“I tell him how he can contact his brother.” “Ahh,” said Mrs. Dunwiddy. She could disapprove with just that… — Neil Gaiman

Nothing good lasts forever, after all. Sooner or later, as Grahame Coats himself would have delighted in assuring you, even if your goose habitually lays golden eggs, it will still be cooked.

“You, Charles. The police suspect you.”

“Yes,” said Fat Charlie. “Of course they do. It’s been that sort of a day.”

Like all sentient beings, Fat Charlie had a weirdness quotient. For some days the needle had been over in the red, occasionally banging jerkily against the pin. Now the meter broke. From this moment on, he suspected, nothing would surprise him. He could no longer be outweirded. He was done.

He was wrong, of course.