Signature Kill by David Levien Read Free Book Online Page A

street name along with her real one, Behr had thought he’d be able to find her quickly. He’d thought wrong. Live long enough on cash with no credit cards, no mortgage, someone else on the rent and utility bills, don’t register to vote, and move after a last arrest, and a person can disappear in plain sight. Behr figured he’d find her eventually, but for now he was dead tired, and headed for Susan’s place.
    “There he is, the Chairman of the Board!” rang out in greeting when Behr walked into her living room.
    Chad Quell, Susan’s coworker and friend, was sitting there withTrevor near his feet. Chad was wearing socks, a pair of trendy pointy-toed lace-up shoes sitting nearby. Susan was in the kitchen making a salad. Behr and Chad hadn’t gotten off to a great start and hadn’t been particularly fond of each other for a while. But after Behr had prevented Chad from getting a life-altering beating, things turned around pretty quickly. The young man used to be flippant at best, but now whenever he saw Behr, instead of Frank, it was “Francis Albert” or “Chairman of the Board,” as in Sinatra, as a sign of respect.
    “Slick,” Behr said back, with perhaps slightly less respect. They slapped hands, and Chad jumped up and pulled Behr into a bro hug with a back slap for good measure. For his part, Behr used to consider Chad akin to a device used to clean a certain part of a woman’s anatomy, but he’d actually grown fond of the kid’s wise-ass ways.
    “Hi, Frank,” Susan called out.
    “Hi,” Behr said, picking up the baby, amazed as always at how light and compact he was. It felt like there was hardly more to him than the cotton clothing he was wrapped in, yet Trevor was the magical source of joy for him and Susan.
    “You find that guy you were looking for?” she wondered.
    “I did,” Behr said.
    “What’s the case?” Chad asked.
    “A windmill I’m wasting my time with,” Behr said. “What about you?”
    “I was just telling Susan about ‘The Two,’ ” Chad said.
    “The two?” Behr asked.
    “More Chad war stories,” Susan said, arriving at the table with the salad she’d made.
    “I see,” Behr said.
    “Yeah, ‘The Two’ are this pair of dime pieces I know.”
    “Dime pieces are hot girls,” Susan volunteered.
    “Thank you. I’ve been on the street, so I know.”
    “They’re friends with my ex, actually, but you know, not
good
friends,” Chad went on. “We were out at Average Joe’s, and theshots were really flowing and then this sort of Truth or Dare game got started. Soon I’m wearing two pair of panties around my wrists like bracelets …”
    Behr felt himself tune out and vaguely follow as the conversation seamlessly moved off of Chad’s exploits and on to office gossip down at the
Indianapolis Star
, where he and Susan both worked. At some point Trevor was buckled into his seat and put at the end of the table, where he could oversee the dinner proceedings. Then Chad launched back into more tales of the girls he was dating and sleeping with—which were not mutually exclusive categories. The subtext that bled through to Behr was that none of the women involved were the true focus of his desire, which was Susan.
    But Behr’s mind was mostly cluttered with Kendra Gibbons, and what to do next. Then, when he turned his head toward the television and saw a news report saying that the body found at Northwestway Park had not yet been identified, Behr had an idea. He stood and kissed first Trevor, and then Susan, good-bye.
    “Where are you off to?” she asked.
    “Something I’ve got to go do,” he said. “Take care.”
    “See ya in the wee hours, Chairman,” Chad said.
    As he reached the door, Behr glanced back for just a moment at Susan and Chad on opposite sides of the table, with Trevor in his seat between them, and in that flash took in the perfect portrait of a family. One that he was not in.

14
    Other
needs a taste.
    The night surrounds him fluid and deep.