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10
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He fell asleep on the couch that night in his bathrobe, snoring. Hours had passed and it was morning.
Someone twisted the knob of his hotel room door. Mort stirred, then awakened. He looked toward the door, and put on his glasses. Reluctantly, he got up.
Someone knocked on the door. Mort made his way over to the door and opened it.
There, stood a man. He was dressed very plain and atop his head lay a large black hat. The style of hat you would commonly associate with the Amish.
"You stole my story," The man said. Mort was at a loss for words. "Well?" The man asked, a bit impatiently.
"I'm sorry.. do I.. I don't believe I know you," Mort fumbled.
"I know that. That doesn't matter. I know you, Mr. Corso. That's what matters. You stole my story," the strange man insisted.
Mort shook his head. Obviously the man was crazy. "You're mistaken...," he trailed off. Mort suddenly realized that the man could be referring to the copy of 'The Nine Gates'. Yes! This was the man who had broken into his hotel room yesterday. It had to be. But.. It was highly unlikely that a man would break into somewhere and then come back the next day and knock on the door. Even so, Mort did not rule out this man as a suspect.
"You stole it," The man said, breaking Mort from his thoughts.
"I can assure you that I--"
"I know you can. I know that. I don't want to be assured," The man insisted.
The bad feelings Mort had been experiencing previously had all rushed back now. What had Balkan left out of their conversation? Who was this man? Perhaps Balkan had stolen it from... No. The previous owner had been a Mr. Milner, but-- Maybe Milner had stolen it from this man?
Chico came over to the doorway and began to circle the strange man's legs.
"Alright. Look, Mr. Who ever you are, I don't like being accused of stealing, if that is in fact what you are accusing me of." Mort looked at the dog, "Chico, inside!"
The dog looked up at the strange man and went back into the room.
The man grinned at Mort. "I don't blame you for not liking it, but you did it. You stole my story," He repeated.
"You're going to have to leave. I have nothing more to say," Mort said, which really was the truth. There was nothing more to say. The man was not making any sense. Mort had stolen nothing-- Well.. at least not anything that had to do with the whole situation.
Mort began to shut the door, but the man put his hand in the way and held the door back.
"Yeah, I'll go. We'll talk more later," The man said, sounding very sure of himself that he would talk to Mort again later.
"Later?" Mort asked. "There won't be a later. I didn't steal your book and that's that. Case closed."
"It won't do you any good to play games with me, Mr. Corso. This has got to be settled," the man said.
"So far as I'm concerned, it is," Mort said, shut the door and quickly locked it. He stood with his back against the door, breathing slightly heavily. He was expecting the man to break the door down and come in after him.
Chico approached Mort and gave him a strange look. Mort returned the look.
He began to hear noises coming from outside. Mort waited against the door for a few minutes more, then he finally decided that he would open it up.
Mort opened the door and looked around, but he saw no one. He let out a long relieved breath and was about to go back inside, when he looked down and saw a rock at the doorway. And under the rock there was a paper. Mort gulped.
He bent down and picked the rock off of the piece of paper and moved it over to the side. Then he slowly raised the paper up to his view and studied it. It was a photocopy of one of the engravings from 'The Nine Gates'. On the engraving, there was a hermit with two keys in his hand and a dog and lantern beside.
Mort looked at it confusedly and then turned the paper over. There was something written on the back. Mort adjusted his glasses and peered at the paper. "Like our original keepers, after time the holy enriched kindness enters your soul. --John Shooter." Mort's face broke out into an utterly confused expression. He raised to his feet, walked back into the room and closed the door.
"Never seen you, pal," Mort said aloud to himself as he walked over to the couch. He stopped where he was suddenly. "Not only that, it doesn't even make any sense! 'Like our original keepers, after time the holy enriched kindness enters your soul'? What the hell kind of crazy talk is that!" Mort shouted.
He walked over to the garbage can and dumped the paper it into the trash.
"Now, where was I?" Mort asked aloud. He lay down on the couch and tossed around.
Chico gave him another one of those looks.