III.

In the middle of a dark flat that stank like last year’s state fair, a man held the barrel of a gun to the skull of a pig. I flipped the light switch and cranked my snubnose up with a notion that the pig wasn’t the threat. Only one of us needed to make bacon, and I was about to pull the butcher’s thumb off the scale.

“…Drake?”

Hembeck. He was surprised that it was me. He changed targets.

I was quicker, with the first bullet giving me room to close the gap. He sank down on one bloodied knee, managing to squeeze off a round that smacked yours truly in the ribs. That did it. A swift fist to the head laid him flat, then I stomped his gun arm with my foot, grinding it into the short carpet. Hembeck yelled bloody murder. The pig ran right past me into a wall.

Didn’t even bother to check my six.

That porkpie hat hovered over my shoulder. “You’re hit in the stitching, Drake. Better flag a meat wagon.”

My head cleared. Ignoring the warning, I gave Hembeck’s nose a taste of my heel. “Fess up, Loot! You put my name on the street!”

The Janitor clapped me on the back. “Your man here runs shield for the Harper Cox clan. There was the matter of a certain daughter of theirs, Drake. The lieutenant was to insure no mean lip on her part. You helped screw that up, now they want her home.” He bent down and picked up the pig with one stout arm. It squealed happily, hitting his five o’ clock with a shower of tongue. Even clearer.

Staring down authority from both sides, I had to steal back some of my own. I stepped away from Hembeck. “Leslie is dead. Got that? She’s worm food. None of anyone’s business, anymore, done. So back it off. Loot ransomed your damn pet just to find that out?”

The Janitor crept forward and spat into the carpet. Gritting teeth, he rammed those thick specs back up the bridge of his nose and spat again. Eye contact. No smile this time.

“I don’t give half a mo’ to your whore, Drake. It was time to clear the streets anyway. A lot of those beach seals had crossed each other so many times that my name got into the mix. Lieutenant here sweetened the invite by swiping my pig, and all the scum got a lead handshake.” His eyes were black, huge pupils thick with hate.

“They wanted me, but you were the goat for this, Paulie. Listen up, right? We all lose somebody. It’s who’s left that counts most.” He paused to scratch his pig behind the ears.

“Except for copper here. He’s an island now. Lieutenant’s master plan to wipe out the mob hit the ground like a wet sack and fell apart the minute I gripped you as his sap. That’s why you had to shoot him.”

The Janitor bent over Hembeck, pushing the animal’s snout into his leg wound. Loot moaned.

“Hey. Shield. You touch my pig again and I’ll grind you into her next trough. Got it?”

A siren in the distance. My turn to spit. “Go. Now.”

He vanished before the second word left my lips.