​            Framed in the doorway of a room and back-lit by a night-light was a man. The Glock came around by itself. He had to have seen the shaft of light from the storeroom, but he didn't move, just kept leaning forward awkwardly, staring at the pool. I couldn't see his expression, but his body language was that of total concentration. He was wearing shorts and a tee shirt, and his hair was big dark unkempt tangle, and he looked like a dog straining at the leash. I moved forward with the Glock aimed at him, but he didn't give me a glance, just stood there in the doorway leaning forward. When I got closer I saw that his ankles were shackled, tethered to something in the room behind him. He was a prisoner, and that was as far as he could go. When I got within a few yards of him I saw the face of a skinny toad, and I smelled him.

​“Excuse me — “

​“Get upstairs where you belong, can't you see I'm busy?”
            .... me looking at an attaché case, about to buy it, not sure exactly why. I knew some of the reasons, though. I’d never seen anything like it, and I happened to have the money, and it was a quirky access to power. At a lower price I might have bought it just because it was a really excellent case — black leather, solid and very well made. A little oversized, so you could use it for an overnight bag, and heavy, with the classic hardwood frame. Tan peccary interior, everything included — calculator, battery shaver, Pelikan writing set. Security via large brass combination lock. A tight ship. 
            It was the end of the Reagan years, a bad time for me. My job was gone, followed by my second wife, and my money was running out. I was investing in something different here. New York is attitude, and this piece of luggage had it. Not twelve hundred dollars worth, but that’s what I paid for it when I saw what it was. In the false bottom of this banker-faced artifact was a small green pistol with a remote firing mechanism and suppressor. It was set in diagonally, corner-to-corner, just right if you decided to gut someone in the middle of a disagreement.