Unfortunately, life doesn’t always give you what you want. Bernard would have loved some more time to figure out what his approach was going to be, but after just a few minutes the bar door opened and Stephan stumbled out. If Bernard wanted to use Stephan in any additional way from here on out, his window was about to close.

He wasn’t fooling himself, though. Bernard knew why he had waited outside the bar for Stephan to leave. Not only was there too much opportunity in his position, but the odds that he’d cause Bernard trouble later were just unacceptably out of Bernard’s favor.

With a short internal sigh, Bernard resigned himself to what he knew he must do. It looked, however, like Stephan might make it easy on him. The man took the briefest look around and then ducked into the alley – out of sight, which would make it easier for him to get another fix without onlookers, but would also enable Bernard to have one final interaction with him on his own terms.

Bernard grabbed a decent-sized rock – bigger than a cobblestone, but smaller than a brick – and quietly followed Stephan into the alley. Either Bernard was far stealthier than he imagined, or Stephan was more distracted than was safe, but Bernard was able to creep up very close to him without being noticed.

A final second of self-preservation seemed to kick in, and Stephan started to turn to face Bernard just as Bernard smashed the rock into his head. Stephan fell, and Bernard struck him a few more times, to ensure he wouldn’t be getting up again.

That grisly part of the job done, he began to rifle through the man’s pockets and meager belongings. If anything, he ought to be able to make this look like a robbery gone bad. That would be uncommon in an area that was (at least ostensibly) under Marknosan family protection, but a drunk addict, at night alone in an alley is never really safe.

Bernard found a surprisingly large knife hidden under Stephan’s long shirt, as well as a small paper that seemed to have some sort of phrases; perhaps passcodes to get into or out of some of the sensitive locations he had to access as a delivery man?

It seemed more and more likely that Stephan had been one of Richard’s men – someone low on the totem pole, likely, but definitely someone who would have stirred up some significant trouble for Bernard. It was good, he reasoned, that he got him out of the way now.

Now, Bernard knew that there was a chance that Stephan had someone who would miss him (whether personal or professional) and who might investigate his disappearance and death. However, Bernard was relatively certain that there was no way to tie the murder to him – a stranger, who would be out of town as quickly as possible anyway – and he couldn’t get cold feet. He had a feeling that what he’d get up to before he left would make this pale in comparison.

Taking the large knife, Bernard waited a few minutes to be sure the alleyway was clear and that no one was watching, before casually walking back towards Jez’s operations. He made it a point to sway a little, looking like a man who had been drinking, but not too much – hopefully his appearance would be quickly forgotten in the stream of other men who regularly left the bar in such a state night after night.

It was at that moment that, for better or worse, Bernard was presented with another crisis of opportunity. While he still wanted time to better formulate a plan, he couldn’t believe his eyes – Jez appeared to be exiting the building, solo. If he wanted to go after her, he suspected he’d be hard pressed to find a better opportunity.

Still, Bernard had to choose. Should he follow Jez, or go after the warehouse? His personal pride and fear wanted to send him after Jez, although he knew that disrupting or destroying the manufacturing and distribution mechanisms for the opiates would probably buy him quite a bit of time. It was hard to decide…but Bernard was playing tonight uncharacteristically fast and loose, testosterone and adrenaline pumping. He decided to tail Jez.

Considering she was walking, and not taking a cart, her destination must not be too far away. Probably her residence. And it was difficult not to understand more about her power and place here when he saw the way she walked, strong, and tall, unafraid despite the lateness of the hour. Nobody would dare mess with her, not here in Richard’s territory.

Nobody, that is, except Bernard. After crossing to the other side to pass ahead of her (while giving her a very nonthreatening wide berth, and conveniently hiding his face in the low light) and rounding the street corner, Bernard stopped in a doorway, making a show of fumbling around looking for his keys and muttering to himself. As soon as she passed “his” doorway, Bernard pounced like an animal.

He whipped out the knife and stabbed her right in the back. It was a good, solid stab, for someone so unaccustomed to personally committing violence. It pierced her lung, causing her to stumble and gasp, but it wouldn’t let her scream or speak. Although it would have been better had he managed to get her heart – he must not have missed by much, but it might as well have been a mile, considering she could still move and see.

Bernard didn’t want to give her even the barest chance of recognizing him, just in case he got interrupted before the job was done and had to flee before she died. He pushed her stumbling form down to the ground with both hands, and stabbed her several more times in quick succession.

Jez was dead. Dead at his hand. That was…considerably more straightforward that Bernard had expected. Not to mention, it wasn’t really his style. All of his plans about handling it from the shadows, or creating a convoluted plan to make her disappear – none of it mattered when a simple knife could do the trick.

Bernard’s passion had truly gotten to him, and it was in some ways terrifying; two murders in a single night? Within maybe ten minutes of each other? It was astounding. Also, Bernard reflected wryly, it didn’t do much to back up the claims that the Marknosan family had been making about protecting this area, did it?

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

The adrenaline fading a bit, Bernard felt his panic rising again, and struggled to get command of his emotions. He couldn’t keep standing over a dead body, holding a giant bloody knife. But he shouldn’t be seen running away, either. What should he do next?

Jez had been twirling a key ring, which had fallen out of her hand. It was easy enough for Bernard to grab them as he strode back around the corner, returning the way he had came. Now, though, he changed his walk, looking more like a man annoyed that he had forgotten something which he didn’t want to have to come back for, but couldn’t get through the evening without.

He marched right back to where he had seen Jez exit her building, and was able to find the right key in just a few tries. Carefully closing the door behind him, he began to look around in the dark.

Bernard knew that he needed some way to get this operation shut down, for good. Of course, the destructive path had been his go-to method for this kind of thing, but considering how much he had done this evening, he was hesitant to go with that approach again.

He reflected that the deaths in general wouldn’t reflect well on Richard’s crime syndicate, nor would the loss of Jez help his business operations. This was going to be a major blow for him; maybe it would rattle him enough that Bernard could find an exploitable weakness, there, too.

Eventually Bernard found Jez’s desk, which had a small hand-held lantern on it. He lit it, looking over her desk in hopes of finding incriminating paperwork or something he could use against Richard. Unfortunately, there was nothing obvious just strewn about, and he realized that time was of the essence.

Bernard made his way out of the office and into the main production area, which felt oddly familiar to him; it was so similar to the operations space he had made as a young man. That seemed so long ago. Clearly there was some sort of inspiration that had been gathered from what he had done, back during the raid and subsequent dismantling of his operations.

Off in a side room – which happened to be exactly where he expected, as if Bernard had laid out the facility himself – he found a large storage room. Inside were all sorts of ingredients. Some were familiar, some weren’t. If only he had time to inventory them, get the production ratios and recipes understood; Bernard was certain that he could use that information somehow. Once again, he cursed his lack of time and foolish lack of preparation.

In the rear corner of the room, against a wall but up on an elevated platform of stone, there was what appeared to be a barrel of his old friend lithium. At first Bernard couldn’t imagine what Jez would have wanted with lithium, as he was completely unaware of its use in mood-regulating medicines. Instead, he viewed it the way he would – as a potential weapon.

Of course, lithium could be the solution, in that it is all too easy to use it to make things go “boom” – but Bernard didn’t really want to damage the neighborhood and endanger the nearby residents. An explosion or a fire would certainly be effective, but it was probably not the right path. Although it did remind Bernard that he still had two barrels of lithium in Lenoran, for which he hadn't yet found a use. He'd have to reflect on that later, though.

That’s when Bernard got a brilliant idea; don’t do anything. He laughed to himself, sounding a bit crazy even to his own ears. But the idea was so perfect, and it would be a huge blow to Richard. No, he wouldn’t do anything at all – except open the doors.

Bernard went around the building, opening every entrance he could possibly find, and blocking them all open; even going so far as to remove the doors completely when he could. Then, he just walked away, casually disappearing into the shadows of the darkened city, and making his way back to his inn.

He knew that unless Richard had regular patrols (something that he hadn’t seen yet in this part of town), that more than one or two addicts would find their way into the building and would raid the place, doing most of the work for him. Plus, he had a good feeling that the locals would be none too sad to see the place get ransacked.

Now this was the kind of plan that Bernard liked. He set the stage, and someone else would do the work, completely unaware of him and his involvement. There was always the potential that this didn’t work – in which case, he’d just have to try something else tomorrow.

Waking up in the morning, Bernard felt full of hope and was surprisingly at peace for a man who had committed the sorts of crimes he had in the last twelve hours. He ate his breakfast, and went out for a morning walk, taking care not to put himself back at the scene of his activity the previous night. Even though he desperately wanted to see what was happening first-hand, he was well-aware of how recklessly dangerous that would be.

He didn’t have to wander long before he heard the first conversations, and then more, and more. The neighborhood was abuzz with gossip – Jez found dead, the warehouse absolutely trashed in the early morning, with open looting taking place. Richard’s group had been powerless to stop it before too much damage had been done, which was almost as exciting to the people as the looting itself.

Bernard smiled to himself. It had been a good twenty-four hours, but he couldn’t afford to stay and do more right away. He had to let the heat die down a bit; besides, he had a feeling that Richard’s position would be a bit less secure in a few days’ time anyway, as addicts rebelled, crimes increased, and general unrest grew.

Bernard was seeing the value in doing the opposite of what he normally did – trying to prevent crimes and civil unrest – knowing that it was only going to work because Richard would be the one to take all the blame.

With his most pressing task here done, Bernard really wanted to get back to Lenoran. He could start focusing on cleaning up the addiction, treating the addicts, and getting them to be grateful and productive members of the Lenoran Union. At the same time, he’d be able to plan out his next move with Richard.

However, Bernard was also wary – he was trying hard to be more cautious in general, but he knew that ever since the moment he saw Jez, caution hadn’t been top of mind. Bernard couldn’t be certain that nobody saw him, or recognized him, or would even hint that a stranger had been asking questions. He might be investigated, or chased; going right back to Lenoran was probably too dangerous.

So Bernard did the smart thing, and decided to lie low. Doubling down on his “failed salesman” persona, he left town and made his way across a number of small villages, taking a circuitous route back to Lenoran over several days only once he felt he was in the clear.

Mostly, he thought he had gotten away with it, but his mind kept going back to his mother. Not that Bernard cared if she was alive or dead, or what she would think if she saw him…he just couldn’t forget that conversation, the one that had shaped so much of his life. Keep your hands clean, she had told him; she wasn’t always right about that being the best approach, he knew, but it was a good philosophy in general. And right now, Bernard knew that his hands were very dirty indeed.