The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

staring out into this abyss that he heard the voice he’d been waiting
for.
    ‘I wondered when you’d be back,’
it said.
    It was Jacko. The blues man.
    His old acquaintance was walking
towards him along the middle of the road, from the East, carrying a black
guitar case.
    The young black singer was still
wearing the black suit, fedora hat and aviator sunglasses that he’d been given
by the Bourbon Kid for his performance as a Blues Brother in the Back from the
Dead singing contest all those years before. He hadn’t aged a day since they
had last met, still looking every bit like the fresh-faced young musician looking
for his big break.
    ‘You owe me a pair of shades,’ JD
reminded him.
    ‘Nice to see you too.’
    ‘You know why I’m here?’
    ‘Sure.’
    He was relieved to know that he
wouldn’t have to explain himself to Jacko (who, he recalled, could be quite a
tiresome and cryptic individual). The fact that Jacko was well aware of the
reasons for his reappearance in the Devil’s Graveyard didn’t surprise him. He’d
always suspected that their paths would cross again. It was a small matter that
both men had been only too aware of when they had last met.
    ‘What happens now?’ JD asked him.
    ‘I can arrange a meeting.’
    ‘So do it.’
    Jacko shook his head slowly and smiled. ‘Do you seriously want to end up
like me?’ he asked. ‘Wandering out here in the Graveyard for the rest of
eternity?’
    JD shrugged. ‘The only downside I
can see to it is that you’d be here.’
    ‘You don’t change, do you?’
    ‘As a matter of fact I do. If I
hadn’t changed I wouldn’t be here.’
    ‘You were always gonna come back,
you just didn’t know it back then.’
    ‘Just make the introduction.’
    Jacko set his guitar case down in
the road. ‘Who do you want to see?’
    ‘Who d’ya think?’
    ‘It’s not for me to say.’
    ‘I think I’m looking for a man in
red.’
    A voice spoke out behind him. ‘I’m
right here. All you had to do was call me out.’
    JD reached into his jacket and
pulled out a gun. He spun around and pointed it in the direction the voice had
come from. Stood leaning against his black V8 Interceptor was a large black man
in a red suit with a red bowler hat and a big grin across his face. His teeth
created a glare as the sun reflected off them. His eyes were yellow like the
sand in the desert.
    ‘How’s this work then?’ JD asked,
keeping the gun trained on the man.
    The man in red held out his hand and waited for JD to take it and shake
it. What other options did he have at this point?
    None .
    He slipped his gun back inside his
leather jacket. He’d come all this way to see this man to make a deal. He was
going to have to shake his hand at the very least. Looking the man in red deep in
the eyes he reached out and took his hand. The two men shook hands. It was a
firm handshake but one that JD was eager to end, so as soon as the other man
softened his grip he pulled back.
    The man in red leaned back on the
car and hoisted himself up onto the hood in a comfortable sitting position with
the sun glaring over his right shoulder. ‘I’ve wanted to meet you for a long
time,’ he said. ‘Last time you were here you didn’t stay long enough for us to
get acquainted.’
    ‘I don’t have much time to chat this
time either. Can you help me? Or what?’
    ‘Of course I can. But whatever I
do for you will come at a price.’
    ‘If it’s my soul you’re after then
it’s all yours. I got no need for it.’
    The man in red’s grin broadened.
He was a master at negotiations, particularly when the odds were stacked in his
favour. It was clear that the deal he offered would be shitty. He raised a
quizzical eyebrow and spoke. ‘JD, it may surprise you to know this, but I don’t
want your soul. You have something of far greater value to me than that.’
    This wasn’t part of the script. JD
had expected him to accept the offer of his soul, but even so, he hadn’t come
all this way to walk away without accepting the terms on offer, no matter how
unreasonable they might be.
    ‘Just name it,’ he said.
    The man in red shook his head.
‘Tell me what you want from me first. Then I’ll tell you the price.’
    ‘All I want is to get back to
being the man I was.’
    ‘The man you were last week?’
    ‘Yeah. I wanna go back to being a
murdering sonofabitch. You gonna make it happen? Or you gonna sit there like a
smug cunt talking cryptic bullshit?’
    The man in red