he just sat there for a second and so did everyone else except Cliff, who stared hard at him and saw he meant it, saw he was serious, saw he was going to start it right there and then against all of them, all of them and more - it didn't mean a shit to Felix. It was really going to happen. Felix was really gonna - And Cliff reached for Randy's automatic on the table in front of him.
Felix shot him through the cheek, rose, shot Randy through his open gaping mouth already covered in his friend's blood, shot the fat one square in the chest and blew him back, shot the one with the beard, who had managed to get his gun out and cock it, through the throat. And the Hispanic, the Cuban, who had risen frozen at the far side of the room, he shot right between the eyes.
It took three seconds.
Felix's face was beet red. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He took his nine-millimeter in his left hand and turned to me, roaring, "I told you to leave, you dirty stupid motherfucker!"
Then with his free right hand he slapped me so hard my chair flew over backward and shattered beneath me. I lay there stunned and gasping for breath. When I looked over, Felix was vomiting onto the floor, still bawling like a baby, sobbing so hard it looked like it hurt.
After a while he stopped. He stood up, gun still in his hand. He gave me this kinda vacant look, then walked out the door and out of sight. He didn't even bother to untie me.
I didn't see him again for years. Until...
Part Two Chapter 9
Part Two
Gunman
Chapter 9
"Until when?" Annabelle asked. Cat saw her face. It looked pale.
"Until..." began Jack, suddenly looking past them across the room to the bar, "a few minutes ago."
Everyone turned to follow his gaze. Davette recognized the young man standing up from his stool at the corner of the bar, had noticed that old WWII leather flying jacket when they had come in.
But I never would have guessed just by looking at him.
And then she thought, still watching the man approach them; But now that I've been told...
Yes. Yes, it's him. He's the one who did that.
Felix stopped beside their booth and stared down at Jack Crow. His voice was a harsh bitter crackle.
"Come to bust me at last, Crow?"
Jack's smile was grim. "It's worse than that."
Felix barely nodded. "It would be."
Part Two Chapter 10
Felix led the way up some back stairs to a small one-bedroom apartment and office with a huge picture window of one-way glass overlooking the bar. Felix sat down at his desk with his back to that window, chain-smoking and listening with stony silence as Jack spoke the tale of Vampire$ Inc.
His only discernible reactions came from his face, already thin, which seemed to stretch into a death mask's gauntness, and from his eyes, already piercing, which became uncomfortable to meet.
Watching him all the while - for no one could take eyes from his steaming intensity - Annabelle could not pin down her feelings. She recognized Felix easily from Jack's story. The laugh lines were there from the happy drunk who climbed Mexican trees.
And so was the helpless acuity of a man vised so tight he'd had to gun down four friends and a stranger at a kitchen table for a principle.
Eerie, she thought. I don't know whether to run screaming into the night or pull him into my lap and cuddle him until he can sleep.
Something else bothered her. His few looks away from Jack were at Davette. Everyone else he had dismissed with his first glance. But his face, that rock face, kept coming back to the young journalist. His face did soften, Annabelle thought, when he did this. But damn well not enough for Annabelle.
Not nearly enough.
When Jack had finished, all were quiet for several seconds. Then Felix reached forward and stubbed out his last cigarette. He spoke in a harsh, rasping, bitter voice:
"Get out."
"Take your band of merry men and your fairy tales and your" - he glanced briefly, painfully, at Davette - "your... siren... and any other reasons you've got to get me to do more killing and get the fuck out!"
Team Crow, save for Jack, sat in collective stunned silence. It was absolutely the very last reaction they had expected.
No one had ever turned them down before.
Carl Joplin opened his mouth to speak, to protest, but Felix stood up