The Big Enchilada

know,” he said. “Sort of strange. Yesterday, this Acker calls me up, and when I see him, he tells me that you’re investigating him and he wants me to keep my eye on you.”
    “What for?”
    “That’s what I asked him. He said he wanted to know what you were getting on him so that he’d be able to counteract it in time. He says his wife is after his money, and he doesn’t want her to get a dime more than is absolutely necessary. You might say the love has gone out of their relationship.”
    “Yeah. You might say that. How did the setup seem to you?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve heard of things like this before—and it’s not a bad idea—cautious, careful, maybe save a lot of money. But somehow it just didn’t seem right, though I can’t say why. I know one thing, though. That Acker is a tough customer, so cool he’s a little scary.”
    “You took the job, I assume.”
    “Of course.” He looked shocked that I thought he might have done otherwise.
    “Did you say you knew me?”
    “He asked. I said I knew who you were, that’s all.”
    I thought for a minute. The situation might be legitimate; Acker’s explanation might be real. But I didn’t think his wife was after money. One thing seemed certain, though; if Acker hired Stubby, he didn’t send Mountain after me. There’d be no point.
    Out of curiosity I asked Stubby what he was getting for the job. He looked only slightly embarrassed when he told me a figure that was nearly four times his usual fee. Stubby laughed when he saw my reaction, and said that Acker accepted without any hesitation.
    “This is a man who’s so careful and cautious, so tough and cool, and he agrees to pay an outrageous fee like that?” I said.
    Stubby thought for a second. “Yeah, you’re right. It is curious. I didn’t think about it at the time. I guess I was too happy at landing a big fish. What’s up?”
    “That’s what I’m trying to find out.” I told him about the warning I had received.
    “You think Acker sent the monster?”
    “It doesn’t look like it, but I don’t know. Do you think Acker might have hired you, not because he was worried about his wife, but because he was worried that I might find out about something else?”
    “That could be.” He thought for a bit. “You know, I think there’s something strange going on at that factory or whatever it is.”
    “Like what?”
    “I can’t say. It just doesn’t feel right. That’s supposed to be a pretty successful operation, isn’t it? Well, it didn’t feel that way. It seemed a little like a place where a fire’s going to start, you know, sort of accidentally on purpose.”
    “You think that’s what it is?”
    He shook his head from side to side. “No, it’s not that. I been in enough places like that to know—I even helped torch a few in my younger days. But the place just feels wrong in some way, like those other places felt wrong, and my instincts are pretty good.”
    I knew they were, and that helped along the feeling I had that Acker was into something more than long-legged girls who didn’t mind being beaten a little. Stubby and I agreed to help each other out on this, since it looked like it might be mutually advantageous. Stubby clearly didn’t feel much loyalty to his Acker, especially if there was a chance to get more out of it than his fee.
    I took out a smoke and saw that I was out of matches. Stubby dug around in a pocket, pulled out a book, and pushed them across to me. I lit my cigarette and started to Pass the matches back when I noticed the cover. It was shiny black with an embossed chessman on the front. Tiny gold Otters on the spine said “Black Knight.”
    That seemed to be coming up a lot lately, just like when you see a new word for the first time, you keep running across it for a while. I asked Stubby where he got the matches and he shrugged.
    “Come on, think,” I said. “Where’d you get them?”
    “Why?”
    “Just tell me.”
    He screwed up his dried-apple face until it was nothing but creases and wrinkles, his jaws chewing away like mad. He cleared his throat and spat loudly.
    “Acker,” he said.
    “You sure?”
    “Must have been. Why? What’s it mean?”
    I shook my head. I didn’t know, but somehow I wasn’t too surprised at the connection.
    “Okay, Sam, I know you. You never give anything away.”
    “Not if I can find a buyer. And I don’t know if this is worth anything.”
    Stubby knew better than to push it, and we