28 R
He leaped to his feet also.
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The Man in My Basement
“That’s not fair!” he cried, a bit playfully.
1
“Yes it is. You lied. I already know that you murdered 2
that soldier in North Vietnam. Either you lied then or 3
you are now.”
4
“I did not lie on either count,” Bennet complained. “I 5
never said that I murdered that soldier. I said that I killed 6
him, shot him actually. But I was ordered to do so by a le-7
gal representative of the government. I no more murdered 8
that soldier than an executioner murders a condemned 9
man.”
10
“You said that you broke every commandment,” I ar-11
gued. But I realized before I finished that the command-12
ment says
13
“Are you a lawyer, Mr. Bennet?” I asked.
14
“No. I have no formal training as a lawyer and neither 15
have I taken or passed the bar in any state or nation.”
16
“What did you steal?”
17
“Only one thing,” he said. “It was years ago, in the sev-18
enties in a villa outside of Rio de Janeiro. A painting that 19
was just there leaning up against the wall in a poorly lit 20
hallway that no one went into much. It was in a rich 21
man’s house. I was newly out of Asia and looking for a 22
shipping connection outside the U.S. that would be will-23
ing to move what some saw as contraband. The man who 24
owned the house also owned a dozen ships. Not big ships 25
but big enough for my purposes. But it wasn’t working 26
out. The man either wanted too much or was scared and S 27
asked for too much, so I would have to abandon my ef-R 28
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Walter Mosley
1
forts. I stayed a day or two too long. His daughter hated 2
him. She would come up to my room every night and 3
make love to me and tell me how much she hated him.
4
She was the one who showed me the painting.
