The mangled Camry was hoisted up onto the flatbed truck as John paid the driver and tried to contact his insurance company. When he got an answering machine, he clenched his teeth and let out an aggravated sigh.

"I just bought that car two months ago. How the hell am I going to get anywhere now?"

The tow truck driver said, "We can get you a loaner until it gets fixed, if that's okay with you." John nodded and held up his free hand as the answering machine on the other line beeped, and began to give his information. Chris had a disposable camera in his truck, and he was taking pictures of the damage. When he finished, John flipped his phone shut and asked the truck driver, "What kind of a loaner?"

"We have a replacement Camry at our lot, if you want."

"Sure, sure. Thanks a lot," he answered. The driver climbed into his cab and drove away as the quintet gazed at the truck vanishing into the distance. Frankie broke the tense silence as she asked John, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just worried about you--after you saw that note, you looked like you were gonna faint."

"It's nothing. Just a piece of my past I thought would know better."

"What do you mean by that?"

Frankie ran her fingers through her hair and said, "A couple of days ago I went out with this guy who I thought would be a prince, and it turned out he was just a total asshole."

"Who?" John asked.

Chris piped up and answered his question: "His name was...um...Dylan Lee." John's eyes grew wide as he said, "Dylan Lee?"

"Yeah," Chris answered. John immediately put his thumb and index finger to his eyes, shook his head, and mumbled, "Son of a bitch..."

"What? What about him?" Mac asked.

"What about him? The guy's a fuckin' psycho. He's been in jail three times in the past year for assault and battery on some former dates of his."

Frankie gulped and said, "You're kidding, right, John?"

"I wish I was, Frankie. I went to high school with the guy--around April of '01, he was going steady with this girl named Diane Sullivan, and she tried to break it off after he got too controlling for her. Well, after she dumped him and kicked him out of her house, he shows up there a week later with a goddamn butcher knife, pounding on her door screaming that he's gonna kill her."

Bloo's jaw dropped and he mumbled, "What a loony."

"No kidding, Bloo. Anyway, he was arrested and word spread around school of what he'd tried to do. Everyone started fearing for their lives, and rightly so, and Dylan wound up getting expelled about two weeks after this whole thing took place. Diane transferred to a high school ten miles away, and we didn't hear anything from her until the end of the year...it wasn't good, either. After my class graduated, we found out she had died in a car crash--it turned out the brake line had been cut."

"Jesus..." Chris murmured.

"They couldn't pin it on Dylan 'cause he had an alibi, so they let him go. Lately, he's been roaming around the dating circuit trying to find someone gullible enough to fall for him--and I'm not saying you are, Frankie--and just make their lives a living hell. You're the first person that I've ever heard of that had him on the ropes, and I really admire you for that."

Frankie blushed and said, "Thanks, John. I even punched the bastard out; broke his nose and gave him a big ol' black eye." When she said this, John fell to his knees and began to bow at her feet.

"You...are a GODDESS!" he screamed. "For you to do that to fuckin' Dylan Lee is EASILY the ballsiest thing I've ever heard!" But his smile quickly faded as he glanced at the note and said, "It looks like he's after you, though. I'd recognize his handwriting anywhere."

"So what do we do?" she asked.

"Well, I'll do what anyone would do--I'm gonna protect you as best I can. As long as I'm still breathing, I'll make sure this jackoff doesn't do a thing to you, to Mac, Bloo or Chris here." He turned to Chris and said, "Thanks a lot for taking those pictures, man. Just make sure you get them developed by tomorrow afternoon, 'cause I'm going to my insurance company to have them assess the damage and see how much this'll cost me."

"Sure thing." The five of them huddled together and stared at the note for a few moments before they piled into Chris' truck and prepared to leave. "Hold on," John said. "I've gotta pay for the food." As he left the truck, Frankie noticed a figure standing on the sidewalk near a lamplight smoking a cigarette. It was too dark to see who it was, but it looked like a man, and he appeared to be watching the truck.

Mac asked, "Frankie, are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah...yeah. I'm fine, Mac." Just then, the driver's side passenger door opened and John squeezed into the backseat. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Really." Chris started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot, passing the figure underneath the lamp. As they moved down the street and out of the range of the mirrors, Dylan Lee, brandishing a metal baseball bat, stepped out from the shadow of the light and said, "Looks like they got my message." He walked a block down the street to his Eclipse, threw the bat into the backseat, climbed behind the wheel and started the car. His stereo blared the chorus of Billy Joel's "She's Right On Time" as he made a U-turn and went back to the hotel.