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Friday, December 31st, 2010
| Time |
Event |
| 2:27a |
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but maybe there was a whole chicken in
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but maybe there was a whole chicken in thereAnd
maybe a few bottles of beer for ole massa, as well
- a little reward after he'd finished his day's
dives"What color would you say that hamper is?
Dark brown? Or is it red?"
Wireman gave me a strange look"In a black-andwhite
photograph, it's hard to tell
"Tell me how the storm led to the deaths of the
little girls
He opened the folder again and handed me an old
news story with an accompanying photograph"This
is from the Venice Gondolier, March 28th, 1927I
got the original info on the netJack Cantori
called the paper, got someone to make a copy and
shoot me a faxJack's terrific, by the way
"No argument there," I said
"Who are these girls? No - don't tell meThe one
on his left's MariaHannah's on his rightHannah's the one with breastsShe was
fourteen in '27
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We studied the fax sheet in silence for a few
momentsE-mail would have been betterThe fax
had annoying dark vertical lines running through
it, blurring some of the print, but the headline
was clear enough: STORM PROVES TREASURE-HUNTING
BOON TO AMATEUR DIVERAnd the picture was clear
enough, tooEastlake's hairline had receded a
littleAs if to compensate, his narrow
bandleader's mustache was now closer to a walrus
And although he was still wearing the same black
bathing singlet, it was now under severe stress
and actually popped under one arm, I thought,
although the picture's resolution wasn't quite
good enough to be certainIt appeared Dad
Eastlake had packed on some pork between 1925 and
1927 - the B-movie actor would have trouble
getting roles if he didn't start skipping desserts
and doing more work in the g | | 2:31a |
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"I wish I had known her in her
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"I wish I had known her in her prime
739
"Can I do anything for your family?"
"No," I said"They're having dinner with Dario
and Jimmy and the whole state of MinnesotaI'll
join them later if I can - maybe for dessert - and
I'm booked into the Ritz, where they're all
stayingIf nothing else, I'll see them in the
morning
Pam actually seemed more understanding now than
before the divorceOf course now I was down here
painting and not up there yelling at herOr
trying to staff her with a butter-fife
"I'm going to praise your show to the skies, Edgar
I doubt if that means much to you tonight, but
perhaps it will later onThe paintings are just
extraordinary
Ahead, the lights of the hospital were twinkling
in the darkThere was a Waffle House right next
doorIt was probably good business for the
cardiac unit
"Will you give Libby my love, if she's in any
condition to take note of such things?"
740
"Sure
"And I have something for youIt's in the glove
compartmentI was going to use
it to bait the hook for a follow-up interview, but
fuck it
I had some problems with the old car's glove
compartment button, but finally the little door
fell open like a corpse's mouthThere was a lot
more than a manila envelope in there - a geologist
could have taken core-samples probably going back
to 1965 - but the envelope was in front, and it
had my name printed on it
As she pulled up in front of the hospital, in a
spot marked 5 MINUTES PICK-UP AND DROP-OFF, Mary
said: "Prepare to be amazedAn old copyeditor
friend of mine chased that down for me -
she's older than Libby, but still sharp
I bent back the clasps and slid out two Xeroxed
sheets of an ancient newspaper story"That," Mary
said, "is from the Port Charlotte Weekly EchoIt's got to be the story my friend
Aggie saw, and the reason I could never find it is
because I never looked as far south as Port
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Charlot |
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