Dusk was settling in when Ben and Joe got the rather unsettling call from Vin. He wanted to meet them, but not at the hotel, not anywhere public. Somewhere they'd never been before, somewhere they'd figured they'd never see again in their lives.
They both rode in Ben's Cadillac to Vin's home. By the time they got there and gathered the courage to approach the door, the sun had just departed their part of the earth. Vin invited them into his parlor and the three sat and drank whiskey and puffed on cigars. Neither Ben or Joe wanted to speak on anything more seriously than traffic or weather. But Vin alleviated that fear for them.
"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here," Vin figured, far too tired of the meaningless, awkward conversation.
"Damn right," Joe breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't have to be the one to ask the question.
"I honestly didn't expect this," Ben nodded. "Rain's back at the hotel right now, ready to leave."
"So," Vin sipped his whiskey, "have you slept on your thoughts?"
"Yeah," Ben nodded, "she can be trusted. We need to put some faith in her."
"Joe?" Vin inquired.
"We can't trust our lives to this girl," Joe spoke the same opinion he had the night before. "We just can't do it. Its far too much of a risk."
"She'll lie!" Ben snarled. "I know she will, I asked her about it, she'll lie all day long for us!"
"At first," Joe retorted, "she'll lie at first. But, with all the cops grillin' her and all those damn news cameras in her face, she'll flip like a damn pancake. And when that happens, we'll all be on death row, and you know it."
"You think killin' her won't get us on death row?" Ben scoffed.
"Nobody needs to know if we do," Joe pointed out. "We know each other well enough we ain't gonna rat or flip or any of that shit. We can't trust her."
"She killed people to save us!" Ben responded furiously. "She hit those two bikers with my car to save our asses, she'd never sell us down the river, never!"
"Bullshit she won't," Joe looked around the room before turning to Vin. "You got a TV in here?"
Vin pointed to the wall, where a well-disguised entertainment center was camouflaged into the wall. Joe was to it in a flash. He slid the doors open to reveal a massive flat screen television. He quickly found the remote and turned on the news again. They were once again playing a story about the KC Devil massacre.
"You think she ain't gonna spill about that?" Joe asked loudly. "With all that pressure? You're dumber than shit if you believe her. She's just a teenage girl, teenage girls love to change up their stories."
"You know she won't do that!" Ben shot up from his seat. "You know she won't do that. That's a Goddamn lie and you know it. She knows well enough not to change her story once she's made it. She's not some mindless teenager!"
"Gentlemen!" Vin boomed over them. They spun quickly towards their boss. He only aimed a finger the opposite direction, towards the TV. They turned to see the story on the massacre still running, but this time a file photo of Dando was in the corner of the screen. Joe fumbled for the remote and turned to volume nearly all the way up.
"Nobody is certain as of yet who committed this gruesome gang slaying, or why," the field reporter explained. "But, authorities believe it may have been a type of extreme revenge for the recent murder of a high-reputation drug dealer by the name of Bruce Dando. Dando was found shot dead several days ago and it is believed that the slaughtered KC Devils gang was behind the shooting. Authorities also claim the shooting of Dando is connected to a new drug, a small fortune of which was discovered at the murder scene. The new drug, a pill that goes by the name Delicate Rain, has exploded onto the streets, with police thinking its only a week or so old in this area."
Vin snatched the remote out of Joe's hands and muted the television, tossing the remote onto the end table. For a moment he watched the reporter's lips keep moving, enjoying the silence.
"What the hell, man?" Joe asked, confused. "The TV's still talkin'."
"Delicate Rain," Vin spoke up, his expression of suspicion staining his face more than ever now, "where'd she come up with that anyway?"
"No damn clue," Joe shrugged. "One of the them random things, I guess."
"Ben?" Vin wondered. "You know anything about it?"
"I think so, yeah," Ben nodded.
"Well, please, inform me," Vin gestured for Ben to explain, a devious smile growing on his face as he waited.
"She said it was a nickname," Ben said. "Her mom gave it to her when she was really young and it kinda stuck, I guess. What does this have to do with anything?"
"A nickname, huh?" Vin's smile weakened. "How long has it stuck?"
"I don't know," Ben shrugged. "Until now I think."
"Why are we even talkin' about this?" Joe asked impatiently. "There are a lot of more important things to talk about."
Vin only hummed lowly in response. His mind was already far away. He recalled the sign off of Rain's letters to her family. A direct match to the name of his hit new drug. The remaining smile he still wore dissipated entirely. A deep, spiteful scowl was all that took its place.
A nickname, it was a nickname. Rain knows the term well, as does her family, Vin figured. It was no doubt fresh on her parent's minds, especially now. And now that term was printed on every news cast or newspaper in the area. There was no way her family hadn't seen something by now, and even if they hadn't yet, they would very soon. Any lie Rain told wouldn't hold up to that. Her nickname, her sign off, was now the most popular designer drug in Kansas City.
"Vin, you gonna say anything?" Ben snapped in his boss's face. The snaps garnered no response, not even a single flinch. "Vin?"
Vin was too far gone now. His thoughts were all that mattered to him now. It was now that he realized why Leyland wondered at him about it. He knew of the nickname, and he knew of the drug. Vin was now positive the family knew, Leyland informed them, he was certain about that. It was too late for options now. Whatever lie Rain felt she could tell to trick her family, to trick the police wouldn't hold up now. Delicate Rain would make sure of that.
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