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“Let o,” Jack said reasonably, “and we’ll talk about this like adults”

“Well, I can’t do that now, can I? Not when you said you o If you’d kept your mouth shut ouldn’t be in this mess Now I have to think of an alternative plan”

She bit her lip as she dru purple nails on the arm of the chair In the back of his mind Jack knew that one day this would be funny One day Not now

“How about I promise not to harm you and you untie me?”

“Why should I trust you? You were breaking into my house”

His jaw clenched

“It’s my house, lady”

His crazy tenant leaned forward and rested her forearernail at him

“See, it’s that attitude that led you into a life of cris to you It’s just” She cast around for the right word “Rude,” she said at last

Jack stared in disbelief at her perfect oval face, with its cat-like green eyes and bow shaped lips, and kneith certainty, that she was a few sandwiches short of a picnic

“I inherited this house,” he said in the voice he used to disarers

“You can’t have, the landlady isn’t dead”

“You need to read your mail more often”

He nodded towards the pile of unopened bills stacked inside the front door

His captor tottered over to the letters and flicked through them She discarded most of them, but ripped open a cream envelope Her shoulders slumped He almost smiled