One Step Ahead

Sucker Punch

      Watching various cars pull into the adjacent lot, he spotted his quarry less than twenty minutes later, getting out of a metallic-blue Charger, slinging a duffel bag over one shoulder. He scrambled out of the car and started jogging across the lot toward the dark-haired young woman, calling out, "Excuse me, Miss Malveaux, do you have a minute?"

      She looked around when she heard him call out, and he noticed that her expression immediately became wary, but he continued anyway. "My name is Elton Keel, and I'm an inv..."

      "I'm well aware of who you are. Or should I say, what you are? After the disgusting sludge you put out about my cousin, and the way you've been playing that poor man with the missing daughter, what gives you the idiotic idea that I have any desire to talk to you?"

      "Well, I just thought I'd give you the opportunity to share whatever thoughts you might have regarding the murder of Detective Marlena Whitman last night, and..."

      Briar's mouth fell open in astonishment. "What the hell did you just say?!"

      "You didn't hear? It's been all over the news this morning, not sure how you missed it. Yeah, somebody broke into her house last night. They're being pretty tight-lipped on the details, but from what I hear, at least three cops and a firefighter wound up puking in the shrubbery. And these guys are used to seeing funky shit, so it musta been pretty gruesome. And the kicker is, it was one of her own kids that found her."

      She glared at him, her face even colder. "That's horrible, I can just imagine how her family feels right now. But I still fail to see why you're talking to me about it."

      "Just thought you might have an opinion, since word is that it has something to do with her looking into what happened to your cousin, and all the other street rats? So do you have anything to... oof?" Doubling over in pain from the blow to his stomach, he was cut off in mid-sentence as the air expelled itself from his lungs.

      Her slate-blue eyes blazed with fury, but her voice was deadly calm. "Do not ever refer to my cousin, or anyone else, by that term again, or you'll spend the next six weeks or so sucking your meals through a straw. You might have a little problem inflicting your idiotic opinions on everyone with your jaw wired shut, but then again, that would probably be an improvement on the usual quality of your pathetic drivel."

      "You just fucking sucker-punched me!" he wheezed. As he attempted to return himself to a fully upright position, he once again opened his mouth to speak, but the words died on his lips at the sight of the taser in Briar's hand.

      "Get out of my sight, you ambulance-chasing cockroach, or I'll put a charge on your bony ass. And there's something that I want you to remember very clearly, Mr. Keel: if you ever make the mistake of coming within arms reach of me again, you may as well plan on changing your name from Elton to Ellen, because I'll find myself a pair of tweezers and rip your dick out by the roots. And if I hear that my name, or my cousin's, has been mentioned for any reason on what you laughingly call your 'newscast', I will sue you for everything you have ever, or will ever, own in your life. And you now have precisely sixty seconds to scuttle back to whatever hole you came out of before I light you up, and call security to toss you out on your 'journalistic credentials'. Do we understand each other?"

      When she looked at her watch, and muttered "Fifty", he turned and began hobbling toward his car, still trying to breathe normally.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      He grumbled to himself as he folded himself back into the car. "Shit, they must take some sort of self-defense classes in there. I've got at least eight inches, and maybe fifty pounds on her, I shoulda been able to take that punch easy. Crazy broad is tougher than she looks."

      Debating for a moment about going back to the crime scene, he quickly dismissed the idea. "With my luck, Sanger will still be there. Or that prick Weintraub, and I really don't wanna deal with their shit right now. Oh, well, I guess it's back to Plan B again."

      Taking out his new phone, he dialed a number that he had long since memorized, tapping his fingers impatiently on the dash as he listened to it ring. When the voice mail kicked in, he sighed, and said "Hey, babe, it's me. Had a bit of an accident with my phone awhile ago, so I'm using a temp. Give me a call at this number, ASA-fuckin'-P, I'm gettin' nowhere on this right now. Later, babe."

      Less than a minute later, the phone rang, and he answered. "That was fast, even for you, hon."

      The voice on the other end replied, "Yeah, and I can't talk long, it's crazy here right now. They've got somebody coming down to pick up some files, and I'll let you know if they pull anything interesting. Plus, I hear that the boss man has ordered a rush on the M.E.'s report, so I'll let you know when that'll be available. But I need you to get that book back to me, quick. He's going to want to look at it any time now, and if they figure out that it's not here, we're both fucked."

      "No sweat, babe. Have I let you down yet? I'll be there sometime this afternoon, and you can just slip it back. Gotta go now, bye."

      Starting the car and propelling himself back into traffic, intent on having one last look at his prize before he had to give it up, Keel was completely oblivious to the battered compact car that followed behind him. And even if he had noticed it, he had no way of knowing that the driver of the car was contemplating the best way to end his life.