The following day, Grandino woke up with a headache. The truth was he had drunk too many glasses of whiskey the night before. Probably because of this weird phone call he had received. Probably out of boredom too. Spain was certainly a nice place when you were not hiding from the police. Ten in the morning passed and he had almost all forgotten about it. Then he grasped a bunch of keys, unlocked his door and walked down the three flights of stairs to the main entrance of the building. There he opened his letter box. There was nothing inside except a small parcel, with no indication whatsoever on it. Grandino hastily climbed up the stairs back to his flat, locked up his door, and placed the small wrapped bundle on the kitchen table. He hesitated for a while then resolved to open it. Inside was an oyster knife and a tiny brown paper envelope . The small black handle of the instrument seemed to offer itself to Grandino's hand. He first opened the envelope, though. The card he found read "Mat. 18:9" in black print, upper case. Grandino walked to his bedroom and, from an Ikea bookshelf on a wall, seized a copy of the Bible ("placed by the Gideons") he had once stolen from a B&B in Brighton. He rapidly discovered what he sought in Matthew: "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire." Grandino had no culture whatsoever. Even his spelling was far from being correct. But he could recognize trouble on sight. And it was clearly visible right now. And it was indeed a matter of still being capable of seeing.
****
Kowalski and Misty were having a bath together. They would have one after sex. They liked being comfortable, and they generally chose their hotels with regard to the size of the bathtub. The Don Quixote Hotel in Marbella was all right from this point of view. Four stars, the leaflet said. Three was closer to the truth. But it was all right. As he was gently stroking Misty's pussy, Kowalski smiled:
"I think the other one was good enough, too. Don't you honey? What was it exactly? 'Why, then the world's mine oyster which I with sword will open.'"
"Well... yes. But the moron's never heard of Shakespeare, darling. And he would not have understood the allusion."
Misty and Kowalski had culture. It was even their trademark.
"Darling...," Misty said.
"Yes, cara mia?"
"I love the taste of your seminal fluid".
"I can easily reurn the compliment to you".
Misty rose, ran both hands through her reddish hair and stepped over the bathtub:
"Back to business now. I'm sure you don't want the chinga to cool down, do you?"
