The Darkness - Jason Pinter [44]
twenty minutes ago. I think he's headed toward you. I
didn't get much, but if you--"
"Brett Kaiser is dead," I said. There was a pause on
the other end.
"Wait...what did you say?"
"I said he's dead, Jack. I caught up with him about ten
minutes ago when he pulled up in front of the building.
I talked to him for about thirty seconds, then he went
upstairs. And less than a minute after that, somebody
turned his apartment into a gigantic barbecue pit."
"Wait a damn minute," Jack said. His voice was
uneven, shaky. I'd never heard Jack like this before.
Scared. It put a lump in my stomach, as the enormity of
it all began to sink in. "You're saying somebody killed
Brett Kaiser?"
"A few times over," I said. "Somebody wanted to make
sure he didn't have a chance to talk to anyone. But I do
know that he knows about 718 Enterprises, and if I'd had
him another minute he would have spilled everything."
"Jesus, be careful, Henry. It's possible somebody saw
him talking to you."
"Wait, no way, how could they..."
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127
"Don't be stupid," Jack said. "If someone knows he was
talking to you, they might think he told you something."
"But he didn't," I said, pleading my case with nobody.
"Whoever killed him doesn't know that," Jack said.
"Be careful. Meet me back at the office in half an hour."
"No can do," I said, unsure of why I was going to do
this but sure that I needed to.
"And why the hell not?"
I couldn't tell Jack. If he knew, it would toss our whole
relationship into jeopardy. But we had the same blood,
the same gene that refused to allow us a moment's breath,
that refused to give us rest if there was one unanswered
question. But Paulina had nearly ruined his career. And
he couldn't know.
"I have to meet someone," I said. "A source. I'll be
back in a couple hours. We'll catch up then."
"Fine, Henry. But watch your back."
"I will," I said, and then hung up to go meet the one
person I was absolutely sure would never have my back.
I opened the phone back up, and called Paulina Cole.
18
The diner smelled the same as I remembered it. Diners
never changed, but I had a history with this one.
Fried onions, eggs, hash browns, stale coffee. Today
was only the second time I'd ever set foot in here, and
once again my only companion would be Paulina Cole.
I wasn't a big fan of diner food in general, with the exception of Sunday mornings when a late breakfast consisting of a mushroom-and-Swiss omelet with a cup of
hot coffee was better than a Swedish massage.
Meeting Paulina was pretty much the opposite of all
of that.
Paulina Cole was waiting for me in a back booth, a
half-empty cup of coffee in front of her. There was no
food, no condiments, just the coffee. She was wearing a
flannel shirt over a tank top, her hair done back in a bun.
Her eyes, a fierce green that normally seemed to ache for
you to put up a fight, were subdued. She wore a minimum
of makeup, no perfume that I could smell. This was
unlike Paulina, whose switch seemed to be permanently
set to "on."
"Thank you for coming," she said as I sat down. I
nodded, unsure of how to feel.
The Darkness
129
"The last time I was this close to you," I said, "I was
ready to hurl you in front of a speeding bus."
"Understandable," she replied.
"You tried to ruin his life," I said. "Jack O'Donnell
has done more for this city and for this industry than you
ever will. And you try to throw it all away for what? To
sell a few extra copies? To put a big old smile on Ted
Allen's face?"
"Henry," Paulina said.
"Don't try and justify it to me," I said. "You're a coward."
"If I was a coward," Paulina said, her voice taking on
a metallic edge, cold and lifeless, "I would have hidden
a drinking problem for years. I would have mortgaged the
futures of my coworkers and my employer by reporting
with enough liquor in me to inebriate all of Green Bay. I
wasn't the coward, Henry. Jack was. If I'm the coward
for telling the truth about Jack, you have a pretty warped
view of what it means to be a reporter."
"Jack wasn't