Revenant

Chapter 13

"Boston? Bah . . . had enough of that place," I said, gesturing dismissively with my free hand, still vigorously shaking his hand with my other, doing everything humanly possible to try to convince him that I was actually happy to see him standing right outside of my bar. "I figured I'd come settle out here, where the action was."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow at me.

"Action? Here?" He looked around, as if confused. "In Baltimore?"

I laughed hard, as though I'd just been told the best joke ever, and as I did so I quickly scoped out the rest of the street. Beige sedan about forty yards away, two sunglass-wearing figures inside of it. Surveillance detail - from where they were parked it was obvious I was the one they were watching for.

A sudden and extremely uncomfortable thought crossed my mind just then, and my guts turned to ice water.

Please, oh please . . . don't ask to see my I.D. . . .

Laughing over and done with, I smiled in a way that threatened to make my cheekbones hurt.

"Oh trust me, this place is the hub of cutting edge accounting software! Everyone looks to Baltimore for that stuff, it's like Mecca," I lied glibly, letting go of his hand and waving a gesture at the street. "Moved here a couple of summers ago, partly for work, partly to avoid a certain ex-girlfriend. How about you? What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

He shrugged. "Came down here looking for someone. Got a call, anonymous tip about a fellow I've been after for a while. Figured I'd come down here and check it out."

Anonymous tip.

"Really?" I gave a surprised laugh. "Terrorists in Baltimore?"

"Terrorists? No, nothing like that, John. We've got a whole other department for stuff like that now."

"Must be pretty big though, to get someone like you involved. This 'someone' you're looking for got a name?"

"Nah," he grinned. "His name's not all that important, really. He's just some nobody the Bureau's been trying to keep an eye on."

Nobody.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I doubled the intensity of my already furious smile. "Well, ain't that something, huh? Funny, our paths crossing like this." I happened upon a glimmer of an idea, and gestured over my shoulder at the bar. "Want a quick something to eat, maybe catch up a little? I just realized I gotta head back inside."

"What? Oh . . . nah. I'm on that new diet," he said, opening up his suit jacket enough to show even more of the handle of his .357 Magnum revolver, slapping his nearly nonexistent stomach. "Gotta watch what I'm eating - no starches, no sweets, no meats. No food, really. Been working like a charm. My wife called me a miserable, skinny bastard just the other day, in fact."

I laughed. God, I was starting to hate having to laugh.

"Well, I was just about to head out to meet up with a client, but I just realized I've left my wallet in my other jacket." I pantomimed a quick punch to my temple and gestured as if attempting to communicate the phrase 'I'm such an idiot!' without words. "Still, wish we had some time to catch up a little. Man, that airport fiasco was a hoot, wasn't it?"

"Absolutely. A real hoot," he said, smiling in a way that didn't actually manage to reach his eyes. "You know, to this day, I still feel silly about that whole incident. Troubling you the way I did, I mean. I look back on it, and honestly, I wish that things had happened differently. You know what I mean?"

His words were double-edged, and coming at me fast and furious. Like he'd practiced them. He sounded exactly like a man who had recited these particular lines while lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about regret, cursing himself for something that he hadn't thought to do at some moment in his past.