«Yes … sure,» Ray said, his mind going inevitably to Sally's worried questions, nothing in writing? You only have his word for it? He felt curiously light and hollow, as if the support had been knocked out of him. How could he tell her? How could he ever tell Sally?

«Have you, uh,» he cleared his throat, «have you set a price?»

Blodgett settled himself firmly in the wooden chair and tilted the creaking piece of furniture back on two legs. «Well,» he crunched the ice from his drink loudly between his teeth, «I'm thinking in the neighborhood of fifty thousand, Ray.»

«F-fifty?»

«Think about the inventory. You know yourself what's sitting here in the inventory.»

Ray knew. He also knew that much of it, including the last big drug order, was not paid for yet. Still – perhaps it was a fair price. Although it seemed an astronomical sum, especially since Blodgett had promised to make him a partner as soon as he had $5000. By putting $200 in the bank every month, he had already saved $2800, he was more than halfway there … but now he wondered whether Blodgett would have held to the bargain, after all? «B-but, John, over the next few years your profits from the store will be much more than that. I can run everything – you wouldn't have to spend any time here at all unless you wanted to.

«There's something in what you say,» the big man admitted, «only the thing is, Ray, that I'll be spending my winters in Florida from now on … buyin' myself one of these condominium apartments right on the beach, and me and Lauralee are fixin' to go down there just as soon as l get everything straightened out here. Now those apartments cost a heap of money and I got to raise some cash … ever'body thinks I'm a real rich son of a bitch … I don't complain, but the fact is it's all tied up in real estate. Naturally we couldn't sell the farm – it's the old Quigg place, belonged to Lauralee's folks since God knows when – and we'll live there summers or whenever we take a notion to come back to town. And like I already said, I don't want to part with any property in the business district. 'Bout the only thing left is this drugstore.»