The Man in My Basement

killed by a falling beam at a construction site. A hy-24

draulic lift went out of control.

25

Stew had the man working the lift murdered. Then he 26

started making crazy decisions on the job. He took chances 27 S

and left clues of our coming. He spent hours sitting in 28 R

the dark like you made me do for days.

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The Man in My Basement

I went to his home one night while his wife was away 1

visiting their daughter. I came in a window and shot him 2

in the head. He was napping. His head was down on a 3

mahogany desk in the study. I shot him and it wasn’t 4

murder. He had killed himself as far as I was concerned.

5

I sat with him all night watching his blood congeal and 6

his skin tighten. I knew then (seventeen years ago) that 7

one day I would have to die like that. I decided to do it 8

myself rather than leave it for someone else.

9

But I couldn’t have done it without you, Charles. You 10

gave me the time to say good-bye. The rest of your 11

money is in a false bottom of my book trunk.

12

13

Tamal

14

15

The next few hours were the hardest I ever knew. The 16

man in my basement was dead. A corpse that I could 17

never explain. I sat with him all day and into the next 18

night. When it was late I went out into the graveyard and 19

dug a hole between my great-great-grandfather William P.

20

Dodd and my aunt Theodora. I dug all night long, won-21

dering if Miss Littleneck was hiding in the bushes, spying 22

on my crime.

23

I covered the hole with two doors that I took off the 24

hinges of the two toilets in my house. The next night I dug 25

some more. The hole was as deep as I am tall before I 26

dragged the board-stiff corpse from my basement. I rolled S 27

him in and covered him over. There was no ceremony.

R 28

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Walter Mosley

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