Strangers Wearing Makeup: Chapter Ten [Cold Water]

"Gus! Gus!" I heard Christina's voice penetrating through the walls. She was banging against the door. Then I hear a cracking sound.
In the next second I can feel her cold hands clamping against my face.
"Gus, what the hell's the matter?" She asks me, my vision is still blurry.
"I...the...the mountains..." I manage to say.
"What? Gus what are you saying?" She asks. I open my eyes, the bathroom is completely clean, no mountains at all. My head gets very clear then, as if I've just woken up from a nightmare. All of my senses are on fire, but I'm still not sure what exactly is going on.
"You mean, there's no vomit?" I ask.
"Do you see any vomit, Gus?" She asks.
"Well, no. But..." I have nothing to say.
"Gus, what is going on?"
"I killed him, Christina. I killed Thomas Anderson!"
"Alright, calm down." She says. "Why did you kill him?"
"His wife paid me to..." Then I stop.
"What is it?" She asks. I get to my feet.
"She never paid me."
"Who never paid you?" Christina asks.
"Allison. His wife. She wanted me to kill him, said she's pay me, but she hasn't. It's been a few days and she hasn't paid. In fact, I haven't even heard from her." I walk to the sink and turn the water on.
"Why would that old woman want him dead?" She asks me.
"What are you talking about, Christina?" I ask her cupping the down pouring water into my hands.
"His wife, what are you talking about?"
"Allison is not an old woman, she's probably in her mid twenties." I say leaning my face over the sink and splashing some water onto my face.
"Did he remarry?" Christina asks.
"He must have, because the woman I did the job for was young." I turn the sink off and start tearing handfuls of paper towels off of the counter.
"Gus, why not act like a detective and...detect something!" She says. I pat my face off.
"What, do you think I should go to his office or something?"
"Well, that would be at least one place where he'd have a picture of his wife and him, does he have kids?"
"I don't know." I say as I toss the clump of wet paper towels into the trash.
"Well, you didn't do a very good job researching this guy, did you?" She says.
"Shut it." I say.
"You were a much better cop." She says.
"Yeah, sure. But we both know that those crooked cops were too much to handle."
"But you took care of that, didn't you?"
"Not in this town, this town is a rusted hypodermic needle, dripping with the extracts of a million vermin."
"That's very poetic, Gus." Christina says sarcastically. "Well, it looks like you're fine now. So get out, and don't come back until you've figured this thing out." Then a tiny smirk grew on her lips. "I'll leave the back door unlocked."
I smiled and hurried out into the harsh black and white rain.

Next stop, Anderson and Co.

-Sir Jestro