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Reina felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up again as she approached her car. She stopped abruptly, looking around. Someone was there. She could smell the cigarette smoke. Whoever it was, he or she was not immortal but something told her that their presence was not innocuous either.
"Ah, Ms. Molestador. I've been meaning to meet with you," an older man shrouded in cigarette smoke stepped out of the shadows.
"Do I know you?"
"You will."
"What makes you so sure?"
"We'll be meeting again."
Reina wasn't too thrilled about the fact that they were meeting now. She certainly wasn't interested in a repeat performance. "Not bloody likely," she said.
"Where did you learn such language?"
"What do you want?"
"The question is: what do you want?"
Reina raised an eyebrow at the old man. "You don't have anything I want."
"I have the location of the man who killed your godfather," the cigarette smoking man said. "You are still interested in killing him aren't you?"
Reina glared at the stranger. "How do you know about my godfather?"
"I have my sources."
Reina started to walk away.
"Mark Tuttle is not the name he's using now," the elderly man told Reina. "I know what name he is using as well. Someone very high up made sure that the name Mark Tuttle was completely untraceable."
Reina stopped, turned around, and narrowed her eyes at the man. "You're telling me the you're willing to give me the name and the location of the man who killed my godfather just like that?"
"Yes."
"And what do you want in return?"
"Nothing but your gratitude."
"I don't believe you," Reina said. "I'd bet that you helped Mark Tuttle become untraceable in the first place and now you're willing to sell him out because you're pissed at him."
"You're a little young to be this cynical."
"There's no such thing as a free lunch," Reina said. "I know that. People like the one you'd have to be talking about never do anything without wanting something in return. So naturally something tells me that gratitude to you is too…" Reina cocked her head looking for a word that fit. "Expensive."
"You don't know me. How do you know that gratitude to me is out of your price range?"
"Call it a hunch. You don't come across as trustworthy. And anyone who sneaks up on you in a dark parking lot isn't someone with whom you would want to deal."
"I doubt your brother would think so."
"Even my brother knows better than to trust some anonymous dude in a parking lot. But if you think he'd be more inclined to deal with you then perhaps you should talk to him."
"Maybe he doesn't have what I'm looking for."
"I don't have anything you're looking for," Reina replied. "And if I did I wouldn't let you have it."
"The police thought you killed that young man last night. It's a good thing your alibi was airtight. It would have been a pity for you to go to prison for something you didn't do."
I wasn't planning on going to prison. Reina thought. She said nothing.
"Think about what I said. We'll see one another again."
Not if I have anything to say about it. Reina said to herself. "Don't hold your breath."
The cigarette smoking man disappeared into the shadows. Reina had a sneaking suspicion that despite her wishes, she would be seeing him again.
Finis
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