All Shadows Fall
9
Everyone was the way he had left them when Vlad returned. Shimmer was slouched against the bar wall slowly rubbing his scarred head from back to front slowly. Cliff sat alone at table near the maitre D's booth, examining his 'Carla' the way a man studies a woman before sex. He looked up from his work when Vlad approached.
" The goil ok?" Cliff questioned in his deep baritone. Vlad nodded once and looked away to avoid any further conversation on the matter. Koto sat quietly at the bar. The way his nose crinkled and his eyes stared accusingly at the floor, it was certain that he was fishing for attention. Fishing himself, for something to talk about beside that fat little girl, Vlad bit.
" What's wrong Koto" He looked surprised by the question.
" Huh? Oh, I was just scannin the way those blues iced Cutter. Something didn't click. They're supposed to be cops. Do you scan me? Ask questions and then shoot. That’s how they're supposed to be. That ain't the way they were back there. I mean, the way Cliff says it, they just shot. No words. I just wish we hadn't left him like that. He might have still been alive y'know?"
Leaving Cutter behind didn't sit right with Vlad either, but he understood the biz end of sacrifice a lot better than Koto seemed to. Had they stayed back and shot it out with Lonestar, who knows what the outcome would have been? A planned kidnapping is one thing. You don't just geek the police and walk away. Even if they shot first.
?"All the shadows fall." Vlad mumbled. He lit a cigarette from the pack he'd found in the glove compartment earlier. They must have been Cutters because none of the others smoked. The box read: Morley's Smooth.
?" What's that supposed to mean?" Koto turned and looked up at Vlad curiously.
?"Nothing. Just a part of something someone used to say." Vlad dismissed the question, exhaling cigarette smoke through his wide nostrils. He let his eyes trail back to Shimmer. He'd become the quietest of the bunch since Cutter had left the game. Vlad could understand. It was tough enough to find friends in this world. That made it all the more difficult to lose them.?
" Hey, I'm gonna hit the stuffer Shacks around here. We might as well eat something while we're waiting for whatever it is we're waiting for. Do you guys want anything? Shimmer?" Vlad glanced around the room for responses. Cliff and Koto put their orders in. Shimmer never bothered to lift his head.