” Daniel scrunches his nose. “You have to come,” I say, refusing to give him the option. He hates parties. I pull him to me and kiss him. “Pr...mise you’ll be there,” I say, giving him my best puppy eyes. “Fine,” he says, unlocking his truck. I pull myself up and slide into the middle seat. *** I walk into my house to find my mom in the kitchen, pulling a fresh batch of cookies from the oven. She kisses my cheek and waves me to the dining room, where my brother is sitting on his computer, home. " Why?" I asked."Your dad found himself with three strikes against him. It was either this or a very long term in prison. 1. They found out he was doing some insider trading. 2. The money he used to do his trading belonged to the employees' pension plan and 3. I caught him in bed with his secretary."So with help of some friends I was able to keep your dad out of prison. On the condition that he would then transfer ownership to me and then become my maid Roberta. I paid back the entire pension. He was overwhelmed by the distinct odor of rotting flesh. It wasof an intensity that he had never witnessed before and it made him reel. Itwas too soon for the foul scent to be present. The only origin for the odorthat Conall could fathom was his adversary himself.The Formorian took advantage of Conall's distraction and thrust with hislong cruel spear. Conall managed to gather himself in time and shifted hisweight to his left. He raised his sword over his head brought it down withall the force. Sheila tried to call Cheryl the next day and found that her number had been discontinued. Sometime later a moving company came and packed up their house and took everything away. When we quizzed the guys loading the truck, they said they had been contracted to put all the items in storage.”“It was after they left that I found this.” He held out a DVD. “I don’t know if he left it on purpose, or it just fell out of a packing case, but it has hours of video surveillance in the house. You can see a.