Wilderness

She smiled at Hood and nodded. "I know, Chris, it's one of the problems of the whole problem, isn't it? We have to kill this man Karl so that neither the police nor the gangsters know we did it, or even suspect us. I assume his friends or whatever would want to revenge him even if they only suspected."

"And they're not concerned with rules of evidence, Janet," Hood said.

"So we can't even be spotted," Janet said. "If they recognize us, we're dead." Hood smiled. "That sounds about right," he said.

"We're still talking about murder here," Newman said.

Hood sipped at his Perrier water. Even in the booth with the Newmans he seemed remote, partly in shadow. They each leaned forward, arms on the table. He leaned back in the corner of the booth.

"What difference does it make what you call it," Janet Newman said. "Don't play word games. We have a problem here and we're thinking about a solution. You had the original idea."

Newman looked at his beer glass. "This isn't a goddamned curriculum question. We're talking about a human life."

Janet made a hissing sound. "I know what we're talking about," she said. "I had a lot of chance to think about it last night while I was lying on the bed tied up. It's not going to happen to me again. That's a goal. I'm looking for a process by which we can achieve that goal." "Process-oriented," Newman said. "Really sharpened the old management skills being chairman of that curriculum committee. "Scuse me, Chairperson." Janet Newman said, "Oh, Jesus Christ, Aaron." Chris Hood said, "Excuse me a moment." He slid out of the booth and walked halfway down the bar. A heavy man in a white three-piece suit and a black shirt with no tie was leaning over the left shoulder of a woman at the bar. She was wearing an ankle-length flowered dress and sandals. As Hood approached, the woman said something to the man and shook her head hard.

Hood put his left hand gently on the man's shoulder and smiled and murmured something.

The man said, "Who the fuck are you?" Hood murmured again to the woman. She nodded.

The man said, "Get your hands off my shoulder, Jack, or there's go

Hood's hand tightened slightly on the man's shoulder, and he murmured again and nodded toward the door.

The man said, "Fuck you, buddy," and Hood hit him in the kidneys with his right fist. The punch traveled six inches. The man yelped. Hood's left hand slid down the man's arm, got the wrist, and levered it up behind the man's back. His right hand took hold of the man's collar, and Hood and the man in the white suit walked very fast toward the front door and outside.

The bartender put another drink in front of the woman in the long flowered dress, and Hood came back in the bar, walked down to the Newmans' booth, and sat down. He sipped at his Perrier.

"Sorry," he said.

"I was about to rush out and join you," Newman said. "What happened out there?" Hood smiled and shook his head. "Nothing," he said. "Man just decided to move to another bar." "What if the man is too hard to handle?" Janet said.

"They usually aren't," Hood said. "And besides-" he took a two dollar roll of nickels out of his coat pocket'I have a helper."

Newman laughed. "All right, Chris," he said. "Want me to work here on busy nights? We could really do a tune on some guy."

"How about Adolph Karl," Janet said. "Can you do a tune on him?"

Newman finished his beer and belched. "I bet we could," he said.

"Chris and I? Huh? What you say, Chris. Can we take him?"

"What's that the man said once," Hood answered. "To kill a man you need three things: the gun and the balls?"

"We can get the gun okay," Newman said. He ran get and the together.

"And we got the rest." Newman's color was high and he drummed on the table edge with both hands.

Janet Newman said, "I'll be interested to see how you feel about it tomorrow."

"Why," Newman said, "cause I been drinking? I'm not drunk."

"Why not sleep on it. And you might want to think what you're trying to involve Chris in."

"For cris sake don't you want me to do it? A minute ago you were talking like you wanted me to do it. You want me to do it, I'll do it."

The waitress appeared, looked at Newman's empty glass. Hood shook his head very slightly and the waitress went away.

"Because I want you to?" Janet said.

"Yeah. You want it. I'll get it for you."

"Not because you want it?"

"It don't matter what I want. I do whatever you want, babe. You want something done, I'm your man."

"So it's all up to me," Janet said.

"Some of it is up to me, Janet," Hood said. He was sitting back in his corner, and the shadow of the booth hid his eyes. "It's up to me how far I get involved in this."

"Of course, Chris. If you don't involve yourself, I very much doubt if Aaron will. Even if he thinks so now."

"Bullshit," Newman said. "I'll do it with him or without. I got you, babe, I don't need anything else." Hood smiled and was silent.

"Always self-sacrifice, always the martyr to love," Janet Newman said.

"If you do this it will be because you want to. I'm not going to be the one." "Fuck this," Newman said and stood up. "I'm going home. You coming?"

"I have my car," Janet said, "remember?" Newman said, "Yes, so you do," and turned and walked out of the bar.

In the booth Janet and Hood were silent. Then Janet said, "Chris. He's going to do it, the son of a bitch. Or I'll do it myself. Those bastards. They will not do that to me again."

"You're thinking about revenge, Janet, and safety."

"So what."

"He's thinking about honor and courage, maybe justice."

"Shit."

"Not to him it isn't. They're hard things to think about. Being the kind of man he thinks he ought to be is hard. It's a burden."

"Being the kind of woman he thinks I ought to be isn't very easy either," she said. "I just think that killing Adolph Karl is the only intelligent solution to the problem we've got. It will serve as justice for the young woman he killed, it will prevent him from doing it again, it will take our own lives out of jeopardy, it will, I admit this, ease my own sense of violation. And it will solve Aaron's problems of honor and manhood or whatever you think is bothering him."

"What do you think is bothering him?"

"Oh God, Chris, I don't know and I'm sick of trying to figure it out.

He's not a man, he's a big child. Everything has to be romance and chivalry and…" She gestured aimlessly with her hand.

"And a code of behavior," Hood said. "I read the books. That's not always a bad thing, Janet."

"Live with it a while," she said.

Hood was silent.

"Would it bother you to do it, Chris? To kill Adolph Karl?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I agree with your summary of the situation. It seems your best move."

"It'll bother Aaron, I can assure you."

"He's never done it before," Hood said.

"Kill someone?"

"Yes."

"Neither have I," Janet said, "but it doesn't bother me."

"I've got another edge on Aaron," Hood said.

"You're probably in better shape," Janet said.

"No," Hood said. "I kind of like it."