Hunter's Moon.htm Read Online Free Page B

mean you know him!?!"
    "Go on."
    "Well, apparently, he was who I was coming to meet." Her brows were buried under the bangs of the wig, as if she was still startled. "He sat down at the table and asked if I was Sue. He was very professional. Very business-like. It was incredibly unnerving."
    "Scotty has that effect on people," I agreed.
    She looked at me again, newly surprised. "You really do know him."
    I nodded.
    "He's a baby!!"
    I laughed out loud. "Lady, Scotty wasn't a baby when he was born!" She smelled sour-sharp with disapproval but at the same time oozed wet, fog-bank sorrow.
    "He can't be more than, what, twelve?" She gestured with her fingers while controlling the wheel with the heels of her palms. She was agitated enough about the kid that she couldn't sit still.
    "I mean, he's only a few years older than my nephew who still plays video games and is shy around girls."
    I nodded agreement. "He just turned thirteen. He's already had two strikes so he'll have to keep his head down. Next time, they'll charge him as an adult. And he does still play video games and is shy around girls."
    "You mean he's been caught before? Killing people? Then why is he still out and… "
    "Talking to people like you?" I asked with a smirk. "Because he's a minor. He got the maximum five years in juvie hall for the first one. They had to drop the case on the second one. Witnesses kept disappearing."
    She glanced at me in horror. "But if he was in juvenile hall for five years, then… "
    I completed the thought, "He did his first job, sloppily, at the tender age of six."
    Her eyes went wide. "The poor baby!"
    I shook my head. "Don't feel real sorry for him. He's the way he wants to be. I checked him out. There's no history of abuse. The kid's just a psychopath. He doesn't look like anything other than a normal kid. It's his trademark. Nobody expects him, so he can sneak up on people." I thought I knew but asked anyway. "Why'd he turn you down?"
    She shook her head with a small laugh. "He said that it wouldn't be any fun to 'do me', because I'd know he was coming. He said he does 'close in' work, whatever that means and he couldn't sneak up on me."
    "That's with a knife or other arm's length weapon. A blade, a golf club, whatever. For Scotty, it's a visceral pleasure for him to watch a person die. He actually gets a physical high. Maybe even a sexual high." I shrugged. "To each his own."
    "That," she said with a shiver, "is just so… bizarre! He really scared me."
    I looked at her with a questioning smirk. "And I don't?"
    She paused. "Not in the same way," she said thoughtfully. "He gets his kick out of pain. You can see it in his eyes. You look like you'll do it, but it's just business."
    Not at the full moon. I nodded in agreement anyway. I stared hard at the side of her face for a minute and abruptly decided she needed a dose of reality. I admire the kid's work. He's talented. I wouldn't want her to go all socially conscious on him and turn him in "for his own good."
    "You know, you should be happy that he does this for a living."
    "Why in God's name would you say that?" Her eyebrows climbed high on her forehead. She spared a horrified glance before returning her attention to the freeway traffic.
    "Because as long as he does it for a living, it satisfies the need and he doesn't do it for fun." She glanced at me, stunned. "Understand? A lot less dead people. Scotty's damn smart. He won't get caught easy. He'll be a serial killer if he ever stops being an assassin."
    A sign whizzed past. The next exit was ours. She flipped on her turn signal and changed lanes. Her eyes blinked in time with the sound. "I guess."
    I rested my elbow on the car windowsill. "You still haven't said. How'd you find me?"
    Silence for a little while, then she took a deep breath. She shook her head and straightened in her seat. "From him. He wouldn't do the job but he gave me your number. Said you were the best, if I could afford you."
    Huh. Didn't know the little