AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then what?” Agent Jones crosses his arms over his chest.
“I took off my jacket and my gloves.”
“You always take off your gloves at home?” asks Agent Hunt.
“Yeah,” I say, looking Hunt in the eye. “Don’t you?”
“Okay, go on,” says Agent Jones.
“I turned on the television. I was going to watch some TV, eat a sandwich, and then go back to school. I figured I had about an hour to hang.”
Agent Hunt scowls. “Why go home at all? None of that sounds very exciting.”
“Because if I went back to school, I’d have to do after-school stuff. I’m lazy.”
They share another look, not a very friendly one.
“This guy comes out, pointing a gun at me. I hold up my hands, but he comes right up to me. He starts telling me this story about how Philip was supposed to kill him and he had to take off in the middle of the night, leave everything behind. I was with Philip, although I don’t remember it, and he blamed me, too. Which, I guess, is fair. He goes on, saying that he and his girlfriend capped Philip and that I’m next.”
“And he told you all this?”
I nod my head. “I guess he wanted to be sure I was afraid.”
“Were you afraid?” asks Agent Jones.
“Yeah,” I say, nodding. “Of course I was scared.”
Agent Hunt scowls. “Was he alone?”
“The girlfriend was there. Beth, I think. Her picture was in those files you gave me. I don’t think she’s a professional. She didn’t act like one. I guess that’s how she wound up walking in front of a camera.”
“How come he came back now, after all this time?”
“He said that Philip no longer had Zacharov’s protection.”
“Is that true?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I’m no laborer. At the time I didn’t really care. I had to do something, so I rushed him.”
“Did the gun go off?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Two in the ceiling. Plaster everywhere. My hand hit his skin and I changed his heart to glass.”
“Then what?” Agent Jones asks.
“The woman screamed and grabbed for the gun,” I say. My hands feel clammy. I concentrate on minimizing my tells. Thinking of the last time I told this story, I make sure not to use the same language, so it doesn’t seem like a memorized speech. “She ran.”
“Did she shoot at you?”
I shake my head. “Like I said, she ran.”
“Now, why do you think that is? Why not take a shot at you? You were right there. Blowback was going to knock you out in a minute. She probably could have carved you up slow.” It doesn’t comfort me that Agent Hunt knows so much about the way transformation blowback works, but the delight in his voice when he talks about what she could have done to me worries me even more.
“I have no idea,” I say. “I guess she freaked out. Maybe she didn’t know. I’m not telling you anything new here. I don’t know, and no matter how many times you ask me, all I can do is guess.”
“So you put him in the freezer? Sounds like you’ve disposed of a body before.” Agent Jones says it like he’s joking, but he’s not.
“I watch a lot of television,” I say with a meaningless wave of my hand. “Turns out bodies are heavier in real life.”
