Taking a deep breath, she steadied the platter in one hand, gripped the wine pitcher in the other, and stepped through the door onto the bridge spanni...g across to the roof of the slave tower.The guard patrolling the roof watched her approach. Amber offered a shy smile and glanced up from the floor. She held the platter of cups out.“The Baroness is feeling generous and bade me offer a taste of the celebration.”The man leered at her. “Just the wine or something else?”“Just wine, sir.” She replied. Depends on what gramma gives me this year: clothes or money."Dad laughed at that. "Sounds good," he said. "If you want, I'll go with you car shopping." Dad was a big guy, over six feet tall and wide. He'd been a linebacker in high school. He'd gotten a shoulder injury in his senior year, but he always shrugs it off and says he never had hopes for college ball. But he was a big, intimidating guy. I was sure he'd put the scare into Amy's future boyfriends."I'd like that, Dad," I said. We spent a. Building manager unlocked the door for him, but the chain was in place, so they called us. The patrolman who responded to the call broke the chain, found the body and called the coroner."Tom followed Mark to the elevator and waited while Mark found and pressed the button for the tenth floor. "Has anyone talked to the manager?" Yeah. Nothing there. Said the victim was always quiet, paid his rent in advance. Yadda. Yadda." What do we know about the victim?" Name is Lawrence Eugene Scripps.. Tomorrow it will all be over and I will be closing another chapter in my life, I thought. Then I had one of those wild swings of thought that only a mentally ill person has. I'm a fucking millionaire and I just had a cold greasy hamburger for dinner. I looked at the almost warm can of diet coke and I almost lost it.I poured a healthy shot of the green dragon into the almost warm can of coke and then I had a healthy drink. Well maybe it was an unhealthy drink, but either way it seemed to make me.