Page 10 of A River Red With Blood
Kenny glared at her.
“I said I wasn’t fucking hungry.”
The server took the second set away, but not before giving Kenney the old stink eye.
“Why did you have to make a big thing of it?”Teal asked.
“Because she, like you, didn’t listen the first time.”
“You’re going to give yourself a stroke, you know that?”
“No, other people are going to give me a stroke, but only if I allow them.”
Teal drank his IPA.Kenney swallowed the last of his Blue Moon.They said nothing more until the food arrived.This time, the server didn’t even bother looking at Kenney and didn’t inquire whether he wanted another beer.As it happened, Kenney wasn’t in the mood for another drink, but it would have been polite of her to ask.It was also what she was being paid to do.Kenney had another flash of the server in pain.These were dangerous thoughts.If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up breaking the cardinal rule, which brought him back to why they were here.
Teal tried a french fry.
“I asked if you were planning to confront him.”
“Not yet,” said Kenney.“Not until I know more.”
Teal had thought as much.Kenney might have looked soft while being hard, but the Saint was a different creature.Cut him, and what spilled out would come with a biohazard symbol.It was why Teal preferred the years when he was partnered with Kenney, because Kenney was better at pretending to be normal.
“So what if he did take her?”Teal asked.
“If he hurt her, he’s endangering all of us.That’s why we keep to the rules.”
“But as long as no one finds out—”
“That’s a slender thread on which to hang our freedom,” said Kenney.“Or our lives.”
They had played the Game in multiple states, which meant they were gambling with federal penalties if caught.This, too, added zest.The higher the stakes, the greater the pleasure.
Teal dug into his burger.Kenney watched him eat, making no effort to hide his distaste.Kenney’s concerns about the Saint had affected his sleep and his appetite, though he hadn’t allowed them to cloud his enjoyment of the girl.Teal, on the other hand, gave every impression of being untroubled by what Kenney had just told him.For a shrewd man, Teal could be a disappointment.
But as it turned out, Teal was thinking while he ate: about Kenney, and how much the sight of his naked doughy bodyrepulsed him; about the Saint, and how he liked to order Teal around when they played the Game together, like Teal was his bitch; and about his future, because as much as Teal enjoyed playing the Game, he was a calculating person.
He used a napkin to wipe ketchup from his chin and took another mouthful of beer.
“If you’re right,” he said, “it can’t be allowed to slide.”
“My view exactly.”
“Ifyou’re right,” Teal emphasized.
But he was already sizing up the challenge of killing the Saint without blowback.It wasn’t just about silencing the Saint, but disappearing him.The Saint wasn’t some nothing girl in a decayed Midwestern city.He wasn’t even Mike Hurvich, a self-employed handyman and borderline alcoholic.The Saint had a public profile.
Kenney spotted the change in Teal, the brightness in his eyes and the set to his mouth.It was the way Teal had looked as he choked Nola Maddick to death with her scarf, choked her while he was inside her so that he orgasmed as she breathed her last.
“Tell me more,” said Teal.
They parted after an hour.Teal made Kenney leave a generous tip for the waitress— in cash—but didn’t bother asking him to apologize; the money would be worth more to her, and its sincerity couldn’t be doubted.They agreed to speak again once they’d both had time to think.
Like Kenney, Teal was now of the opinion that the Saint might have killed a girl outside the Game, and not unaided, because the Saint had apparently suggested to Kenney that they should increase the number of players from three to four, as in Hurvich’s time.It would break up the pattern, the Saint argued.Kenney had responded that there was no pattern, or none that extended beyond a couple of years, to which the Saint replied: “We’re the pattern.We’ve been playing as three for too long.We need a fourth.”
Then the Saint told Kenney who he had in mind to be the new player, which was when Kenney realized that the Saint, ifhe’d killed the girl, hadn’t acted alone.But Kenney didn’t voice his suspicions, not then.He was now potentially dealing not only with a rulebreaker but also with an accomplice, and two against one was bad odds.Two against two was better, right?That was why Kenney had brought Teal into his confidence, because a confrontation was looming, one that might well end in violence.
Chapter 10
