CHAPTER 21

I woke up on the floor. The lights were still out, the house quiet. I could hear a truck grinding its gears down the block, felt a breeze from an open window, and saw a sliver of sunlight bouncing off a vanity mirror. I got up slowly and took inventory. Some burns for sure, and my shoulder was tender from the Taser. I was alive, however, and that put me one step ahead of the corpse cooling a floor below. I threw some water on my face and took a walk over to the window.

This is where my guy had gone out, probably along the roofline and then dropped down into the yard. Why he didn’t kill me, I didn’t know. Maybe he thought he had. What he was after was an even better question.

I went back downstairs. A clock on the wall told me it was late afternoon. I’d been out more than a while. I tiptoed through a half-dozen cats and back into the dining room. Mulberry was still sitting in the alcove, still very much dead. Oskar glided past me again and jumped up on the desk. He stared at his owner for a moment, then started to lick at the blood on her face. I figured it was time to go.

Two blocks later I pulled into a White Hen and bought some aspirin, water, and coffee. Then I drove another couple of blocks, found a pay phone, and called in the body.

As I drove home I thought about the landlady, the touch of greed behind her eyes, and wondered if she didn’t invite death across her threshold. Then I pulled a phone number from my pocket. My head hurt, but not too bad. It had already been a long day, and no one was waiting at home to cook me dinner or bandage my wounds. I figured a drink could only help. And I knew just the place.