Page 30 of Hard to Kill

That she won’t even discuss this with me feels like catching a break.

“Aren’t you going to say something?”

I put my hands on the table between us and push off it. It takes all the strength I have left in me to get to my feet.

“Just do me one favor.”

“Anything,” he says.

“Try not to hurt her.”

“I won’t.”

“I mean with the ankle monitor, dumb-ass,” I say with a twinkle, and head out.

A probation officer is standing just outside the door.

“He’s all yours,” I say.

I’m about to cross Main Street when I see Dr. Ben. I come to a dead stop. He’s talking to someone whose back is to me.

Guy in a hoodie.

My breath comes out of me like air coming out of a punctured tire, remembering the last time I exited the courthouse and saw a hoodie just like this one.

Despite being as worn out as I am, I’m running across Main, toward the parking lot and Ben’s Range Rover.

As I get to the car, the guy turns around, pulls the hood from his head, sticks out his hand.

“Hi, I’m Edmund McKenzie,” he says. “I wanted to meet the asshole who’s still defending Rob Jacobson.”

“I heard you were missing,” I said.

“Who told you that?” McKenzie says.

Ben steps away from the Range Rover. “Problem?” he asks.

“I’ve got this,” I tell him, motioning with my hand that he’s to stay where he is. To McKenzie I say, “Get out of my way.”

He puts up his hands. “No problem,” he says. “I just wanted to ask you something.”

He still hasn’t moved.

“Haveyouever been raped?” he asks.

He winks at me. Then he walks away. I can hear him whistling.

TWENTY-FOUR

Jimmy

JIMMY IS AT THE end of his bar, nursing a beer. Jimmy has the Yankee game on both sets, but he’s paying no attention.

Jane and Ben left about fifteen minutes ago and Jimmy is thinking about Jane—what McKenzie said to her at the courthouse, what Joe Too said that night at Jimmy’s house, and what a shame it would be if Jane died of something other than the cancer.

If Joe Too and his girlfriend could get to Jimmy that easily, they could get to Jane if they wanted to. It really does seem as if that sonofabitch Joe Champi has come back from the grave to terrorize them all over again.

Jimmy finishes his beer and is getting ready to leave when his phone makes that marimba sound Jimmy is too lazy to change, the one that has half the people in the bar reaching for their phones every time they hear it.

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