At The Newsstand

He knew something was wrong the moment he walked in the door and saw the credenza turned over and a couple of Barbie dolls on the floor. Did the Tannenbaum goons already get wind of his coming? No one was in the room, but he heard a screech of tires on the street behind him. He stuck his head out the door in time to see the tail end of a Cougar cantering around the corner.

He paraded blindly back into the newsstand, looking for Hank and trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing and what Delores had told him just an hour ago. At the back of the room, next to the washing machine, a door stood ajar. He resignedly pushed on the door and peered into the darkness. All he could see were shadows that resembled a large monster with a pail.

He ambled into the dark room, cursing himself as he did so. "Yo ho ho, I know better than to even be here," he said to himself lamely.

That was his last thought before he felt an acorn hit him on the earlobe and everything went black.