章 113: Chapter 113

He grinned at me. “If you say so, Mark.”

WE STILL HAD A few hours of daylight left when I drove the WGES pickup down 10th Street NW. I let it idle just outside the gates that blocked the driveway to Gautier’s DC building. It had been a federal style row house at one time. Now, though…Ugliest fucking building I had ever seen.

Going by the neighboring houses, any grace and class it had once possessed had been erased from it. The brick had been covered by stucco, the wrought iron railing that had framed the elegant little staircase had been replaced by cinder blocks, and the windows were all covered with metal shutters. The house that had once adjoined the property had been torn down and replaced by a broad driveway that led to the rear of the grounds.