Tick Tock (Michael Bennett 4)

He would have said he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but he hadn’t been able to afford boots. He’d had to pull himself up by the dirt on his bare feet. He’d grown up in Appalachia in a place called Manette Holler, Pennsylvania, near the West Virginia line. His family had been backwoods poor, living in a trailer butted up against a junkyard. His half-toothless, alcohol- and drug-addicted mother worked sporadically at the truck stop Burger King when she wasn’t turning tricks with the semi drivers in the parking lot out back.

His Uncle Shelly was the owner of the junkyard. The sadistic son of a bitch used to beat him just for the hell of it. After a while, he’d almost gotten used to it. Once he got to school, the bigger kids would try to beat him, too, but they had nothing on his malicious uncle.

The military was the only way out of Manette Holler for him, and he took it at seventeen. The 82nd Airborne Rangers had been like a dream come true—three squares and a place to sleep. They’d taught him to kill and how to survive in the wilderness. He was a quick study.

He’d still be serving his country in the Special Forces if they hadn’t royally fucked him over. But once out, he went underground. Eastern seaboard, Key West to Maine. Wandering, living on the streets or the Appalachian Trail, riding the freights.

He would have done that for the rest of his life had he not met Lawrence. Not only had Lawrence discovered that he had dyslexia but he’d actually taught him how to beat it. At the age of thirty, Carl had been introduced to reading. Lawrence had been his benefactor and his tutor, like Aristotle was to Alexander the Great.

He thought about all the books and meals and discussions he had enjoyed. How wonderful to read quietly by his window as the wind howled through the trees of Central Park. The drives up to Connecticut in the fall on Route 7, the Mercedes’s engine purring. He could have done that for the rest of his life. Happy, alone, living the good life, the clean, dry life of the mind.

But then Lawrence was diagnosed, and they learned his enormous heart was failing. He’d thought that all the good things had come to an end. That’s when Lawrence came to him with a not-so-modest proposal. If Carl eliminated all of Lawrence’s enemies, his education and aesthetic discoveries would continue for the rest of his life, courtesy of Lawrence. Once the last of the people on Lawrence’s list was eliminated, Carl would receive the number to an account in Geneva.

After all, he’d killed for his country for no more than his mother had been paid at the Burger King. Killing for his friend with a $20 million inheritance was a no-brainer.

Apt ate a couple more peanuts, his eyes moving left to right then right to left, the scan of a hawk perched on a utility pole. He stirred his drink and continued to people-watch at the tables. A nipped-and-tucked divorcée on the prowl. A well-groomed, swarthy little Prada-wearing fuck with three gorgeous Asian women. A black male model in a white sport coat who kept trying to catch his attention.

Then he spotted her, a busty pale blonde in her late twenties sitting at the other end of the bar. There was a sexy, slutty, Old World Hollywood glamour about her, Marilyn Monroe.

Carl knew her name wasn’t Norma Jean Baker but rather Wendy Shackleton. She’d made Berger’s list for showing up from an escort service for Lawrence one night and taking one look at him and turning on her heels. The whore had totally rejected his good buddy before he’d even had a chance to open his mouth. She’d hurt Lawrence’s feelings very badly. Bad move.

Carl made eye contact as he carried his drink over.

“Good-bye, Norma Jean. Though I never knew you at all,” he sang, taking her hand as he sat down beside her.

She laughed demurely.

“I’m sorry,” he said, letting her go after a second. “How forward of me. My computer company just went public, and you’re just about the most glamorous-looking woman I’ve ever seen. You could be Marilyn herself.”

“You’re very kind,” she said, checking him out with approval. “Are you staying at the hotel?”

“Yes, I am,” Apt said. “I actually rang the opening bell down at the stock exchange this morning. It’s been one of the most exciting days of my life, and I need someone to share it with. Please, please, please, let me buy you a drink.”

“Sure, sure, sure,” she said, giggling. “What a gentleman.”

“Are you looking for some company tonight?” she said in his ear when her $20 dirty martini arrived.

“Oh,” he said, feigning surprise. “Oh, wow. You’re um…”

“Working. Yes,” she said, nodding, smiling. “Does that bother you?”

“Bother me? I’m bothered, all right. Hot and bothered in the best way possible. How does it work?”

“You’re not a cop, are you?”

Carl laughed and took a sip of his Whiskey Smash.

“Hardly,” he said.

“I didn’t think so. How does it work? Let’s see. You give me a thousand dollars, and I give you a lovely night you won’t forget.”

“Heck, let’s get to it, then,” Carl said, taking her hand again.

She banged his bad knee as she was pulling out her bar stool.

“I?

?m so sorry,” she said.