“Have you spent my money?” Bennet asked.
9
“I’ll give you back what I have and then repay the rest.”
10
“You need money, Charles. Why not take it when you 11
can?”
12
“What do you know about me? What do you know 13
about what I need?”
14
“Everything.” He smiled and nodded.
15
“Like what?”
16
“I know where you went to high school and who your 17
friends were. Clarance and Ricky, who you also call Cat.
18
I know that you worked at Harbor Savings and that 19
you embezzled four hundred and thirty dollars from your 20
drawer . . .”
21
Whiskey softened the blow. I wondered if it was part of 22
Bennet’s plan to get me drunk.
23
“. . . The bank president, who liked you at first, felt be-24
trayed, and blacklisted you among the town business com-25
munity. Your mother and father are dead and no one else in 26
your family is much interested in your well-being. You 27 S
drink too much and you cried for five days after your 28 R
mother’s death. You had three years at Long Island City
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ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 123
The Man in My Basement
College. But you dropped out, didn’t you? I don’t know 1
why you left. You had passing grades.” Bennet peered at me 2
with a Milquetoast expression on his face. “You’re broke, 3
you don’t have a job, and there’s a thirty-thousand-dollar 4
mortgage hanging over your head that might lose your line 5
their home.”
6
“Where the hell did you get all that?”
7
“There’s a man who used to work for me, a Filo Nunn.
8
He now has a job for the investigation division of Mor-9
ganthau and Haup.”
10
“Who’s that?”
11
“You wouldn’t know, Charlie, but the bank president 12
did. He started stuttering when Nunn got on the line. He 13
