dead people
They will not interrupt
I’m serious about this I’m freaked out
Don’t speak harshly to me, he said
Well, you just don’t listen
That is unfair I listen I’ to