Allrighty… Let's see if we can't get into a little more trouble today…

Chapter Three

"Sketchy found him," she heard one of the other Jam Pony employees whisper. She didn't know his name, but that wasn't unusual. In a place like Jam Pony, Normal was always hiring and firing people. The guy was tall, dark, and decent enough looking, but he thought he was Don Juan, so Max had been ignoring his existence. At the moment, he was talking to a couple of other riders who were hanging on his every word.

"Found who?" she asked.

The guy turned to her and his smile turned sleazy in an instant. "Hey, Max." He tucked his thumbs into his belt and rocked forward. "Your boy Alec quits and you come straight to me. It was bound to happen." He grinned again and Max realized that although he was reasonably handsome, his teeth were rotten. This one had a definite drug problem. He wouldn't last long.

The guy brushed a lock of her hair back over her shoulder and Max reacted. She grabbed his wrist and turned the guy, twisting his arm up behind his back until she was within a breath of breaking it. The riders he'd been talking to suddenly decided to make themselves scarce.

"You don't get to talk about Alec, and you don't get to touch me," she said sweetly. "Got it?"

"I got it. I got it!" he yelled. "Let me go!"

Max shoved him away and the guy bolted for the door. She wouldn't be sad if he never came back to work.

She looked around and saw Sketch sitting on a bench near the lockers. He was pale as a ghost and looked completely freaked. O.C. was sitting beside him and had an arm around his shoulders. She looked almost… maternal, which was just weird. O.C. was a no nonsense kind of person and had very little patience for anyone acting like an idiot. So whatever had happened, even O.C. deemed it enough out of the norm for Sketch to earn a little comfort.

Max walked up and the other riders who'd been standing around scattered in different directions. She didn't know what their deal was. It wasn't like she'd actually broken the guy's arm. She'd just… bent it a little. And he'd deserved it.

Cindy at least looked momentarily amused. "Making friends like always, Boo?"

"You know it. Hey, Sketch," she tried, when he didn't even seem to realize she was there.

Sketchy looked up at her and blinked owlishly. "Oh. Hey, Max."

"You ok? Something happen?"

"Yeah, I uh…"

He stopped and O.C. rubbed his back with her hand. "Go on and tell her, Suga'."

"Yeah, ok." He cleared his throat. "I was making a delivery in the business district. One of those big fancy high-rises, you know?" He was looking at her, but not really seeing her. Sketchy was admittedly pretty easy to spook, but this was more than his usual. "I figured I drop off the package and get a nice fat tip for my trouble. The secretary pointed at the office and I walk in and the dude looks weird, kinda propped up at his desk."

"Yeah? So?"

"The dude was dead, Max!"

"You found a body?" Max asked in surprise.

"Yeah." He shook his head. "I totally freaked out. I musta yelled because everybody came runnin' and then the cops showed up."

"Some fool stabbed him and cut his fingers off," O.C. added, and Sketchy shuddered at the memory.

Max grimaced. "Well, that's disgusting."

"Sketch says he overheard one o' the cops say it's the third one."

Max looked at her sharply. There was something else in her voice. Max didn't understand, but something had O.C. rattled. Yeah, it was creepy and sick, but their world was ugly at the best of times. Sometimes it was downright nasty, like dead guys with no fingers.

"Alec told me not to worry about it," Sketch said. "He said he'd take me out for a drink to let off some steam."

"You saw Alec?"

O.C. was still looking at Max to gauge her reaction, and now Max understood why she was rattled. Alec had been in the same building as the dead guy.

"What was Alec doing there?" Max asked. She tried for casual, but Cindy gave her a sharp look to say she'd failed. It didn't matter. Sketchy was too caught up in his own story to notice.

"He had a job interview." He shrugged. "He was mad, too. Said it didn't go so good and he was headed out."

"Ya don't say." O.C. pursed her lips in disapproval.

"You know where he went?" Max asked.

Sketch finally focused on her. "I don't know, Max," he said, raising his voice. "I was kinda focused on the dead dude and the knife stickin' out of his eye."

"Ok, ok," she said. "Sorry." And she did feel kind of bad. Sketchy was an idiot, but he was a sweet one most of the time. "Cops say anything else?"

"Just that it was freaking them out too. Guy's a ghost, man. Got past security, and everybody in the office. Nobody saw anything. I mean, I mighta walked right past the dude!"

Once again, O.C. looked at her, decidedly uncomfortable. Max shifted on her feet, just as uneasy, afraid Sketch hadn't just walked past the killer. He'd walked out with him, and promised to get a drink later.

It didn't feel right, though, so Max tried to think it through logically. Alec had been acting strange. He'd been angry and standoffish. He'd quit his job for no good reason and then brushed her off. He'd mentioned missing Manticore and using his skills and now there were three deaths caused by a "ghost."

"This is so not good."

"Tell me about it!" Sketch said. "One of the creepiest things I've ever seen. I mean they stabbed him in the eye! And the fingers! Who does that?"

"All right enough mollycoddling," Normal shouted above the din of voices. "Nothing new about a dead man. Bip bip. Packages still need to get to the living."

He started tossing packages and everyone grumbled, but accepted their next runs and left. Normal walked out from behind his desk. He tossed several packages to her and O.C. before stopping in front of Sketch.

"Go home, but I'll expect you here tomorrow," he said in a Normal sort of show of pity. "Bright and early."

Sketch nodded, still a bit dazed. He stood and headed for the door. Max followed. She'd make sure he got home before she made a few stops of her own.

Max slammed the door to Logan's apartment behind her. "I need you to track down Alec."

Logan looked up from his computer. "And hello to you, too, Max."

"Sorry." She walked within a few feet of him where he was sitting at the desk working on something. "Hi."

"Hi."

"I need you to track down Alec."

He raised an eyebrow. "I gathered as much. Any particular reason?"

"He quit work. He hasn't been home and now I can't find him." She'd made a few stops at his apartment to ask for answers, but had no luck. She'd checked with Sketch, and Alec had been a no-show for their drink to unwind. A few inquiries about the murders like the body Sketch had found had gotten her exactly nowhere, so Max was out of ideas. "I think…" She hesitated to say it given Logan's feelings about Alec. "He might have done something… bad."

"Bad?" There was something odd in his voice, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"There's a… uh… dead guy… or two."

Logan shook his head in disbelief. "You think he's been killing people?"

"No!" she said a bit too loudly. "Maybe. I don't know." She shrugged. "It doesn't feel right, but something's going on."

He frowned. "He is a trained assassin, an experienced one. Is it so hard to believe he would do…. whatever this is?"

She didn't think he would. He'd been appalled when she pretended to be his lawyer and accused him of killing Ben's victims. He'd been so off lately, though, and niggling doubts were burrowing into her thoughts.

"Can you just look into it? I can't even find him to ask."

"Of course."

"Thanks."

"Max, I…" He shook his head.

"What?"

"I just… don't understand how you can be with someone you think could still be capable of murder."

Max's heart skipped a beat. In all of her worries, she'd forgotten about that bit for a minute. She was supposed to be with Alec.

"Logan, I was trained the same as he was," she said carefully. "And I don't think… I… Look, we've both got serious issues. Something's wrong and I just… I need to find him."

Logan raised his hands. "Ok. I'll look into it."

Max could see he was hurting, that she was pouring salt in an open wound. He would do what she asked, but coming to him about this was cruel and she knew it.

"Thanks," she said weakly and let herself out.

It had been days, and Logan hadn't turned up anything, or at least she assumed so since she hadn't received a page or call.

She'd put out her own feelers, but hadn't found anything either. One of the Jam Pony riders, however, had mentioned seeing him going into a bar in Sector Six. It might not do any good, but it was all she had.

Max had just dropped off a package and decided to take a short detour to check out the bar. Alec probably wouldn't be there, but the bartender might have heard something.

Max stopped outside the bar to get a feel for the place. The Blue Birch was definitely a different place from Crash. It looked to be an old school type pub that had seen better days, probably already a neighborhood fixture long before the Pulse turned everything to crap.

The people coming and going seemed to be a more middle aged crowd, where Crash's patrons definitely skewed younger. Deciding she'd dawdled long enough, Max walked up to the door and went in.

She waited the fraction of a second it took her eyes to adjust to the dim interior and then scanned the room. As she'd suspected, the inside was cramped and dark, but surprisingly clean and well kept. Gleaming, lighted shelves of liquor bottles and the dark wood bar were to one side, while booths lined the wall opposite with a few tables in between. It was mid afternoon and there were only a few people. A couple was occupying a booth, sitting way too close to each other. Two men were sitting at the bar several stools apart, and there was another man at the table farthest from the door.

To her surprise, Alec stood behind the bar, pouring a drink and walking it to the guy at the stool closest to him. The guy handed over a couple of bucks and Alec deftly took the money and deposited it in the till.

Max walked up to the bar and slid onto the stool at the end, well away from the two men. She didn't want them to overhear, or worse to think she'd sat close to them because she was interested. She knew Alec had to have seen her walk in, but he had yet to acknowledge her. For some reason, he was acting like he had no idea who she was.

Once Max was settled, Alec finally headed over. "What can I get you?" he asked, his face professional and impassive, just a barkeep and a customer.

"Beer," she said. "Whatever you got on tap." He nodded and poured her beer on automatic, sliding it in front of her.

"You want to run a tab?" he asked.

"Sure."

Alec just nodded and wandered back down to the other end of the bar. Max sat and nursed her beer for several minutes while she studied the bar, its occupants, and especially Alec. He wasn't paying her any mind, as if she were just another stranger who'd stopped in for a drink. If she didn't know him, she'd have thought he was an average bartender, going through his run of the mill day. Max did know him, though. He was tense, on guard, watching not her, but everyone and everything else. It made her twitchy. She didn't know if this was part of what was wrong with him, and he was being paranoid, or if there really was something going on.

"Hey," she waved to get his attention, "can I get another beer?"

"Coming up."

The door opened behind her and a guy walked in. He was middle-aged, with a bit of a beer gut, wearing khaki pants and a light jacket. He could've used a haircut, but other than that he looked normal. The guy walked behind her and headed for the back. Alec gave him a onceover, then went back to pouring her beer.

Alec set it in front of her and in one smooth movement leapt over the bar and swept the guy's feet out from under him. He landed with a heavy thud. Alec flipped back the man's jacket, pulled the gun he had been hiding there, and cracked him across the face, pistol-whipping him into unconsciousness.

Max jumped off her stool and grabbed Alec's arm before he could bring the weapon down again. "What are you doing, A-"

Alec grabbed the front of her shirt and jerked her down so they were face to face. "Max, do not blow my cover," he hissed only loud enough for her to hear. Alec roughly shoved her away and she was so shocked she stumbled back and fell on her butt.

"Stay out of this, lady," he ordered more loudly. "It's got nothing to do with you."

The man who'd been sitting at the back stood up and walked toward the ruckus. He moved at a leisurely pace. He was middle aged, maybe a little older, medium height with dark blond hair in a precise wave, wearing black slacks, and a dress shirt with a gray pullover. He looked very proper, kind of… preppie, if that was even still a thing since the Pulse. The closer he got, however, the picture changed. He radiated a quiet sort of power. He was a dangerous man and Max could see it in his eyes. This was a man who knew about violence. Max had seen enough people like that to spot it when she saw it.

"I thought you had this taken care of, Alec," he said, definite censure in his tone.

"Sorry, Boss," Alec answered. "I didn't know about this one. Just looked like a normal guy when he walked in."

The boss man looked up at Max and the other patrons who were ranged around the room, nervously eyeing the door. He smiled, and it made Max's skin crawl. "We're going to close early, everyone. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. We'll be open tomorrow as usual."

Max looked at Alec and he narrowed his eyes, once again ordering her to stay out of whatever job he was working. He'd said he wanted to use his skills. She was just afraid he'd decided to go back to working for the bad guys. Manticore wasn't around, so he'd hired on with a different set of sociopaths?

This was all wrong. She'd thought Alec had moved beyond this sort of thing. She'd been counting on it. She'd been counting on him. For a moment, she was stunned by the realization that she was hurt.

Alec stood up and began ushering the patrons out of the bar. The couple and the two men left quickly, wanting nothing to do with whatever was going on. Max backed toward the door more slowly, hoping against hope that Alec would give her some sign, some nod or wink, something, to tell her not to worry.

Alec locked the door behind her. Max watched through the window as he grabbed the unconscious man by the collar and began dragging him toward the back of the bar. She wondered if this one would get to keep his fingers.

More soon…