I opened the bottle first and chugged it down a good inch. It burned the shit out of my ulcer, but felt perfect flowing into my brain. I could feel my heart rate steady. I grabbed the purse, unclasped it, and then dumped the contents onto my desk blotter. Contents as follows: a handkerchief with the initials AMN embroidered in the corner, a Prada wallet of matching red leather, a keychain with one sort of bulky key on it, some scattered change, and some lint.

I picked up the wallet. It folded open long-ways. First, I found her ID and saw her picture. She was gorgeous. Dark hair, full lipped and eyes that said; “I’m really rich and beautiful so forget I am a loser.”

Her name was Annette Miles Newman, which meant nothing to me. The ID was new, only about two weeks old. There were a ton of credit cards and a little cash. I took it. I took everything out and as I pulled out the last plastic card, a bus ticket stub fell onto the blotter. It said Arizona.

Now, that was strange. What would a woman with as much dough as she obviously had be doing with a bus ticket? And from Arizona, no less. Who the fuck would live in Arizona?

I looked at everything in front of me. It all, except for the stub, looked pretty straight. Then I noticed the key. I picked it up. It was plastic, not flexible toy plastic, but hard and smooth. That was strange, but it was probably some rich-people thing. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been rich. I put the plastic key in my pocket just in case. Then I gathered all the stuff and threw it into a plastic bag.

Mo’Lock was mopping away, but didn’t really seem to be making much progress. “Hey, why don’t you just let the little fuck lick it up?”

I was joking, but the ghoul didn’t get the joke. He nodded, impressed with the idea and went to the bathroom and opened the door. The thing came waddling out. It was bigger, almost a foot bigger, and its body had a lot more bulk. It looked at me. I gave it the finger.

Mo’Lock gave its head a little push toward the floor. It fought at first, but then after sniffing the pools, began lapping them up. It was disgusting watching the thing go at it, but it was doing the trick.

Mo’Lock smiled at me. “Good idea, Cal.”

I wanted to throw up again. Let the little fuck lick that up.