Having another conversation with Mr. Martin had very little appeal.
But it was better than a hired killer coming after me.
I unlocked the front door and went inside, still unsure which of the two possibilities I was hoping for. I set my backpack down in the foyer and walked into the living room, where a strange man sat on the couch, pointing a gun at me.
13
“Don’t scream,” he told me.
I didn’t scream.
The man was not dressed the way I’d envisioned a professional hitman. I had an image of a black suit, impeccably pressed without a single wrinkle out of place, and sunglasses worn indoors. This guy was in corduroy pants and an untucked light blue shirt, had a thick beard, wore wire-framed glasses, and looked very tired.
“You’re Curtis, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh, good. Then I’m in the right place. You need better locks on your doors. I popped the one in the back in about three seconds. I mean, obviously I can get through any lock you put on there, but what you’ve got now wouldn’t even keep out a twitching junkie.”
“All right,” I said.
“I’m sure you’re not the one responsible for the locks around here. But you might want to pass that on to your dad.”
“I will.”
He stood up and yawned. “Sorry. Jetlag.”
“It’s okay.”
“I’m guessing that we don’t have much time before your parents get home, and it would be very bad if they found us like this. It would take away some options in how this plays out. You know why I’m here, right?”
I nodded. “I didn’t say anything to anybody. I swear.”
“Gerald believes you. The pigs came and took him into their pen to ask some questions, but nothing they asked made him think you’d ratted him out. Seemed like they were fishing without bait. So they took him back home. And while he was rolling around in the pigsty with them, he didn’t call me like he was supposed to.”
It seemed like things were going to be okay, at least for now, but the man was still pointing a gun at my face. Maybe he was trying to lull me into a false sense of security before he pulled the trigger.
“He saved my life once,” said the man. “Did he tell you that?”
“No.”
“I owe him big-time. He’s done some shitty things, but, hell, so have I. So have we all. Doesn’t cancel out the good. Anyway, I jumped on a plane and flew my ass over here the way I’d promised. Called him when I landed. Found out it had been a false alarm.”
“Right,” I said. “A total false alarm. I’d never break our agreement.”
The man shrugged. “Maybe. I figured, as long as I was in town, I might as well show up and talk to you, man to man. I don’t know about you, but I would’ve been a little dubious when Gerald said he had a friend like me.”
“No, I believed him.”
“How come you don’t have any pets?”
That was a weird, random question. “My mom’s allergic.”
“You don’t even have a hamster in your bedroom. I checked.”
“I used to have goldfish but they died. That was a few years ago.”
“Most kids your age have pets. You’re not giving me anything to work with. You were supposed to come home and watch me kill your dog or your cat. Show you that I’m not fucking around. I’m an animal lover, but I’ll suffocate a dog to get my point across, no problem.”
“I told you that I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, I know, I know, and I believe you. But extra incentive can’t hurt. Watching your dog’s eyes bug out as it desperately tries to breathe tends to send a very memorable message. I can’t believe you don’t have a pet.”
“Right,” I said. “I don’t.”
“I could kill a neighbor’s dog, I suppose. But I don’t want people going around searching for Barky or whatever.”
“You and Mr. Martin don’t have anything to worry about,” I assured him. “He and I made an agreement, and I have every intention of sticking to it.”
The man grinned. “Good. That’s good to hear. So, Curtis, do you want to know what happened when I walked out of the airport?”
“What happened?”
“I took a deep breath.”
“Okay.”
“Fresh air. It was wonderful. I just stood outside for a while, breathing it in. I looked around and thought to myself, damn, look at that scenery. Alaska is fuckin’ beautiful. And I realized that I haven’t taken a vacation in a few years. Oh, I’ve done some hiding out, but I haven’t taken a real vacation since even before my divorce. And I thought, why not now? Why not spend some time in the natural beauty of Alaska? Now you may be wondering why I’m sharing this. What does it mean to you? Well, young man, it means that I’m going to be around. I’m going to be close. Maybe not lurking right outside your bedroom window…or maybe I will be. It means that if you have this sudden moment where you’re feeling brave, you’d goddamn well better shove it down deep, because you can not protect yourself from me. Got it?”
“Yes,” I said. “Absolutely. Like I keep saying, we had a deal, and I’m sticking to it.”
“I’m not happy to hear that.”
Had I misheard him? “You’re not?”
“In my job, people usually want quick, clean kills. A lot of ‘make it look like an accident.’ That’s fine. I understand why they want that. But it’s not as satisfying as making somebody truly suffer. My perfect scenario, the kind that really gets my dick rock-hard, is when I get to take somebody to a soundproof basement and just go nuts. The sound of you and your parents screaming in absolute unbearable agony would keep me going for weeks. I’d start with your mom. Totally
