Rosemary & Some Other Bramford Tenants, 1968

“I am not saying,” Hutch said,“that you will walk into the Bramford and be hit on the head with a piano or eaten by spinsters or turned to stone. I am simply saying that the record is there and ought to be considered along with the reasonable rent and the working fireplace: the house has a high incidence of unpleasant happenings. Why deliberately enter a danger zone? Go to the Dakota or the Osborne if you’re dead set on nineteenth century splendor.”

“The Dakota is co-op,” Rosemary said,“and the Osborne’s going to be torn down.”

“Aren’t you exaggerating a little bit, Hutch?” Guy said.“Have there been any other ‘unpleasant happenings’ in the past few years? Besides that baby in the basement?”

“An elevator man was killed last winter,” Hutch said.“In a not-at-the-dinner-table kind of accident. I was at the library this afternoon with the Times Index and three hours of microfilm; would you care to hear more?”