He looks in the GreenGirl windows from across the street and heads impulsively toward it. As he passes the window to go in, he glimpses the familiar curly red hair.

What?

Impossible.

Did he imagine it?

The past has reared up suddenly, more vivid, red…He’s so confused.

Meaty hands are quickly on his shoulders, pulling him out of the GreenGirl doorway onto the street.

He’s down on the pavement seconds later.

“Not a good idea, Joey,” says a male voice from behind him.

“Pick another GreenGirl,” says a second voice. “Pick any other GreenGirl.”

The click of handcuffs.

And when Joey is finally pulled up off the pavement, he glimpses the people staring out from behind the plate-glass window at the scene with him at its center. Some customers. A couple of baristas.

And Zack—staring at him—wearing a GreenGirl apron.

The bile, the anger, the irritation—irrational, uncontrollable—rises up off the sidewalk with Joey. Just seeing the kid triggers it in him.

I show up here, I don’t even get in the door, and it happens again. It’s that kid again. I see that curly red hair, and suddenly I’m facedown on the pavement, and there’s handcuffs on me. Fuck!

The fury races through him. Itches him like a rash. He doesn’t know why but he can’t deny it.

He tries to calm himself down.

Kid finally got a job, thinks Joey.

Well, Joey’s got one too.

Or maybe two.

Do Karloff’s job. And get rid of this kid just before.

Or at the same time, he thinks vaguely.

And then, while the undercover cops, three of them, Joey notices, are getting things organized on the sidewalk, shooing onlookers along, Zack comes out of the GreenGirl.

Everyone else stays inside the coffee shop, terrified.

But Zack comes out. Steps toward Joey slowly, carefully, keeping a safe distance. He looks at the handcuffs. Looks at Joey.

Nods to him. “Hey, Joey,” says Zack.

Like he wants to talk or something? Like he misses him? Wants to catch up on old times?

Joey tugs furiously, uselessly, at the handcuffs behind him.

Shit, this kid is really something.

42.

42.

Chris, the manager, takes Zack aside.

“Look, Roseanne told me you’re a hero. That you helped catch an assassin. But nobody knew the assassin was gonna get released and come back here, back to the same GreenGirl, obviously looking for you…”

“But he was stopped before he got in here…”

“Yeah…by cops. By the police!” Chris says, his usually calm voice rising, constricting with tension. “What if they weren’t keeping an eye on him? An assassin, Zack. Look, man, we can’t have a guy like that coming in here. Who knows what he’s gonna do?”

“But he didn’t get in here…”

“He got awful close. And he did it because you’re here…”