All in all, this makes you of no particular value to me.” He paused to let the implications sink in. “Hamish pointed out that you have been on two...outside jobs with him and performed well and not caused any problems with the customers so that is a point in your favour. As you may know, Hamish is now a voluntary slave and could leave my service if he gives a month’s notice but as yet, he hasn’t sufficient funds.” She didn’t know this but wasn’t given time or the opportunity to question it.. She buzzed around the kitchen, the two of them talking non stop.We drove into town around noon, I followed Alexis and her mother in and out of different shops, they were having a great time. We ate at a nice restaurant in town, then did some more shopping. Alexis bought her mother a few articles of clothing, even though the woman objected the entire time. I could tell though, Mai was proud of Alexis, her daughter was a very beautiful, successful business woman. We finally arrived back at her. As long as she wasn’t emailing Fisher. But she failed at keeping her decision a secret from him. One night during a particularly loud fight, she couldn’t keep her mouth shut any longer. ‘Do whatever you want. We’re leaving.’ He was stunned into momentary silence. ‘You’re what?’ ‘Leaving. Moving out. Getting away from you. You have no right to treat me the way you do, and I’m tired of our girls seeing it. We are leaving.’ ‘You can’t do that.’ He started to cry, crocodile tears as usual. ‘You. ..” John said, holding out his arms, “here we are.”Billie suddenly looked a lot more sober as he said, “Philip, you seem to know a lot about this. You’re the one working on a degree in the occult arts. Can you tell us what happened?”“My degree,” Philip replied, “is in Ancient Mythology and Rituals, and I think somebody gave you all some magic mushrooms.”“But you knew about the star and the snakes,” John said firmly. “You KNOW what happened, don’t you?”“Yes, I know about the star... and the.