arrears. My offer settles your problems and gives me what 5
I need.” Bennet’s words and his bright blue eyes were 6
pure and innocent. But what he was telling me was that a 7
stranger could walk into my life and find out more about 8
me than my closest family and friends ever knew.
9
“How do you make your money, Mr. Bennet?”
10
“I’m an agent for a consortium of investment and oil 11
companies. I do research and reclamation work all through 12
the world.”
13
“Reclaiming what?”
14
“Wealth.” He said the word and it tickled him.
15
“No drugs or anything?”
16
He shook his head. His hands hadn’t moved and the 17
sunlight now shone on his forearms.
18
“You got the money on you?”
19
“In a brown paper bag in my trunk,” he said.
20
“So you hand over the money and I just wait for your 21
furniture and stuff ?”
22
He nodded.
23
“You really found out about my mortgage and house 24
and everything?”
25
“I’m a man who gets what he wants, Mr. Blakey. I want 26
your cellar and I’m willing to give you what you need.”
27 S
I couldn’t see anything wrong with a man wanting to be 28 R
a monk. I certainly didn’t have any problems with fifty
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The Man in My Basement
thousand dollars. But there was something, some formal-1
ity, an expectation from Bennet that made me feel this
retreat. I wanted to find the right question to ask, to pull 4
out the truth that he professed to believe in.
5
But I felt that it couldn’t go on much longer. If I said 6
no that day, then my chances would be over. The bank 7
wouldn’t give a petty embezzler a break on the mortgage.
