Kat's Tale - Chapter 6

Chapter 6
Worse for Wear
It was the longest evening of Akio’s life. He didn’t get off work until the diner closed at eleven, and at that moment it was only eight thirty five.
The minutes crawled by.
Kat played a brief darts with two other men. As he watched, he noticed that she struck the bull’s-eye over fifty times. Every dart she threw landed in that tiny little circle. The men kept betting that she would miss the bull’s-eye, but she never did. Not once.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about this. He admired her for her skill, but it also reinforced his previous fear of her.
Naomi brushed past him, about to leave the restaurant. A question that he had thought of earlier caught in his mind, and he grabbed her arm.
She turned to him, her eyes slightly unfocussed. “Hm?”
“Naomi,” he said in a low voice. “Do you know what Kat’s previous job was?”
“Nah,” she said in a slightly slurred tone, waving at him. “She’s fine.”
She didn’t seem to be in fit condition to cross the street on her own, so he turned his head and said to Kat, “I’m taking Naomi across the street. She can hardly stand.”
“Fine.”
Akio let Naomi hang onto his arm as he pushed the door open and checked around for cars before crossing.
“What do you know about Kat?”
“Hm. . .” said Naomi, tapping her chin as they went up the stairs. “Lessee. . . She’s cute. . . And dangerous. I saw her get in a knife fight, once, back at the garage.”
“What? With who?”
“Dunno. Some dude. He came out worse for wear.”
“How much worse?” He pushed open the door and led her inside.
“Looked almost dead,” she said. “It was kinda rough.”
“Did you see anything else?” He was almost afraid to ask.
“Nah. Ask Koji. He might have.”
“Thanks.”
He half-carried Naomi down the hall and helped her inside her apartment.
“Wanna stay for a while?” she asked, smiling flirtatiously.
“No,” he said firmly. “I gotta get back to work.”
“Suit yourself. Your loss.” She shut the door.
Akio dashed back down to the restaurant, the bell tinkling behind him. He was called back to get the food that Sasha and Koji had ordered, and he decided to take an opportunity while he was over at their table.
“Koji,” he said as he dropped his plate in front of him. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”
His eyes didn’t leave Sasha’s face. “Not now, Akio, I’m on a date.”
“It’ll only take a second. Really.”
He turned and frowned at him. “No.”
“It’s okay, Koji,” said Sasha. “I don’t mind.”
“I’ll talk to you, after,” he said with a tone that said that the conversation was over.
Akio sighed and went to wipe down the tables again.
He found himself zoning out. Time passed by as if it were in a dream. It seemed to drag on and on for minutes at a time, then when he next checked his watch he found that it was time to close up shop.
Kat had taken it upon herself to usher the various patrons out in a brisk manner. Koji led Sasha out the door, and Akio followed them with his eyes. He had to help tidy up the counter, so he couldn’t go ask Koji just yet.
He didn’t meet Kat’s eyes as he mopped up the various beer spills on the bar, and she didn’t meet his. He glanced at her briefly, and he could see the gears turning in her head. He wondered what she was thinking about.
He hated the silence, but didn’t want to strike up a conversation.
Kat was wondering how hard it would be to clean blood off of the bar she was scrubbing. Now was an opportune moment to kill him. She had her knife in her pocket. She glanced out the window. No one was around.
Her hand snaked into her pocket for a second, fingering her knife. Will I? Won’t I?
She looked over to the door that led to the staff only rooms in the back. Mr. Vonderhazen was back there. He would probably hear Akio if he screamed.
Her fingers slipped from the handle of her knife and went back to purging the bar of grease.
Akio let out a sigh of relief when Kat finally tucked her rag away and grabbed her leather jacket. He could smell the cigarette smoke on it, even from where he was standing a few feet away. He walked over to the bar and tossed his cloth underneath, pulling out his own coat.
He killed the lights with a switch behind the bar. A little flicker of light shimmered in the dark room. Kat had sparked her lighter, holding it to the end of her cigarette. A cloud of smoke blew from her lips. She was silhouetted by the streetlamps outside, her features looking softer in the gentle orange glow. Akio smiled a little, blushing.
The moment ended when Kat turned her head to him and said sharply, “Coming, bozo?”
He sighed and stuck his hands into his pockets. “Okay.”
He stared at the floor as he left the diner, Kat shutting the door behind them. The bell tinkled, sounding lonely in the quiet night.

Akio walked into his apartment just as the phone rang.
“Hi, Kid! How was work?” Duncan’s loud voice echoed over the phone.
“It was good,” said Akio. “There were lots of neat people there. Mostly mill workers.”
“Uh-huh?”
“And, well, the girl that punched me was tending the bar.”
“HA! How’d that go?”
“Okay. She didn’t hit me again. But I’ll tell you, it’s scary how good she is with darts.”
“Good aim, eh? Hm. . .”
“What?”
“That’s a sexy quality in a woman.”
“She throws like a man! No, better than any man I’ve ever known. Dad. She hit the bull’s-eye fifty times! Do you know how many times she threw?”
“Dunno. Two hundred?”
“Fifty times.”
Duncan let out a low whistle. “I gotta admit, that’s impressive. You oughta talk to her about it, ya know? See if you can start a fiery conversation up around it.”
“Dad. . . She punched me in the face. We’re not going to be on friendly terms anytime soon.”
The conversation ended about there, since it was after eleven o’clock. Akio felt a little hollow as he hung up the phone. At first he thought that it was homesickness, then he realized that he had forgotten something.
He stepped into his shoes and left his apartment, locking the door behind him. He walked over to Koji’s door and knocked on it sharply.
He heard some grumbling from inside and the sound of someone stomping up to the door. It opened and Koji was there. His glasses were absent, as was his shirt.
“What?” he hissed.
He blinked. “Is this a bad time?”
“You think?”
“Koji!” Sasha’s voice called from beyond Akio’s vision. “Who’s at the door?”
“Just Akio,” he called back, shooting his visitor with a look of resentment.
“Oh! Didn’t he want to talk earlier? Why don’t you answer his question?”
“But babe-”
“I can wait. Don’t worry.”
Koji winced. “Okay. Be there in just a minute.” He glared at Akio. “This better be goddamn important.”
“It is. Believe me.”
“Ask away.”
Akio took a deep breath. “What do you know about Kat?”
He furrowed his brow. “That’s a strange question.”
“Answer it. Please.”
Koji shrugged. “Okay. Well, no one really knows that much about her. I mean, she’s quiet, has a bad temper, and is obviously mentally unstable.”
“Unstable?”
“Yeah. She looks like she suffers from chronic paranoia or something. I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.”
Akio made a mental note of this information. “Anything else you can tell me.”
Koji puffed his cheeks then blew out the air. “Not much. Well, I saw her and this blonde, skinny guy in a toque. . .”
“That’s Pete. I don’t know what their connection is.”
“They’re partners.”
“What?”
Koji shrugged his shoulders again. “I don’t know. I just overheard something when I was walking past her place. Also something about money changing hands and a certain number of “hits”.”
“Is that all you know?” he persisted.
He nodded. “Pretty much. Now, is that all?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“If you excuse me,” said Koji, stepping back. “I’ve got a woman to please.”
He shut the door on Akio’s goodbye.
He could hear footsteps as Koji ran back to his girlfriend, and a few giggles from the latter.
Akio sighed and rubbed his temples. Where to go from here?
He was desperately clamouring to figure out who Kat was, and he was worried that the answer would frighten him. But he also believed that if he didn’t find out, it might be worse for him in the end.
He had already asked Koji and Naomi, Sasha was clearly out of the question at the present time, so he decided to talk to the last resident of the building.
Akio knocked on Ryan’s door.
It was opened almost immediately. Ryan looked very sleepy, hardly able to keep his eyes open, and he was slouching.
“Sorry,” said Akio quickly. “Did I wake you?”
“No, no. I was playing my Xbox. You wanna come in?”
Akio took one look inside at the giant terrarium on the kitchen table that was filled with spiders, and politely declined.
“Oh,” he said. “So. . . What do you want?”
“How well do you know Kat?”
Ryan shrugged. “Fairly well. She seems to like me. Whenever I’m down on my luck, she gives me cash. I don’t know where she gets it from, but I’m not one to ask questions.”
“Don’t your parents provide for you?”
Ryan shifted his feet. “No. . .”
“Why not?”
“. . . They’ve been dead for five years.”
“Oh.” Akio wasn’t sure how to react. He put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
He pushed his hand away. “I’m alright. It’s old news, anyway.”
“Who’s been looking after you?”
“You came to ask me about Kat.”
“Yes. I did.” He sensed that the conversation about Ryan wasn’t a welcome one. “Can you tell me anything about her?”
“She keeps a room for her weaponry.”
Pause.
“What?” asked Akio, his eyes wide.
“She has all these cool swords and guns and stuff in this one room in her place,” he said. “She showed me, once, and gave me a cheap one for my Halloween costume. I still have it. It’s pretty nifty. And no, it wasn’t loaded, though I’m sure that some of the ones she had in there were.”
“Wow.”
“She had a machine gun and an assault rifle in there. And a sniper rifle, too, with a scope and everything.”
“What is she doing with all these weapons?”
“Beats me. Maybe she’s just a collector.”
Akio didn’t think that seemed likely. “Can you tell me anything else?”
Ryan tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Mm. . . Not especially. Oh, I know that she has a pretty serious criminal record.” He lowered his voice. “I think that she was in jail for murder. She didn’t tell me, but I overheard a conversation between her and one of her friends.”
“Pete?”
“That’s the name.”
Akio felt the tightness of anxiety in his chest. “Well. . . Thank you.”
“No troubles.”
The door shut.
Akio dragged himself back to his apartment, fumbling with his keys. He heard hushed voices from the apartment across from his. He turned, curiosity conflicting with common sense. He pressed his ear to Kat’s door. This is what he heard:
“. . . Kat, you know that’s not a good idea.”
“Since when are any of my idea’s good?”
“Point.”
“Don’t you want money?”
He heard Pete sigh. “Yes.”
“Well dealing weapons is a good way to do it.”
Akio drew in a sharp breath.
“It won’t bother Marcus because no killing is involved,” Kat continued. “I can’t promise that, but you know. . . old habits.”
Akio’s fists clenched. Ryan was right. Kat is a killer.
He knew that he should have figured it out, before, but he was in a state of denial. He didn’t believe that a criminal like her could be evading capture so easily.
“I miss the hit man business,” said Pete with a sigh.
Hit man?
“Me too,” said Kat. There was a little pop as a beer can was flicked open. “But we’ll have to settle for dealing weapons.”
“Why not drugs?”
“Too mainstream.”
“I like your style. Cheers.”
The tin cans clinked together.
Akio backed away from the door. He had heard enough. He turned and clumsily unlocked his door, shutting it quickly behind him and locking it again. He rested his forehead against the cool wood, taking deep breaths to calm his nerves. He turned so his back was pressed against the door, and sank down onto the welcome mat.
He pressed the heels of his hands over his eyes. He felt overwhelmed by this new information. His mouth felt dry when he realized that Kat hated his guts. What if she tried to kill him?
He dragged himself to his feet. His hands were trembling. He managed to make himself walk to his bedroom. He locked the door, and changed into his pyjamas, glancing nervously out the window and at the door the entire time.
Akio crawled into bed, clutching the covers around him. He would have to go to work the next day, and if he acted any differently than he had yesterday, Kat would know something was up. He didn’t want her to suspect anything.
He fell asleep at about two in the morning, with all these thoughts running rampant through his mind.