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how filthy, freezing, and inappropriate their new living quarters were, nothing else seemed clear at all. "We wanted to use the Library of Records to learn more about Jacques Snicket," Violet said, "but we might end up learning more about ourselves. What in the world do you think is written about us in that file Hal mentioned?" "I don't know," Klaus replied, "and I don't think Hal knows, either. He said he doesn't read any of the files." "Seerg," Sunny said, which meant "And I was afraid to ask him any more about it." "Me, too," Violet said. "We simply can't call attention to ourselves. Any minute now, Hal could learn that we're wanted for murder, and we'd be dragged off to jail before we learned anything more." "We've already escaped from one jail cell," Klaus said. "I don't know if we could do it again." "I thought that if we had a chance to look over these pages from Duncan's and Isadora's notebooks," Violet said, "we would find the answers to our questions, but the Quagmires' notes are very difficult to read." Klaus frowned, and moved a few fragments of the Quagmire pages around as if they were pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. "The harpoon gun tore these pages to shreds," he said. "Look what Duncan has written here: 'Jacques Snicket worked for V.F.D., which stands for Volunteer--' and then it's ripped, right in the middle of the sentence." "And on this page," Violet said, picking up a page I cannot bear to think about, "it reads, "In photographs, and in each public place, Snicket rarely shows his face. "Isadora must have written that one--it's a rhyming couplet." "This scrap says 'apartment,'" Klaus said, "and has what looks like half of a map. That might have to do with the apartment where we lived with Jerome and Esme Squalor." "Don't remind me," Violet said, shuddering at the thought of all the misfortune the children had encountered at 667 Dark Avenue. "Rabave," Sunny said, pointing to one of the pieces of paper. "This page has two names on it," Violet said. "One name is Al Funcoot." "That's the man who wrote that horrible play Olaf forced us to perform," Klaus said. "I know," Violet said, "but the other name I don't recognize: 'Ana Gram.'" "Well, the Quagmires were researching Count Olaf and his sinister plot," Klaus said. "Maybe Ana Gram is one of Olaf's associates." "It's probably not the hook-handed man," Violet said, "or the bald man with the long nose. Ana is not usually a man's name." "It could be the name of one of the white-faced women," Klaus said. "Orlando!" Sunny said, which meant "Or the one who looks like neither a man nor a woman." "Or someone we haven't even met yet," Violet said with a sigh, and turned her attention to another piece of paper. "This page isn't ripped at all, but all it has on it is a long list of dates. It looks like something was going on every twelve weeks or so." Klaus picked up the smallest piece and held it up for his sisters to see. Behind his glasses his eyes looked very sad. "This piece just says 'fire,'" he said quietly, and the three Baudelaires looked down sadly at the dusty floor. With any word, there are subconscious associations, which simply means that certain words make you think of certain things, even if you don't want to. The word "cake," for example, might remind you of your birthday, and the words "prison warden" might remind you of someone you haven't seen in a very long time. The word "Beatrice" reminds me of a volunteer organization that was swarming with corruption, and the word "midnight" reminds me that I must keep writing this chapter very quickly, or else I will probably drown. But the Baudelaires had all sorts of subconscious associations with the word "fire," and none of them were pleasant to think about. The word made the children think of Hal, who had mentioned something about the Snicket fires that afternoon in the Library of Records. "Fire" made the youngsters think of Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, who had lost their parents and their brother, Quigley, in a