Panic Attack

On the stairwell he stopped and attached the sound suppressor to the end of the barrel, then put the gun back in his inside jacket pocket and continued up to her apartment. He rang the bell, and she answered, looking scared, like she thought she was about to get busted. Well, she was about to get busted, just not the way she thought.

Joh

“You Gabriela?” Joh

She nodded, and he shot her in the face. She fell back a little, then crumpled onto the floor, the blood puddle spreading around her mouth. He checked to make sure none of her blood was on him, and then he stood back and put a couple into her chest to make sure she was gone for good.

He took a quick look around, spotted her pocketbook. He took twentythree dollars, then tossed the pocketbook onto the floor and got the hell out of there.

Heading back toward the city on the 7 train- it was crowded with com muters- Joh

It felt so good to finally be able to relax. Joh

But then, when he was switching for the F train at Thirty- fourth Street, he got all tensed up again, thinking, What if Carlos is still alive? Maybe Carlos was in a hospital, hooked up to machines, and the police were questioning him right now. Joh

In Brooklyn, Joh

“Thank fucking God,” Joh

He was totally in the clear. There was no way the cops would ever catch on to him. All he had to do was lie low for a while and everything would be okay.

On the TV, they were showing the guy, Dr. Adam Bloom. Joh

The report ended, and Joh

Yeah, Joh

He had to give that uppity son of a bitch some payback.

nine

Before the robbery and the shooting, Dana Bloom thought she had gotten back in control of her life. She’d told Tony that she wanted to end their fling and, although he didn’t take it very well, and it had been hard for her to let go, too, she’d made it three days without any contact with him and she felt like she’d made it over the hump, that she was ready to put the past four months with Tony behind her and rededicate herself to her marriage.

But now, suddenly, everything was falling apart again, and it was all because of that stupid gun. She had no idea why Adam had to go and shoot that guy- why couldn’t he listen to her for once in his life?- and now Gabriela was dead and she couldn’t help thinking that it was all Adam’s fault, too. That he wouldn’t take any responsibility or admit any fault for anything he’d done infuriated her more than anything. Why was it so hard for him to say I’m sorry?

After Detective Clements left, Dana felt completely helpless. Not only couldn’t she get through to her husband, but she felt like the police couldn’t protect them, and she didn’t feel safe in her own house.

They were walking along the hallway past Marissa’s room- she was in there blasting her stereo again, some god- awful music- and Dana was saying, “Let’s go to Florida, just to get out of the house for a few days or a week or whatever.”

Adam, heading into the bedroom, said, “That’s ridiculous. I’m not ru

Following him, Dana said, “Don’t call me ridiculous.”

“I’m not calling you ridiculous. I’m saying ru

“What doesn’t make any sense? What planet are you on? Gabriela was killed, and-”

“And that has absolutely nothing to do with us.” He was raising his voice to talk over her. She hated it when he did that; it was so demeaning and disrespectful. “You’re just making up stories, trying to scare yourself,” he added and turned away from her, changing into his sweatpants. Another thing she hated- when he gave her his back.

“I can’t believe you,” she said. “You really can’t be this stubborn. You’re just doing it to get a reaction from me.”

“Really? And why would I want to do that?”

“Because you like it, you like provoking me. You like the way it makes you feel.”

“That’s it, you have me figured out, all right. I woke up today and I said, You know what, I think I’ll provoke my wife today. That’ll be so much fun.” “That’s exactly what you do.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, stop it. Your problem is you just refuse to see anything any other way. You know everything. You have all the answers. You even know more than the police, apparently. I still love that, by the way, telling off the NYPD. That was just brilliant.”

“You’re doing it again,” she said.

“Doing what again?”

“Spi

“I’ll listen to you if you start making some sense.”

She was so angry at him she couldn’t even remember what they were arguing about anymore. She took a few moments and then said, “So what if I’m right? What if it is all related? What if whoever killed Gabriela comes back here, tries to break into our house?”