Chapter - I know who you beat up

	Chapter - I know who you beat up
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Joe Kedney walked calmly into the bar, sat down and ordered a beer. Then, looking around the bar, his expression became eager. He grabbed his beer, ignored the bartender's frown, and walked over to a half-empty table.

"Ben! Mind if I join you?" Ben, and his friend Skull were skinheads like Joe.

"Sure! Pull up a chair." It made it easier that Skull was with someone Joe knew.

Soon Skull was bragging about his exploits. Ben had heard it all, but Joe encouraged Skull to keep going. "And then a couple of months ago, I beat up a guy so bad I put him in the hospital."

"Really? I heard about that one. I know who you beat up." Joe's voice was just a bit too cold to be normal conversation.

"What?"

"It was just after midnight, in the alley behind the Store. He caught you breaking in." Now was not the time to admit that no motive for the attack had ever been found by the police or by Joe.

"What? That's ridiculous!" Skull looked around nervously at the other patrons of the bar, who were not paying any attention.

"So you hit him once, from behind." Skull was looking worried, sweating. Joe's voice was rising, the small bar becoming quiet as the dozen or so other patrons began to take notice.

"You've been going around boasting about how dangerous you are, because you hit a security guard from behind. That security guard isn't even out of high school yet. He's a kid, Skull. You hit a kid from behind, and bragged about how dangerous you are."

"Hey! Buzz off! Do you know who you're talking to?"

"Sewer scum."

"You don't want to mess with me! My friends are even more dangerous than I am!"

"You don't say! Do they roll little kids for their lunch money?"

"NO! They're gonna cleanse the country, the world, and make it a safe place!"

"For child muggers like you?"

"Safe from corrupting influences!"

"You mean safe from you?" laughed Joe.

"I don't have to take this from you!" Skull stood up, puffed out his chest and glared at Joe.

Joe stood up slowly, reached forward and yanked up on the tablecloth. Beer and cigarette ashes crashed and mixed on Skull's shirt and pants. "Yii! What are you doing? You crazy, man?"

"No, Skull." Joe gave tormenting emphasis to his name. "I just don't like scum like you around. And I think it's time you stopped polluting the air."

"What? You gonna tell me to quit smoking?" Skull's nervous laugh didn't convince anyone of his courage or his innocence.

Joe crouched, feet apart, knees bent, holding one corner of the tablecloth in his hand and slowly pulled the rest into a long thin rope, letting one web whip-like corner dangle beside him. "I want you to stop polluting the air around here by going away, say to Florida, or maybe some place ... hotter."

At this thinly disguised death threat, Skull turned and bolted out the back door of the bar.

A cheer and general laughter broke out in the bar. A skinhead at the back lifted his cell phone to his lips. "He's gone out the back."

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