Line of Sight by James Queally

Author:James Queally [Pinter, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polis Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“You have lemon juice but no peroxide?” he asked.

“That’s old. I made fish once. It didn’t go well,” I replied.

He moved over to the sink, placing the items raided from my kitchen in a line. He started carefully dabbing the citrus onto a torn paper towel, then pressed it against a slash under my left eye. I winced and pulled away, then took hold of it and clasped it against my face when he shot me a stern look. Frank went back to the sink and twisted open one of the beers as I held out my hand eagerly. Then he took a swig and placed the other beer out of reach, unopened.

“This is all you’ve got left. I’d say you owe me more than one drink,” he said.

That was Frank. Controlling the room, regardless of whether or not it was his room to begin with. I dabbed at my face with the paper towel, letting the citric acid burn at the cut. He’d stepped away with the beer, and with my head pointed skyward I could barely see him out of the corner of my eye.

It was the same obscure view I had when he showed up to save me from being hospitalized by Scannell. A blur at the edge of my field of view, popping up seemingly out of nowhere. I was glad to see him, but I also had to wonder why I was seeing him.

“Frank?” I said. “Not that I’m not appreciative and all, but why were you at Hanley’s tonight?”

“It’s a cop bar in Newark. I used to be a cop in Newark,” he shot back. “Mystery solved.”

“This has nothing to do with what we talked about the other day?” I asked.

“Scannell beating your ass have anything to do with what we talked about the other day?” he shot right back.

“No. Well, maybe? I’m not sure.”

“Well, maybe I can help you figure that out,” he said.

“Thought you said you weren’t that bored.”

“I’m not. But I told you that it sounded like you were poking at something dangerous, and now I’m wiping blood off your face,” he said. “I know you. You’re not gonna drop this. And I’m not a big fan of seeing you get your head caved in.”

He still hadn’t told me why he was at Hanley’s at that time, in that exact moment when my ass needed rescue, but it was the first good news I’d received all day. Maybe it was just time to take it.

“Guess I need to catch you up then,” I said.

He tilted the beer bottle back again but found nothing inside, shook his head.

“Yeah, you do. Just let me get rid of this,” he said, leaving the room to find the recycling.

I slapped at my pocket for my phone, realizing I hadn’t checked my messages since Scannell put the hurt on me. It was tough to fish the device out blind, and when I finally got a look at the screen I wished I’d left it tucked away.

In the other room, I heard the TV buzz to life.

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