What did happen was not what I expected. As he drank, that edge I’d seen earlier, when he put on the tux, that hard, dangerous “something” that I glimpsed every now and then, slid to the fore. Not an angry drunk. If anything, he was quicker with a laugh or a joke. Just that edge peeking out, that look in his eyes, in that set of his jaw that said he wasn’t someone you wanted to cross.

Maybe, seeing that, I should have been worried. At least wary. If anything, it was almost comforting. I saw it, and I recognized it, and it didn’t bother me. With a man like Jack, a career killer of his caliber, you know there has to be something hard, something dangerous under that calm, impassive exterior. Seeing it and seeing no anger there, feeling no sense of danger directed at me was oddly reassuring.

The last thing I remembered that night was Jack’s voice, his thick brogue making even his clipped sentences almost musical as he told the story of a job gone by. I’d been up a hundred dollars in the betting, but almost falling over drunk, and he’d suggested I sit, close my eyes, rest for a minute. While I did, he told his story and I hung there, fighting sleep, clinging to his words, wanting to hear the end and then…thankfully dreamless sleep.

The next morning I awoke on the forest floor, Jack’s coat draped over me. He was propped against a tree—more dozing than sleeping—and roused when he saw me up. We gathered our things, including the beer cans, then headed off in search of breakfast and news.

The morning papers mentioned the killing. Just mentioned it. Few details had been released, and certainly nothing about the killer’s “challenge.” I suspected the Feds were scrambling to come up with a way to break the news themselves, with their own slant.

As for us, we’d go back to doing what we’d been doing all along, pursuing our leads in hopes that we’d roust the killer from the rear, through his identity and contacts in the underworld. Far from a foolproof plan, but it was a damned sight better than sitting on our hands waiting for more people to die.

HSK

HSK