The next couple of days were equally boring. Actually nothing out of the ordinary happened until Friday afternoon. By that time I had a pretty good routine set up for days with no real work to be done. I walked in the morning. Checked my spam on the computer, then I fixed my late breakfast. Half the time it was cereal with milk I made from freeze dried milk powder. Big advance in powdered milk my ass. I mixed a little butter with it so that it was drinkable. In cereal it didn't really matter though. The rest of the time I microwaved an egg with cheese to put on a toasted bagel.

After breakfast I would setup to make one image. If the negative was usable I would scan and work it up for a poster. If it was not, I moved back to the computer to do research or just kill time watching old TV shows. Either way I played around various forums until bedtime. It was a pretty quiet existence and I was beginning to like it that way.

On Friday I was developing film when the knock on the door came. Since Charlie had been killed I kept the snubby .38 close, no matter what boring thing I was involved in. I picked it off the kitchen counter and slipped it into my pocket.

Since I had a negative half finished developing, I carried the film tank with me. It had to be constantly rotated. I didn't want to ruin it unless I had to shoot someone.

I saw Louise standing on my porch. I expected that she was alone since the spy hole was pretty good. "What do you want?" I asked as I opened the door.

"I came to talk to you about Charlie." She looked at me spinning the blacked out peanut butter jar then asked. "Exactly what the hell are you doing?"

"Developing a negative, come on in. I will be at a stopping point in a couple of minutes." She followed me into the kitchen where she remained quiet until the timer sounded and I emptied the developer. I filled the tank with water twice to dilute, and then wash away the chemicals. I left the single negative sitting in water while I turned my attention to Louise.

"So did you nail the thugs?"

"It don't look like they are connected, and there doesn't seem to be any physical evidence."

"Charlie had to have bled like a hog. Their was an artery cut according the M.E."

"These guys know how to clean up. There was the smell of bleach everywhere."

"How about the knife? I know it is a long shot but maybe they kept it."

"Surely they didn't keep a Walmart butcher knife. It was a one time only weapon."

"Nobody saw them around town that morning?"

"Not a soul as far as we can tell. Abba, I know it was them, but I don't think we can prove it."

"Have you talked to them?"

"Yes but these guys know their way around. They lawyered up before they got to the station. Made the call from home."

"Then water board them," I smiled.

"Are you kidding one of them had digital pictures of his body naked. He said it was to prove that he was unmarked. Like I said they done been to our little dance." Louise laughed at her own remark.

"Okay so why are you here?"

"Brett said you knew Charlie better than anyone. He wondered if you could point us toward his private papers."

"So you drew the short straw and had to come ask?" I knew it was BS, they were hoping I would do something that they couldn't

"Something like that I suppose," she admitted.

"Do you have anything you can hold them on?"

"For a day or two on a parole violation. Their lawyer can't spring them till Monday."

"Hold onto one and blow the other one out the door."

"You want me to call you when we turn him out?"

"No, I don't want to know. I'm not going to be involved in this in any way. You just have a better chance of turning the one in custody, if he things he is the only one going to fall for it all. Kick the strongest one out the door."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm not going to do anything at all. He will crack they always do."

After Louise left I fixed the film, then I put it in to wash. While it washed, I called Officer Samuel Thompson. "Sam, John Abba, I'm calling in that favor you owe me." The favor was that Sam's son in law fell down two flights of stairs while being arrested for wife beating.

Sam's daughter refused to testify, as we all knew she would, but for the first time in their marriage they both went to the ER for treatment.

"I always knew it would happen, what is it you want John?"

"I need to borrow your tranc pistol. Fix me a dart for a bear to go with it."

"You know this ain't approved for people? A person might die."

"A person could die in the shower just as easily."

"True but I wouldn't have to lie, if they died in the shower."

"Okay, I'll tranc him in the shower, if you will feel better." Sam burst into laughter. A bear in the shower now that I would love to see.

The bad guys were brothers, did I mention that. Well the older one got kicked out the door so I just followed him until he was alone in a parking lot. I hit him with the tranc dart, then just waited while he called me six kinds of bastard and explained in great detail all that he was going to do to me, Since it was a short term tranc, I locked him in the trunk of my car after I duct taped his hands and feet.

When he came around he was in the shower stall of an abandoned chemical factory. I knew the place because me and Charlie once busted a mentally challenged young man there. He was living there and stealing from the local market to eat. We got him into a halfway house within a couple of days. So his time in county lockup was short.

"Who the fuck are you and what do you think you are doing?"

"I'm John Abba. Charlie was like family to me. You know about family don't you Robbie."

"Do you expect me to talk, just because you got me in this crummy shower?"

"Hell no Robbie, I expect you to die. I expect your brother to talk when he come to in the same shower with your chopped up body for company."

"You can't get away with this." He didn't sound all that sure of himself.

"You ain't from around here are you? Did you ever see that movie deliverance? Well we have a little different take on the law down here. You gonna be surprised what I can get away with. Actually you won't be surprised, because you'll be dead"

"You are just all talk," The words were pretty tough but his voice cracked.

"Well I'm not in a hurry, I have all night. Hell I have a big chunk of tomorrow as well. Of course you might not, since I'm gonna be taking souvenirs off your body to send to your friends up north. Just so they know to stay home. But I am a nice guy, so I'm going to let you choose. Which finger do feel you could do without the best?


His eyes danced but he couldn't seem to get the words out. "Well, I', thinking pinky finger. I know you wear a pinky ring but otherwise it is probably the least used." Robbie was duct taped so he couldn't really put up any real resistance. I used a pair of pruning clippers. His pinky finger wasn't as large as some bush limbs I had cut with the clippers.

"Since there is going to be a lot of blood, I have this little plastic apron." I said it as I reached for his finger. He thought he was a tough guy until I clamped down on this finger. I was ready to take it off, hell I was ready to do just what I said. Let him die and then question his brother in the same place.


I made a half cut of the finger. Lots of blood and pain but no permanent damage. I would have taken it all but he began to cry and talk between the tears. I called Brett with the location of the knife's dump site before I kicked Robbie loose. Yeah sure he would be after me, if he stayed in town. I think I convinced him to move back where the weather wasn't quite so warm.

The again he might well be on death row in central prison while he dreamed of killing me.