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14

Time to make today my bitch

--T-SHIRT

I steered Misery in the general direction of south until we ca group of apartroup of apartments that made the first two look like the Ritz

"Charley’s House of Cards," I said intoin to the lot of the worst of the aparts

"Yost’s first as crenition to off "But her death was suspicious And they let him cremate her?"

"Apparently He had it done on the islands before he brought her back to the States"

"Why do these people not check with "

"Okay, let hborhood alive are nowhere near good"

"I knew it I should have coood luck"

I kept the phone toup A phoneme as I strode to apartment three It didn’t actually have a 3 on the door, but I was pretty good at counting in the single digits

I rapped on the door of one Mr Virgil Gibbs, and a thin e and abuse, answered He had dark hair and a graying beard

"Hi," I said when I got his attention He was busy looking at a group ofat me "My name is Charlotte Davidson, and I’m a private in--"

"Maybe you should come inside, sweetheart"

He stood back but kept a wary eye around us

"Okay" I was so going to die I stepped inside nonetheless He didn’t look super agile Surely I could outrun hi A couple empty beer bottles on an end table A television co out No dirty ashtrays, which surprised me Or underwear on the couch

"You want a beer?" he asked, the fact that he wasevident with the question

"No, thank you"

He stepped to the fridge to get one for himself "What did you say your name was?"

"Charlotte Davidson I’ off the cap and eyeing me with a squint of blue

"Yes, I’m a--"

"Well, if you don’t want a beer, what do you want?"

If he’d let h thisto the"Is old out there and it’d be safe They know not to mess hat’s mine"

"You seemed pretty worried abouthis disastrous collection of teeth "You ain’t mine, unfortunately But you’re inas you’re out of here before dark"

With several hours left in the day, I had every intention of being just that

"So, you ain’t selling anything?"