Quagmire: Day 9

Word Count: 54,019

Summary of Events:

Jesse was watching his nieces, nephews, and siblings as they played outside when his youngest brother, Solomon, alerted him to a gangster's presence and he went to see what it was about; Georgia went to follow him and he had to rush to save her from being hit by a car; he then got into an argument with his oldest sister and left the party early. On his way home from dropping off an article for the evening edition of the Tribune Jesse ran into Robbie, who offered to give him a tour of the speakeasy they'd met at before, which featured a labyrinthine passage to throw off the police which was filled with hidden passageways that led to different rooms . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

""And here's the second last room," Robbie said, going to the left.

Jesse followed him inside and surveyed the room. It was full of crates and barrels of liquor.

"This is where we go when we're thirsty," Robbie said, chuckling. "It's connected via dumbwaiter with the upstairs. What we usually do is go down the chimney to the delivery room, down the stairs and through that door into here to fill the dumbwaiter."

"So you've got shortcuts between the rooms too?" Jesse asked.

"Yes," Robbie replied. "We don't want to have to count lightbulbs and go around in circles all the time."

"I guess that's true," Jesse said, following Robbie out again.

He counted to the eighty second lightbulb. The passage was to the right, and then down a long set of stairs and through another door to a room full of safes.

"This is the money counting room," Robbie said. "This is where the money from the collection room goes through these different chutes."

Jesse looked up at the ceiling to see different doors, each with a ring mounted under them to which a bag was fixed.

"We bag the money and count it at the end of the day and then stash it in the underground safe," Robbie said.

"If we go any further underground I think we'll reach the centre of the earth," Jesse said.

Robbie laughed. "I don't think we're quite that far."

"Why would you call it the underground safe, though?" Jesse asked.

"Because it's built into the floor," Robbie replied. "Only the money counting crew know exactly where it is."

"Oh," Jesse said, looking at the floor, trying to guess where the hole might be.

"This door leads up to the delivery room," Robbie said.

"And this is the last room, right?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah," Robbie replied. "But there's still a little bit left."

Robbie led the way out of the room and Jesse followed him along to the place where the stairs led up to the door into the main room.

"Because of the way you come up to this you don't see the stairs right away, but you finally see a door," Robbie said. "So a lot of people will go through the door and then up the spiral staircase to the back alley, not seeing a thing and being horribly disoriented."

Jesse nodded and followed Robbie up the straight stairs into the main room.

"That's a lot of stuff down there," Jesse said.

"Well, this is essentially headquarters for us, we like to keep everything together if we can," Robbie said. "Come let's have something."

Jesse followed him across the room and reached in his pocket for some coins. He was grateful to note that a different woman was running the bar, although she looked like she was just as happy to see him as the other girl had been."