Free Wet Work - A Greg Kelton Short Story by Brian Springer Page B

to your availability to do a job. A specific type of
job. One that you specialize in.”
    “ I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” Kelton said. “I’m just a janitor.”
    This comment drew another laugh from the old
man. “A janitor, yes. I forgot. Over at the Hoover branch of the
San Diego Public Library, right?”
    More specifics. The old man had done his
research, that much was certain. Kelton wasn’t sure how that made
him feel.
    “ I’ll take your silence as assent,”
Walter said. “And what about little thing you do on the
side?”
    “ What little thing is
that?”
    “ The one where you take money to do
things that other people don’t want to do.”
    “ You must have me confused with
someone else,” Kelton said.
    Walter smiled. “I don’t think so. Not after
how you handled those kids outside the library. No, I’m pretty sure
I know exactly who you are.”
    Kelton eyed him carefully. “How’d you know
about that?”
    “ I watched the whole exchange. You
handled it expertly. Nice and smooth, without using too much force.
Just what I was hoping for.”
    “ Are you saying that you put those
punks onto me?”
    Walter smiled like a kid caught stealing
cookies from the cupboard.
    “ What the hell for?” Kelton
said.
    “ To see your skills in action,” Walter
said. “I wanted to see for myself if you were the right man for the
job.”
    Kelton scoffed. “A hell of a way to find
out. What if things went wrong?”
    “ From what I’d heard of you, I knew
they wouldn’t.”
    “ And if what you’d heard was
wrong?”
    Walter shrugged. “Then you wouldn’t have
been the right man for the job anyway.”
    Kelton drank from his beer and turned his
attention to the old-school jukebox on the far side of the bar,
where one of the regulars was typing in a number. A few seconds
later the twangy, strangled sounds of what passed for modern
country music started leaking out of the speakers, adding to
Kelton’s frustration.
    He sighed and shifted his eyes back to
Walter, who was just sitting there, waiting. There was no reason
denying things any longer. The old man obviously knew all about
him. And it was just as obvious that Walter wasn’t just going to go
away on his own. Kelton was going to have to give him a nudge.
    “ Look,” he said. “I don’t know what
you’ve heard, but I don’t work with strangers, so you might as well
just go find someone else to do what you want to do.”
    “ So you’re not even going to listen to
what I have to say?”
    “ Nope. Don’t care.”
    “ Not even for a hundred thousand?” the
old man said. “Half now. Half after the job is done.”
    The mention of money didn’t phase Kelton in
the least. “It doesn’t matter how much,” he said. “Money isn’t a
big concern of mine. If you really know as much as you claim to you
would have known that too.”
    “ Actually, I did,” Walter said. “It’s
one of the main reasons I chose you, actually. Precisely because it
isn’t only about the money with you.”
    “ Then why mention it?”
    “ To see if it was actually
true.”
    “ Well, now you know,” Kelton said. “So
if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish my beer in peace and then go
get some sleep.”
    “ What if I told you it was for a good
purpose?” Walter said. “That the man you would be taking care of
has it coming to him? That he deserves it?”
    Now this gave Kelton pause. One of the
biggest factors in whether or not he took a job was the
circumstances behind it. But that alone wasn’t enough to sway him.
Not in this situation. There were still way too many unanswered
questions for him to even consider working for Walter. Kelton
didn’t get himself into situations unless he knew the specifics
inside and out. And right now he was running blind.
    “ I’d still tell you to go find someone
else,” Kelton said.
    “ Don’t you think that if I had someone
else that could do this job for me I’d have gone to him and not
wasted my time