Page 86 of Goodbye Girl

On the final lyric—“Head!”—Theo turned the handle and shoved the door open with the force of a battering ram, leading with his shoulder, driving with his legs, and putting the entire mass of his six-foot-six frame into the surge. He kept pushing even after the unsuspecting attacker was pinned against wall, to which the only response was the breathless groan of the man trying to get an elephant off his chest.

Theo released the pressure, but only for an instant. In a quick pull-and-push motion, he slammed the door a second time against his target. This time, he heard a bone crack, followed by a blood-curdling scream. Theo flung the door shut and swung the chain as hard as he possibly could. It snapped like a whip against his attacker, knocking him to the floor, where he landed facedown with a thud. Theo pounced on him immediately, burrowed his knee into his spine, smashed his nose into the hardwood floor, and then pressed the knife to the man’s throat.

“Don’t move!”

Theo wrapped the chain around his neck, jerked the man’s hands behind his back, and then tied the other end around his wrists. In seconds, his attacker was hogtied. Only then did Theo notice the pistol on the floor. With a silencer. Theo had knocked it from his hands with the door by barging in unexpectedly. It seemed his attacker was an assassin.

Theo pulled on the chain like a dog leash, lifting the man’s head off the ground, choking him. “You’re not Judge, are you?”

He struggled to answer. “Not... Judge.”

The accent sounded Russian. “Who are you?”

He didn’t answer.

“Did Kava send you?”

“Go fuck yourself!”

Definitely a Russian accent and, with the silencer, it was clear that Theo was dealing with a professional who wasn’t going to break easy. Theo had to adjust his approach and become someone totally off the wall, someone who was way outside any training this hired assassin had received.

Theo pulled the knife from inside his coat and brought it down with full force, stabbing the wood floor less than an inch from the man’s nose. Then he pulled tighter on the chain.

“I’m going to ask you some questions. And you are going to give me some answers. You understand?”

“Go—fff—”

Theo cut the cursing short with another jerk of the chain. The man groaned, and then Theo let him breathe.

“Here’s what I want to know, tough guy. If it’s four thirty in the afternoon, and the sun has set, is it night? Or is it day?”

“What?”

The tip of the knife was still embedded in the floorboard. Theo yanked it free and pressed the steel blade against the man’s throat. “Listen to me. This is very important. It gets dark really fucking early here, and it’s making me crazy. When I get crazy, I do crazy things. So help me out here. If it’s dark before it’s evening, is it nighttime? Or is it still daytime?”

“Huh?”

“The evening news doesn’t come on until five. How can it be night before the evening news? It’s still the day, right?”

“Uhm, I don’t know.”

“I need an answer!”

His voice shook. “Yeah, you’re right! It’s day!”

Theo jerked the chain. “It’s fucking dark! How can it be day?”

“Oh... kay,” he said, groaning. “It’s night!”

Theo stabbed the floor again, this time even closer to his nose. “It’s four thirty! How can it be night!”

“Stop! You’re a crazy man! What do you want me to say?”

Theo jerked the chain. “Who sent you?”

The man struggled for air. Theo gave him some slack, which allowed him to speak.

“Did you really think you could kidnap Sergei Kava?” the man said.