Blood-at-Dawn on Chicago Chronicles

Blood at Dawn — Tuesday, 19 June 1990, 11:00 PM

Tue, 19 Jun 1990 23:00:00 +0000

Broadway / Modius’s Mansion, Miller Beach Gary, Indiana

Darius fed on Eddie Kowalski in the parking lot of Kiefer’s and the blood tasted like alimony and child support and the specific desperation of a man who does the math every morning and comes up short. Full tank. The first time in days the hunger wasn’t a factor in his calculations.

The walk-up on Broadway was four blocks north of The Torch. Tapped power, a bare bulb on the second floor, and through the dirty window the silhouette of a man who couldn’t decide how to stand. Darius watched from the street and counted the cycles: shoulders up, shoulders down, hands clasped, hands loose, the body rearranging itself every few seconds like a radio scanning frequencies and never locking onto one.

The Brooch — Tuesday, 19 June 1990, 9:00 PM

Tue, 19 Jun 1990 21:00:00 +0000

Fifth Avenue Studio / Modius’s Mansion Gary, Indiana

Darius fed on Eddie Kowalski in the parking lot of Kiefer’s and the blood tasted like alimony and child support and the specific desperation of a man who does the math every morning and comes up short. Full tank. Thirteen of thirteen. The first time in days the hunger wasn’t a factor in his calculations.

The Debrief — Monday, 18 June 1990, 10:30 PM

Mon, 18 Jun 1990 22:30:00 +0000

Modius’s Mansion, Miller Beach Gary, Indiana

Darius sat in the armchair across from a prince who’d been reading people since Napoleon and told the truth. Most of it. The parts that served. The parts that bought time and goodwill and the specific currency of a neonate who solves problems his prince didn’t know existed.

He told him about the spirit and the boy and the sorcerer on Pennsylvania Avenue. He told him about the fire in the Wasteland and the sound the door made when it closed. He told him about the federal sedan on the lakefront road with the photographs and the notebook heading: WIERUS.

Blood at Dawn — Monday, 18 June 1990, 9:00 PM

Mon, 18 Jun 1990 21:00:00 +0000

Modius’s Mansion, Miller Beach Gary, Indiana

Blood at Dawn — Sunday, 17 June 1990, 9:00 PM

Sun, 17 Jun 1990 21:00:00 +0000

Modius’s Mansion, Miller Beach Gary, Indiana

Sable sat on the edge of the bed and told the truth. All of it. The dead boy in the alley, the mouth working, the three syllables of a name being forced through a throat that had forgotten what throats were for. The sorcerer on Pennsylvania Avenue with the shotgun and the ritual circles and the photographs spread across his kitchen table. The spirit bag pulsing in her pocket. The fire in the Wasteland. The sound the door made when it closed.

Blood at Dawn — Sunday, 17 June 1990, 1:30 AM

Sun, 17 Jun 1990 01:30:00 +0000

Lakefront Road / Pennsylvania Avenue / The Wasteland Gary, Indiana

The Cutlass turned onto the lakefront road and Sable said “Stop” and Darius’s foot came off the gas because in four months he had learned exactly two things about Sable Price that were not performance: she laughed from a place underneath all her other places, and when she said a word without inflection it meant she’d seen something that changed the math.

A dark sedan. Fifty yards from the mansion’s dead-end street. Government plates. Engine off, windows up, the faint orange glow of a cigarette behind the driver’s side glass.

Blood at Dawn — Saturday, 16 June 1990, 10:47 PM

Sat, 16 Jun 1990 22:47:00 +0000

The Torch, Broadway Strip Gary, Indiana

The lights died at ten forty-seven. Three seconds of blackness, the jukebox cutting Bell Biv DeVoe mid-bar, and then the world came back on and the service door had four new gouges running down its inside face, deep enough to show the bright wood under the paint, spaced like fingers.

Darius saw it from the pool tables. Sable saw it from the bar. Victor saw it with the shotgun already in his hand and an expression that said forty years of service had not prepared him for this particular moment.