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20

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Mort went into the next room, shooing away the smoke from his cigarette. "It's my personal business, Mrs. Garvey. Thank you very much. My personal business," Mort said, angrily as he made his way over to the couch. He looked down and saw that the pillows were out of place. That stupid Mrs. Garvey!

"Oh! My pillows now," He yelled, throwing the pillows off the couch and onto the floor. He lay down on his side on the couch and cringed at the thought of Mrs. Garvey touching his belongings. She was so old. She probably was very dirty... Oh my god! I bet she doesn't wash her hands after she uses the washroom! Mort suddenly thought and almost gagged.

"Her sticky weird fingers on my privacy," he muttered.

Mort sighed. "I don't know where to begin in this whole.. mess," he muttered and closed his eyes. He turned so that he was lying on his back. "No idea at all..," he muttered, sleepily. His eyes felt so heavy. He couldn't control them anymore. He began to drift off to sleep.

He started to dream... The door of the hotel room shook and rattled uncontrollably. Then 'John Shooter' stepped into the room in a hazy glow... The phone rang. Mort awoke, forgetting his surroundings and so on. "Wha--? Mm..," He asked in a daze. He sat up wearily and searched for the phone.

The phone rang again. Mort stood up, brought the phone to the couch, lay back down and answered. "Hello?" He said.

"Hello Mort," a female voice said.

Mort groaned, realizing who it was. Oh god, no.

"Are you alright?" The voice asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be alright?" Mort replied.

"I don't know. You're up there all alone. Anything can happen and nobody would know," The voice explained.

"I'd know," Mort assured.

"Right," The voice said restlessly, then sighed. "Hey, hey. How's my little baby puppy? Did Chico ever get those cataracts removed?" She asked.

Mort scowled at her. "Why did you call, Amy? What do you want?" Mort asked, in an annoyed tone.

Amy began to explain the nature for her call, "I had one of those feelings I get. I know you think they're stupid, and you don't believe them but I believe them and um..."

Mort scowled once more and strangled the phone.

"...I was making a sandwich and I had this sensation that you might not be okay. I held off as long as possible, um but then I couldn't anymore so here I am," Amy explained.

"Well, I don't know what to tell you except I'm fine," Mort said.

"Nothing weird happened or anything?" Amy asked.

Nothing weird? Hell, pretty much everything weird was happening ever since he had laid his eyes upon 'The Nine Gates.'

He hesitated before speaking again, but decided that he had to say something. "Do you remember Balkan?" He asked, knowing that Amy knew Balkan fairly well. He had done business with Mort plenty of times while Amy was still married to him.

But Amy responded differently than Mort had expected. "Who?" She asked.

Was she trying to be cute or did she really not remember Balkan?

"Boris Balkan. You know, the one who collects books... about the uh.. devil?" Mort explained.

"Not one of my favorite clients of yours..," Amy said.

"That's good to know," Mort said, cynically.

Amy laughed, "Well, he's kind of hostile, don't you think?" Amy asked.

Mort sat up from the couch and grabbed the phone. "Gee, I miss your opinions about my clients, I really do," Mort said, once more cynically. He was feeling in a big ol' cynical mood right now.

"What about the him, Mort?" Amy asked.

Mort went over to the mini fridge. "Well, he um.. he hired me for a new assignment," Mort explained.

"And what's so strange about that?" Amy asked.

Mort returned to the couch with a can of Mountain Dew and dropped the phone on the coffee table. He wiped the can with his sleeve and blew on the top.

"It's really.. complicated. He wants me to investigate one of his books that supposedly raises the devil.. and now everything's going haywire and..," He stopped. Why was he telling this to Amy? She didn't care. And even if she did, it was none of her business anymore. He had no obligation to tell her anything about the whole situation.

"The devil? Mort, what's been happening?" Amy asked, now sounding concerned.

"I don't know," Mort said.

"What do you mean 'You don't know'? Mort. What is wrong?" Amy demanded.

"Look, forget it," Mort said.

"Did something happen to you?" Amy persisted.

"Forget it. Please, please. Just forget it. Come on. How's Ted?" Mort asked, switching the subject. He knew Amy would forget about what Mort had slipped out and go off on him about Ted instead. She always did.

Amy sighed. "He's fine."

"I was thinking that he and I should get together sometime, have a drink because you know, we've been to a lot of the same places," Mort said, smiling.

"You know what? I gotta go," Amy said.

Mort sensed her being uncomfortable and felt good about himself. "So do I."

"Okay."

"Is he there?" Mort asked. He hated Ted. He hated the man who had stolen his wife. One of these days he'd rip Ted a new...

"No. We're not together," Amy said.

Mort was amazed. In his mind he had pictured that Amy and Ted were strutting around his old house naked. Engaging in foul acts on every available surface-- Wait a second.. that was him. Him and Liana yesterday, at least. Boy, was that fun. A smile broke out over Mort's face, remembering the other day.

Then he remembered the lovely souvenirs Liana had ever so kindly left him before she had left. He touched the cut on his head from where she had struck him with the bottle. It still hurt. A lot.

"Wow. Well.. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't on the verge of doing Snoopy dances. Heh," Mort said. Which was the truth. It bugged him inside when he thought of Amy loving a man other than him. But now that Amy and Ted were broken up, perhaps he would be able to get back together with her. But.. he highly doubted that he could. It had taken him months just to be able to stand in the same room as her, therefore he assumed that he'd never be able to love her the same way as he did ever again.

"No, Mort," Amy said and sighed.

Mort became confused. Hadn't she just said that they were not together?

He unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it away from his chest and inspected the second souvenir of Liana. A red mark on his chest in the shape of teeth stared out at him. Damn that Liana!

"What I meant was, we're not together at the moment. He's coming over later. He hardly ever comes here, I usually go to his house," Amy continued.

Mort buttoned his shirt back up and smiled. "There's a useful detail. Thanks for that," he said in the cynical tone and lay back down on the couch.

Amy looked out the window of the house and saw Ted's car pulling up the drive. Oowee, Teddy was here! "Don't ask, then. It was working just fine that way," She said, annoyed by Mort's tone.

"I think you should have him over to the house more. Such a nice house, I like it, I mean I love it. That's why I bought it," Mort said, cynical as usual.

Ted walked up to the front door of the house and waited for her to answer the door but she was still on the phone with Mort who was being a jerk. What, oh, what could she do?

"Goodbye, Mort," Amy said.

"Goodbye, Amy," Mort said, somewhat sadly. He was so lonely.

Both hung up.

Mort sat up from the couch and placed his head in his hands. "Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid," he scolded.