"Which one?" Tony peered through the gathering gloom.

Lennie glared at him. "The dame, ya moron."

"My eyes ain't so good after dark," Tony said sulkily. "An' anyway, she was behind the hulking giant there. I thought you was talkin' 'bout one of them dames over there by the sidewalk."

"Them's workin' girls, numb nuts. Just get the damned trunk open," Lennie growled, crawling out of the car as the petite redhead reached the sidewalk, bid the man who was with her good evening and turned in their direction.

She was a pretty little thing, Lennie thought as she came closer and he was able to make out her features ... delicate ... like one of them china dolls, but with curves in all the right places. It was a pure waste to whack a dame that looked that good. He didn't like doing dames anyway. It offended him, almost as bad as having to whack a kid. He wondered what she'd done to tick his boss off.

Shrugging it off, he stepped away from the car when she came abreast of him. "S'cuse me, ma'am? I wonder if you could point me in the direction of 110th street?"

The woman paused, looked him over curiously. "This is 110th," she said in surprise.

He looked around, saw no one was looking in their direction and grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand as he hauled her off her feet and moved to the trunk of the car, which was open and waiting, Tony nervously fingering the lid.

The woman, Lennie noticed, had gone limp in his arms the moment he'd grabbed her. He wasn't falling for that one though. Dropping her into the trunk, he stuffed a gag in her mouth, tied it with quick efficiency, and trussed her like a Thanksgiving turkey. The whole job took less than five minutes, but Tony looked like he was going to pee on himself as he danced around the rear of the car.

"You need to take a leak, or what?" Lennie snarled as he slammed the trunk lid.

"I don't like grabbin' her right here in the street. No tellin' who might've seen it. We shoulda waited, like I said, till she was close to an alley."

Lennie gave him a look. "Get in the car, moron. She don't walk by no alley. She catches a cab at the corner and hits for home. I been watchin' her for a week."

"What'er we gonna do now?" Tony asked nervously, once they were settled in the car again.

"We go to the docks. Where else?"

"What ya got in mind?"

"Somethin' quiet. I figured we could tie a brick to her or somethin' and pitch her over the side. Boss didn't say to get rid of the body, but he likes things tidy, so I figure he'll be happier if we don't leave it layin' around."

"She sure is pretty," Tony said wistfully.

"Yeah? And how would you know? You didn't even know which dame I was talkin' about."

"Think we got time to get a little honey before we snuff her?"

Lennie gave him a look. "Hey! She's a lady. Didn't your mudder teach you no manners? You don't get fresh with ladies."

Tony gaped at him. "But ... but ... we're gonna snuff the dame!"

"That's different. It ain't personal. We're just doin' our job here. An' our job ain't about rapin' and pilagin'. It's about makin' the boss's problems disappear. Besides, foolin' around is dangerous." He shook his head. "We off her. We tie an anchor to her and we ditch her."

Khalia Peterson couldn't decide whether the discussion, which was perfectly audible to her in the trunk, was intended to scare her or if they didn't realize, or didn't care, that she could hear them.