Manic Monday (The Jake Monday Chronicles #1), Page 2

  Chapter 2

  A Few Dollars More

  Eilif wiped his face with shaking hands. His Hublot Black Caviar Bang watch caught on his long dark hair. Anguish etched his features.

  He did not give much thought to the guards, Hanz and Beckett. If Clarence had not told him their names over the phone over an hour ago, he would not have known them from the maid. He had no care about their preference for each other. These things did not matter. What mattered was the man lying on the floor in his foyer. What mattered were the police, the FBI, the unidentified authorities traipsing through his house.

  He felt violated, exposed, and for the first time since Finland, he felt vulnerable. He looked down in horror at the splatter of blood on his ostrich Ferragamo blüchers. He hoped, wildly, that no one noticed. He fought the urge to wipe it off. He held his neckerchief in his sweating palms, kneading the cloth. He watched, fascinated and utterly decimated as men and women crossed in front of him, oblivious to his presence. Clarence was answering all the questions.

  This is what I pay him for, he thought.