"Ahhh," JC said, dropping the envelope and canteen, and holding up his hands, palms out.

Curtis then noticed some kind of movement in JC's midsection. When he glanced down, he saw that the crotch of JC's blue jeans was darkening and the stain was quickly spreading, moving mostly down the inside of the right leg of his pants.

Curtis snorted.

Not so smug now, huh?

Not so tough and cocky, either.

You chickenshit. You just pissed yourself.

"C'mon," Curtis said, motioning with the pistol for JC to come in. "Strut in over there. Beside your lawyer buddy. And get on your knees."

After JC reluctantly moved inside the office, Curtis quickly stepped out and grabbed the envelope and the canteen, then pulled the door shut and relocked it.

The envelope was hefty, and packed with a thick wad of paper. Will Curtis put one end of the envelope in his teeth and tore it open. He blew into the hole, then looked inside-then whistled.

He walked over to the desk and started shaking the envelope to dump out its contents.

A stack of well-worn bills-twenties, fifties, and hundreds, easily totaling at least a couple grand-landed by the zip-top bag of white powder. He shook the envelope once more and out fell a cellophane packet of pills.

He looked at JC, who had gotten on his knees.

Curtis then went to him and said, "Hands behind your back."

As Curtis wrapped JC's wrists, he asked, "What's that bag of powder? Meth?"

JC shook his head. "Uh-uh," he said nervously. "Coke. Take all you want."

Curtis ignored that. "And those pills in the packet?"

He saw JC and Gartner exchange nervous glances. He pushed JC to the floor and put a knee in his back.

"What the fuck are they?" Curtis said. "Tell me, or I'll just shoot you now."

"Roofies," JC said quietly, closing his eyes.

Curtis said nothing as he considered that while taping together JC's ankles.

Then, with an amused tone to his voice, he said: "Roofies? Really!"

Curtis then leaned over Gartner and, using the pocketknife, cut the tape that was wrapped around his head and pulled the gag from his mouth.

"I think we all need a drink," Curtis said. "I know you've got to have something here, Danny Boy."

Gartner made a forced smile. "Sure. Bourbon. Vodka. Gin. What do you want?"

"Where is it?"

Gartner nodded toward a bookshelf across the room.

Will Curtis grabbed the first bottle he saw on the bookself. It was vodka, Stolichnaya, specifically Stoli Razberi. Beside it was a bottle of Jack Black and one of Bombay Sapphire. And next to those were six somewhat clean highball glasses.

As he walked back to the desk, Curtis didn't know what pissed him off more about the vodka.

That it's goddamned Russian, or that it's candy-ass flavored.

Well, maybe the raspberry will make the pills easier to swallow.

Gartner and JC watched Curtis's every move as he splashed about an inch of Stoli into each of two glasses. Then he took from the cellophane packet four of the Rohypnol pills and dropped two in each of the glasses of vodka. There was a little fizz as the pills began to dissolve in the alcohol.

He took the bottle of Stoli Razberi back to the bookshelf, picked up another glass, then the bottle of Jack Daniel's. As he poured, he turned to glance at Gartner and JC.

"If you're getting the clear stuff," Curtis said, "then I'm getting the dark stuff. Wouldn't want to get them confused, no?"

He carried the glass of Jack Black to the desk and set it down. Then he picked up one of the glasses of vodka. He took it over to where Gartner lay on the carpet. Grabbing Gartner by the arm, Curtis got him back up on his knees. Then he held the glass to his lips. Gartner shook his head. Curtis grabbed him by his thinning gray-black hair and yanked back. Gartner's jaw dropped open and Curtis poured in the vodka, then moved his hand under the jaw and closed Gartner's mouth. It took a moment, but Gartner finally swallowed most of it.

He repeated the process with JC, though he had to hit JC on the head with his pistol after he spit out the first glass of vodka. Curtis had then mixed two more roofies with another three inches of Stoli Razberi, then grabbed a stunned JC by his blood-soaked thick black hair and poured the drink down his throat.

Then Will Curtis went back to the desk, sat in the chair, and began sipping from the Jack Daniel's while watching the alcohol-fueled roofies take effect.

And for reasons he did not understand, particularly considering the circumstances, he suffered not one single flashback.

Maybe this is what they mean by finding peace through justice. "Okay, let's go, you assholes."

Curtis didn't expect a reply. Under the influence of the Stoli-Rohypnol mixture, Gartner and JC were more or less out cold. Even when he kicked them in the ass with his boot toe, they barely responded.

For the first ten minutes after he'd forced them to swallow the powerful sedative, he'd watched them slowly get sleepier and sleepier. Gartner faded faster, and Curtis thought that might be because of the cocaine he'd also consumed.

By the time fifteen minutes had passed, they'd basically become incoherent, slurring their words.

After the twenty-minute mark, with them curled up babylike on the carpet, Curtis had felt confident that they posed no problem whatsoever and had gone out to move the car behind the building.

Now, a half hour later, he struggled to get them-very groggy but agreeable, despite their wrists still being bound-one at a time down the corridor and out the back door of the office building. He'd parked the Malibu in the dark alley and left its truck open.

He dumped JC and Gartner inside the trunk, then took the clear adhesive tape and wrapped their heads so that the tape sealed the nose and mouth of both men.

As he watched their bodies begin to convulse at the blockage of their airways, Curtis wondered, Why don't I feel bad about this?

Then-boom!-a vision came of Wendy.

It was the one of her, spread-eagled, bound to the bed with her nylon stockings.

Shit! That's the hell why!

He looked at JC.

Because of what you did to my baby and to whoever else, you miserable bastard.

Then his eyes went to the other bucking body.

And you, Danny Boy, kept him out of jail so that he could.

Kept him and who the hell knows how many other miserable shits on the streets.

Curtis, suddenly furious, shook his head angrily as he took one last look at the pair.

Then he quickly pulled from his pocket two plastic garbage bags he'd grabbed in Gartner's office and covered their heads with them. He took the Glock from his jacket and put its muzzle at the base of JC's skull, angled toward the top of his head, and squeezed the trigger.

The.45-caliber round fired with a loud bang, JC made a primal groan, his legs kicked out straight, and the garbage bag on his head billowed briefly, the top of it moving violently as bullet fragments flew out, accompanied by bits of brain and blood, and lodged in the trunk floorboard.

The pistol automatically ejected the empty brass casing, which flew up, hitting the trunk lid, then landed beside JC's body, near where a dark stream of blood flowed from the bag, staining the white shirt and pooling on the football jersey.

Now you won't be going after those high school girls-or any others.

Then he moved the pistol muzzle to the same place at the base of Gartner's skull and squeezed off another round.

This time the ejected spent casing landed on the concrete of the alleyway. The brass made a tinkling sound in the darkness as it tumbled to a stop against a curb.

Rot in hell, you scum! Will Curtis thought, then slammed down the lid. [TWO] Loft Number 2180 Hops Haus Tower 1100 N. Lee Street, Philadelphia Saturday, October 31, 11:10 P.M. As Matt Payne looked out of Amanda Law's penthouse window, thinking about how much damn truth Amanda had written in his would-be obituary, he took a sip from the beer bottle and swallowed hard.