Chapter 2: Chapter 2
As he pondered this, a night heron appeared, swooping down to land at the river’s edge. There it stood, so still that if he hadn’t seen its arrival Gary might have missed it. He stepped back, careful not to disturb the bird, then sank down to his knees to watch it. And so the two of them remained until Gary’s knees began to ache and his eyes blurred from tiredness. He eased back until he sat, arms wrapped around his legs, and drifted off into a light doze.
* * * *
Vanni rose from his knees to wipe a hand across his mouth. The man in front of him put his now flaccid cock back into his jeans after stripping off the condom, which he tied off, dropped into the john, and flushed. Money exchanged hands then the man left. Vanni counted it quickly, put it in his pocket, and returned to the dance floor. Arms crossed, he leaned back against the wall to observe the dwindling crowd.
Some nights it doesn’t pay to get out of bed,he thought angrily. First Devin had walked away for no reason at all, then one of the men he’d hooked up with had stiffed him, daring him to do anything about it. He scrubbed his hand across his eyes as he pushed off the wall. One good, strong drink and he’d be out of there.
When he arrived at the bar he found a whiskey on the rocks sitting in front of him.
“I could tell you needed this,” the tender said when Vanni cocked his eyebrows in surprise.
“Yeah, I do.” He tossed back half of it before he set the glass down.
“Vanni, when are you going to give up this life and let me take care of you?”
“Hell Mitch, how ‘bout yesterday,” Vanni retorted with a chuckle. It was a running joke with them since Mitch was about as straight as they came with a wife and two kids at home.
“I’ll dump Beth and we’ll run away to LA.”
“As in the city or the state?”
Mitch laughed. “Does it matter?”
“Naw, not really.” Vanni finished his drink, his mood darkening again despite their joking. He dropped some cash on the bar and stood to take one last look around. The man who’d stiffed him a couple of hours earlier was on his way out the door, his arm around a twink who looked all of eighteen at best. “Good luck, kid,” Vanni muttered. Two minutes later he left too, but out the back door. Once in his car he debated what to do next. He could just go home and crash, that would be the smart move, but he was still too juiced up and pissed off. There was one cure for that so he pulled out of the lot and drove as fast as the law allowed until he reached the highway heading north.
Not too much later he swerved off the highway into a small parking lot. After he’d checked himself in the rearview mirror to make certain his mood didn’t show on his face, he snagged the blunt he’d rolled earlier from its hiding place and stepped out of the car.
“Fun time,” he murmured under his breath as he lit the blunt and headed to his destination. 2
“Robbins, the lieutenant wants you in his office, now,” one of the detectives called out as soon as Hollis walked into the squad room. Hollis sighed, veered left, and rapped on Richter’s door. When the lieutenant hollered for him to come in he did.
“We’ve got another one, found about an hour ago.” Richter slid a slip of paper with the location across the desk to Hollis.
“Why didn’t someone call me?” Hollis grumbled as he memorized it.
“Someone did, several times, you didn’t answer your phone.”
Hollis pulled it out of his pocket and winced. He’d forgotten to turn it back on after he left the theater. But then it had been his day off and his mind had been on other things at that point. He saluted halfheartedly and left. The second he was out of the office he pointed to his partner, Abbie ‘No I’m not the singer’ Lincoln, and jerked a thumb toward the exit. She grabbed her jacket and followed, asking what was up.
“Our killer’s struck again. This time the vic’s missing an arm.”
“Where?”
“From where it was attached to his shoulder,” Hollis replied with a straight face.
Abbie snorted, smacked his arm, and said, “Where was the body found this time, you jerk!”
As they walked to his car, he told her. “Same general locale, just deeper into the woods.”
“If we didn’t know better I’d think it was a feral wolf or dog.”
“Wolves don’t use knives to cut throats or sever limbs or remove hearts.”
“No kidding.” She slid in to ride shotgun while he took the driver’s seat.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone