‘You think your idea will work?’ Rink asked.
I was sitting on the balcony outside my room at the Tipi Hotel, strategically placed so that it was adjacent to the one Jay and Nicole now shared. Earlier I’d called at the Fed-Ex depot and collected the items that McTeer had shipped there. Sealed in boxes was a SIG Sauer P228, as well as a Ka-bar combat knife. I’d taken them out on the balcony while cleaning and prepping them, and now had a recently purchased ‘pay as you go’ cellphone to my ear. I kept my voice lowered so I didn’t wake the women. Exhaustion had finally caught up with them and while their parents were taking dinner in the hotel’s restaurant they’d both retired early. I’d followed them back up, because the police guards had been recalled to other duties now that Samuel Logan had fallen off the face of the earth.
‘He isn’t like the others we’ve fought in the past,’ I said. ‘Tubal Cain, Dantalion, Rickard, they were all pros in their own right. You ask me, Samuel Logan’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic. I don’t think he’d have the capacity to find us if we didn’t hang around and wait for him.’
‘He’s maybe dumb, but it doesn’t make him any less dangerous.’
I thought of the pain in my body, a dull ache by now, and had to agree. ‘I’m not going to underestimate him, Rink. In fact, if anything, I have to be extra careful. Cain, Luke Rickard, they had similar backgrounds and training to us and because of that we could sometimes predict their movements. It’s different here. Samuel Logan, I don’t know what motivates him, and it’s difficult to second-guess him.’
‘What if he doesn’t go there?’
‘Then I find some other way to bring him to us.’
‘You lookin’ for another stand-up drag-’em-out brawl?’
‘It’s a case of heart versus mind. I’d love to go at him man to man, but no. Soon as I get the opportunity I’ll put a couple of rounds in his head.’
‘Make sure you don’t miss this time.’
‘That’s the thing, Rink. I’m sure I didn’t miss last time.’
‘So you’re fighting Superman?’
‘No, not Superman. But there’s something unnatural about him.’ I told Rink how I’d repeatedly smashed Samuel’s face with my fists and forehead and he’d barely reacted.
‘You know the deal,’ Rink said. ‘When the blood’s up, you sometimes don’t feel the pain until after. I can guarantee he was swallowing Tylenol like they were M&Ms later on.’
‘Maybe.’
‘There’s no maybe. When I was fighting in those knockdown karate tournaments, I saw guys breaking their shins against each other, but they carried on to the end of the fight. Broke my wrist once, but I still won. Tell you what, though… later on I was moaning like a bitch in heat. It’ll have been the same with that nut-job. Guarantee it, brother.’ Rink paused and I knew he was considering taking the next flight out here. ‘An’ if I’m wrong, let’s see how he gets on with a load of shot up his ass.’
‘You’d have thought a couple of three-five-sevens would have put him down for good.’
‘So maybe you missed.’
The conversation was going round in circles.
‘Won’t next time,’ I said, trying my best to put a lid on it.
‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘There’s too much at stake there.’
He was right, this wasn’t just about me. Because I was leading their tormentor directly towards them, my crazy plan was a sure way of causing Jay and Nicole further nightmares. Not that I intended placing either of them within his grasp, but what if Rink was wrong and there was more to this man than met the eye? OK, he was no Tubal Cain or Luke Rickard, but he was a determined and violent antagonist. In fact, his unconventional style might prove to be more dangerous than any of the professional killers I’d faced in the past.
I experienced a slight fluttering in my guts, the first trickle of adrenalin as I responded to the challenge. Rink has often accused me of getting off on the thrill of battle; maybe he had something. I was looking forward to meeting Samuel Logan and the sooner the better.
The silence at the other end of the phone had grown palpable.
‘What?’
‘Take it easy, bro.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Don’t let this frog-giggin’ sumbitch draw you into his world.’
‘I don’t get you.’
‘I don’t need to be looking at you to know you’re wearing your war face. Shit, man, you ask me you’re fixating as hard on Samuel as the Logans did on the girls.’
‘I think that my kind of fixation’s a lot different from theirs.’
He breathed heavily into the mouthpiece. ‘Whatever. But it’s still unhealthy… whichever way you look at it.’
‘You turning into a shrink these days, spouting all this psychobabble?’
‘Ain’t spouting nothin’. Just offering the voice of reason, you understand?’
‘As long as you don’t start feeling my bumps, Rink.’
‘I might give you a couple bumps when I see you. It’s the only way to knock some sense into your fat head.’
We both laughed, and it was a good point to ring off. I was looking forward to personally finishing things with Samuel, but, truth be told, it would make sense if Rink was there to watch my back. If I had my way that wasn’t going to happen though, not this time.