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center of the living room made her swing the gun with two hands
at a huge two-headed gray and white wolf. It stood almost as tall as Redi in
front of her red leather couch, both heads growling. She aimed for its heart.
    “Sh-h-h, Geh, sit down,” a male
voice said from Redi’s right. The animal crouched on the floor, low growls
still echoing from its twin throats, two pairs of red eyes fixed on Redi.
    She spun around and pointed the
gun at a slim, tall man leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He was
dressed in a white tuxedo; his long wavy dark hair almost touched the floor.
His features were Japanese, but his skin was mocha brown, the same shade as
Redi’s. She thought he had no eyes, but realized they were entirely black. She
could see the wall through him.
    Some kind of ghost, but not
anyone she had killed.
    “Who are you?” she asked, putting
the gun down on the ebony wood coffee table.
    He smiled, showing stained
pointed teeth. “I need a favor.”
     
    “I don’t do that kind of work
anymore,” Redi said, pouring gin into a glass. “What would you offer me to come
out of retirement, a shot at redemption?”
    She lit a cigarette, inhaled
slowly and sat down on the couch. He sat opposite her, but not on anything she
could see. The dog lay at his feet, its huge heads surrounded by blue flames.
    He shook his head. “That only
happens in the movies.”
    “Then why should I do this favor
for you?”
    He uncrossed his long legs and
leaned forward.
    “After all you’ve done,” he said,
spreading long fingers out, the three-inch nails shaped to needle points. “What
would removing one more person from this time and space mean?”
    “It occurs to me, looking at you,
that one more person just might mean the difference between one level of hell
and another,” she said.
    “You’ve got to know that, with
your body count, there’s not much to hope for when you die,” he said, waving
around the room.
    The room filled with ghosts, the
silent kind that Redi was used to seeing. Usually there were only a few at a
time, now they crowded the room. They watched, a few laughed silently and
pointed.
    “So I kill this one person for
you and get what in return?” she asked.
    He stood and walked through ebony
wood coffee table. The dog rolled over onto its side. “I could get you a few
hours a day without the company of your victims.”
    “I’ve gotten used to being
followed by ghosts.” She reached through his leg to set her glass down on the
coffee table. “I’m sure there’s somebody else you could get to kill this person
for you,” she said, putting her feet up on the coffee table. The ghost paced
back and forth in front of her, his long hair streamed behind him as if
floating through water.
    “I can’t say why right now, but
you have to be the one,” he said.
    Redi leaned forward, took a
drink. “Hmmm, let me take a guess. I’m in so deep that one killing won’t really
affect my, let’s call it, Karma?”
    “Actually killing this person is
going to be good for you. Get you one step closer to your true destiny.” He
stopped pacing and sat down again in the air. The dog sat up and raised its
heads. One stared at Redi, the other at the ghost.
    “My destiny? What the hell does
that mean?” she asked.
    “Hell indeed.” He smiled.
    Redi stared at him. “You seem
familiar, but I don’t remember you being one of my hits,” she said, pointing
her cigarette at him.
    The dog barked. The ghost glared
at it. “We — uh — worked together. You didn’t kill me.”
    “I always work alone,” she said,
narrowing her eyes.
    He closed his eyes as if he was
listening to something, and then looked at her, “We have — had a very
special relationship. I can’t say any more about our association at this time.”
    “It’s hard to imagine I would
have forgotten you,” Redi said.
    “In time you will remember me and
much more. Trauma can make it necessary for the mind to veil certain... events
until