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"And where the twins drowned," Wireman added
"That's the path they walked to get thereThe breeze tugged at our hairWe
looked at the path, still visible after all these
yearsLittle feet going down to swim hadn't done
thatA footpath between Heron's Roost and Shade
949
Beach would have disappeared in five years, maybe
only two
"That's no path," Jack said, reading my mind
"That used to be a roadNot paved, but a road,
just the sameWhy would anybody want a road
between their house and the beach, when it
couldn't have been more than a ten-minute walk?"
Wireman shook his head
"Edgar?"
"Not a clue
"Maybe he found more stuff on the bottom than just
a few trinkets," Jack said
"Maybe, replica tiffany jewelry but-" I caught movement in the tail of my
eye - something dark - and turned toward the house
"What is it?" Wireman asked
"Probably nerves," I said
The breeze, which had been coming at us from the
Gulf, switched slightly and puffed out of the
south insteadIt brought a stench of putridity
with it
Jack recoiled, grimacing"What the **** is that!"
950
"Perfume from the pool would be my guess," Wireman
said"Jack, I love the smell of sludge in the
morning
"Yeah, but it's afternoon
Wireman gave him a duh look, then turned to me
"What do you think, muchacho? On we go?"
I took a quick inventoryWireman had the red
basket; Jack had the bag with the food in it; I
had my art suppliesI wasn't replica rolex sure just what we
were going to do if the rest of Elizabeth's
drawings had blown away in the storm that had torn
the roof off the ruin just ahead (or if there were
no more pictures), but we had come this far and we
had to do somethingIlse insisted on that, from
my bones and heart
xii
We had reached the point where the driveway began
to be overgrown with strangler fig when I saw that
black thing go flickering through the high tangle
of weeds to the right of the houseThis time Jack
saw it, too
951
"Someone's there," he said
"I didn't see anyone," Wireman saidHe set down
the picnic basket and armed sweat from his brow
"Switch with me awhile, JackYou take the basket
and I'll pink prada handbag take the foodYou're young and strong
Wireman's old and used upHe'll die soo - holy
**** what's that!"
He staggered back from the basket and would have
fallen if I hadn't caught him around the waist
Jack shouted with surprise and horror
The man came bursting from the undergrowth just
ahead on our leftThere was no way he could have
been there - Jack and I had glimpsed him fifty
yards away only seconds before - but he wasHe
was a black man but not a human beingWe never
mistook him for an actual human beingFor one
thing, his legs, cocked and clad in blue breeches,
did not move as he passed in front of usNor did
he stir the thick mat of strangler fig springing
up all around himYet his white leather chanel handbag lips grinned; his eyes
rolled with jolly malevolenceHe wore a peaked
cap with a button on top, and that was somehow the
worst
952
I thought if I had to look at that cap for long,
it would drive me mad
The thing disappeared into the grass on our right,
a black man in blue breeches, about five and a
half feet tallThe grass was no more than five
feet high, and simple mathematics said he had no
business disappearing into it, but he did
A moment later he - it - was on the porch,
grinning at us like De Ole Family Retainer, and
then, with no pause, he - it - was at the bottom
of the steps, and once more darting into the weeds,
grinning at us all the time
Grinning at us from beneath its chanel bags wholesale |