Prologue:
Lorimer watched the monster roll the quarter languidly down the expanse of the knuckles of it's left hand. Absently his right hand covered the smooth skinned stubs right at the top of the first knuckles of the last two fingers of his left. This wasn't lost on the monster though. it licked its lips and twisted the ends of its mouth into a smile.
"Missin' something sugar?"
Annabeth Walkes, or Anna-on-the-other-side-of-the-table, had asked over a public line, just after sundown to meet with the man in the low brimmed hat and delicate spectacles who was responsible for the deaths of Clarence Brinkhouse an investment banker by way of accidental suicide, as well as Dakota Reeves, an adult video heroine who died by way of velocity overdose over the side of a four story building. She wanted to meet him in a nice office complex in the central business district of Chicago. The Man in the Spectacles across the table from her would only meet in a shitty, run down ex-warehouse. She compromised. she would meet at the warehouse if she could troll with her a matching set of meat dressed up in show suits screaming to hold in the muscled underneath them. Security specialists, with guns just as large and impressive.
There was nothing impressive about the man in spectacles. He was tall but beaten down looking, in a parka that had been thoroughly searched for weapons. His hair was stringy and tied back. He wore a wide brimmed hat, and he had been responsible for more actual deaths in the last two years then the rest of the people in the room combined and adjusted for inflation.
"not nothing I wasn't glad to give up after considering the alternative." Lorimer pinched a bit of tobacco onto a rolling paper." but small talk aside, you did call me because you wanted me to do something for you right? not just toss quips at me because of some mysterious misfortune. " he twisted the paper in his fingers until it almost resembled a cigarette.
she exhaled heavily.
" I can' t believe there are still people that smoke, after all that shit came out about big tobacco it must be just you ."
" Me and that Marlboro guy, I guess . Anyways. It's just a cigarette. What's this thing?"
" little bit of work." she pinched the words out in front of her with her fingers. lorimer liked little visuals.
" you got my fee?" she nodded" then I guess that's that. Who are the contestants?"lorimer put the cigarette in mouth and pulled out a shiny lighter. he flicked the striker and Anne flinched, not a lot, just enough to tell lorimer what kind of bad he was sitting across from. He took a long drag from the cigarette. Two years ago lorimer didn't smoke, but he found that a steady supply of nicotine kept the suicide at bay.
" Trey Fischer, but on Chicago time lately they've been calling him Loki. and a guy that goes by Ambrose." her lips curved into a small smile.
Now normally this had meant that this Ambrose fellow and this Loki fellow where dead to rights. the man in the low brimmed hat had a certain reputation for Thoroughness as well as single minded determination that bordered on supernatural. But there where two pieces of information that the man in the spectacles but not Anna-on-the-other-side-of-the-table was privy to.
the first was that Anna's goons who were slightly homophobic had failed to search the area right next to lorimer's johnson for any backup weapons.
The second was that Lorimer had , that afternoon, fortuitously just before Anna's call, killed the man in the wide brimmed hat.