title: Die Laughing!: Lighthearted Views of a Grave Situation
author: Steve Mickle
description: Mickle holds a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. His career began in advertising. He worked 1973-1977 with Rich Hillman; they started writing this book. Hillman died. Today, Steve is a portrait artist and lives with his wife Kyle Edgell, a caricature entertainer and illustrator for this book. When not writing about death, Mickle cheats it on his vintage motorcycle.
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  * * *
  
  Not So Innocent
  
  By
  
  Laura Lee Guhrke
  
  * * *
  
  Chapter One
  
  ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  ![](images/00001.jpg)![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  London,1897
  
  When he awoke on the morning of May 28, Mick Dunbar was not a happy man. Today
  was his birthday, his thirty-sixth birthday, and he had to face the bitter
  fact that he wasn't so young anymore.
  
  On this particular morning, he even felt old. His shoulder ached from that
  bullet wound ten years back, he seemed to have more gray in his dark hair than
  he'd had the night before, and shaving off his mustache didn't make him look
  any younger. Mick knew it was going to be a long day.
  
  The moment he arrived at Scotland Yard, he saw that the birthday jokes had
  already begun. His office was empty. His desk, his chairs, his case files were
  gone. Even the commendations he'd received in his career were no longer
  hanging on the wall.
  
  "Thacker!" he shouted, watching as his sergeant came running from the large
  room that served as the main offi