Klempner
In one hand, I hold a single copper strand. In the other, a thread of brown.
My body freezes as my mind races through the possibilities.
I left my hotel room several hours earlier, slicking a hair into place over the crack between door and frame as I left. On my return, a hair was still in place and I entered my room assuming all was normal.
Now, however, in my left hand, I hold a hair just plucked from my own scalp: the mousy-brown shade of my current identity.
In the right hand, I hold the hair which dropped from my hotel room door as I returned, and which on casual inspection, I had taken to be the one I slicked into place as I left the room earlier.
But the right-hand hair is red.
And now I look at it, I recognise that shade: a deep burnished copper-auburn that many women aspire to, but few have.
But Mitch has it. Jenny too;
Could it come from one of them?
Probably, yes.
Jenny…
Juliana, or at least her cat’s-paws Baxter and Finchby, had Jenny unconscious as a prisoner for some while. They even trimmed a lock of her pubic hair and sent it to James along with her underwear. Plucking a few hairs from her scalp would never have been noticed.
So, this could be Jenny’s hair.
On the other hand, it might just be the hair of some local woman lucky enough to have the shade.
Does it matter? Where it comes from?
Or is it just the message that’s important?
Juliana and her games…
My hand is shaking, the copper hair vibrating between my fingers like a metronome.
Calm down…
Think…
Breathing deliberately deeply, I let out air. Take it in again. And once more.
My hand steadies once more.
How long have I been standing here? Frozen by surprise and indecision…
A minute? Two?
to get the hell
essentials in a carry-bag: wallet, tablet, passport, that
Must contact Dakho…
Get a replacement…
glance around
… Anything else important?
too. It’s all just
my knives are in place in their sheaths, sling
… That’s it, then…
making a u-turn,
the threshold,
really have
hair… A
Only that?
It doesn’t ring true.
There’s surely something else.
between the urge to leave and the desire to know… I vacillate. It’s under
And Now…
Fuck!
I’ve got to know…
slung across my shoulder, gun in hand, I
… then the terrace…
… the bedroom…
… seeking… seeking what?
around the apartment might have
it in the
least. Rigged up in the same way as when she
pants at the knees to squat down, I peer
used as a booby-trap in situations where, typically, the intention is not to kill, but to maim. A corpse can
contain enough explosive
my head, I
baskets produces some sort of uniform; one-piece, plain navy-blue, perhaps for a plumber or other maintenance man. Checking
back in place, whistling a merry little tune, I exit the hotel via the
brings me to an alley, then another alley. Finally, I spot a shady niche. There’s space for a dozen trash bins, but not all are taken. Ducking into the gap, I’m out of sight. One of the bins serves as a seat
Now what?
my trousers
like a complete
have to change again. When the hotel
far from the hotel. I need to get further
Somewhere to stay?
To hide?
To think…
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