He had big hands, and he’d grown wider in the intervening years; he was no longer a lanky thirtysomething, but a guy in his late fifties. He was half-perched on the stool Ginger had pulled over, the gun on his knee, his finger still curved around the trigger. One of his feet was settled firmly on the floor, the other resting on the stool’s rung.

“I stole a floppy disk back then. Out of an envelope in your car... Do you still have that old piece-of-shit BMW?”

Did the expression on his face change? She thought she saw something like fear, and then it was gone.

He cracked his neck, and there it was: Rainy could see it. A cataract of anger dropped over his eyes again. All traces of his earlier amusement were gone. He was getting with the program, seeing his rival for the first time.

“I think you wanted to kill me yourself, didn’t you? That’s why you’re here today. I got away back then and you saw my call for help as a way to help yourself...to me?”

“You’ve drugged me. How?”

She reached behind her back and began to braid her hair. The steaks were really cooking now, probably past well-done. The meat smelled good, wild. Or maybe she felt wild.

“Anger, as it turns out, is an even greater medium to work with than metal. My anger bends the material as much as the heat does.” She flipped the half-braided hair over her shoulder, her fingers moving rhythmically as she finished. “Can you hand me that, please?” She pointed to a rubber band on the table in front of him.

Taured’s face was slack. He picked up the rubber band, looked at it, then held it across the table toward her. He wasn’t as sloppy as she needed him. The drug was present, but hadn’t taken full effect yet. The band was a little thing, pinched between his fingers. She reached across casually and took it from him, holding his eyes. He had hunted her for years. Well, this was hunting, too.

“You took my glass,” she said, lightly turning her back to him. “I softened some quaaludes for you in my mouth and spat them in.” She stopped, looked over at him with her face scrunched up. “I promise you I’m not the first person to spit in your drink.”

She finished tying off her braid and looked at him like a woman who was ready for a drink.

“I met your son, you know, while I was posturing over in Friendship, trying to get you to notice me. Marvin, I assume, let you know I was in town...”

The steaks were smoking now. The air smelled charred.

Taured stood up.