“The technology is new, but the idea goes back to Leonardo Da Vinci. If you take an x-ray of the Mona Lisa, you’ll find two other paintings beneath it. Back in those days canvasses were hard to come by. If you wanted to paint something new, you painted over a used canvass.”
“I look like I want a history lesson?”
“Rub the picture with your thumb or index finger just hard enough to make some heat. That’s what melts the coating. I’ll get you a hundred photos of Alison with clothes on. You can enjoy her that way or rub the pictures and make her nude, it’s up to you.”
“What kind of girl poses for a hundred naked pictures?”
“The kind who wants to live.”
“She know about the hundred pictures yet?”
“Nope. She’s only done this one.”
“You seen it?”
“I have.”
His face was flushed. He licked his lips. It was enough to make you sick. He said, “You’re gonna bribe the guard, just give him the naked pictures in the first place.”
“If I give him naked pictures, you think he’ll pass them along to you?”
“Hell, no! Not that degenerate bastard.”
“That’s why I’m printing pictures on top of the naked ones.”
I could see it in his pitted face: he was intrigued.
“She shaved?” he said.
“You want her shaved?”
“I want her shaved.”
“Okay, well she’s not shaved in this one, but I’ll make that happen next time.”
We worked out the logistics for getting him the money, and he gave me the name of his guard.
“How did it go?” Alison said.
We were in my rental car, heading to our motel room at the Quality Inn.
“For now you should be safe. That’ll change in a few days or weeks when he loses the power to decide.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“Kill him.”
She’d been looking out the window, but when I said that, her head spun back to face me.
“Why? How?”
“Why? Because it’ll send a message to whoever takes his place in the gang. How?” I smiled. “I’ll tell you later.”
“We still going back to Dallas tonight?”
“Soon as I fi nish talking to Wolf ’s guard.”
“What time’s the meeting?”
“The guards get off at eight, so I’m hoping around eight-thirty. Wolf says his guard likes to have a few drinks at the titty bar on Euclid before going home to beat his wife.”
