CHAPTER 21


   The activity that Norm saw, as he entered the barbershop, almost made him think that the scene was rehearsed. Since Norm was all too aware of what Hyrum Kingsley used this place for, he kind of figured that was exactly what it was. Hyrum was sitting in the chair and the barber was slapping on some aftershave as if he had just finished his task. After Hyrum smiled at Norm he nodded for the barber to leave. Norm did note that the barber made no attempt to remove the apron from Kingsley. The guy only spun the chair around so that Kingsley was looking at Norm and then he promptly left by the back door.  Baxter and the rest of Hyrum’s goon squad were out front, looking right in the windows.
In a cheerful mood, Hyrum said, “Norm, glad you could make it on such short notice.”
Norm was not cheerful, “if you brought me here to kill me Hyrum. I think I don’t need to remind you about what I keep in my jacket pocket.”
“Oh come on Norm,” the man said from the chair, “if I was aiming to kill you do you think I’d bring you here to do it? Do you think that I’d be here when it was done?”
Norm nodded and replied, “then why don’t you take that sawed off shotgun out from under that blanket you wearing?”
Hyrum replied seriously, “I said I wasn’t here to kill you. I didn’t say I was stupid.”
Norm nodded and then told the man, “fair enough. What do you want Hyrum?”
“Why,” the man went right back to cheerful in an instant, “I want you to come back to work for me. I want to burry the past. I can see a future for you in my organization.”
“And I’m not even a Canadian,” Norm replied.
“That’s always a plus,” Kingsley pointed out. Then he went on by saying, “I have a very specific job in mind. Something that you’ve proven yourself more than capable of. Hell, Norm, you won’t even piss anybody off by doing it. Might even make a few folks happy, for a change.”
“I don’t know Hyrum,” Norm told him, “that don’t sound too much like my kind of work.”
“It’s sure better than what you’re doing now,” Hyrum said in a cheery sort of way.
“I guess with Conner out of the picture,” Norm told him point blank, “you’ve had some room for expansion. Guess you need the extra muscle. Is that it?”
For some reason that seemed to piss Hyrum off. He controlled his temper but, he was most definitely not happy, “actually I need a few more brains in the outfit. The Legion has got all the muscle it needs. I’m guessing you know what happened to Conner?”
“I got some ideas,” Norm told him. Then he mentioned, “what I don’t know is how much you had to do with it.”
“You know that’s not my style,” Hyrum said dismissing the notion. “In fact, you know exactly what kind of style it was.” So the old man was holding a grudge after all. Norm kind of figured that might be the case even if Hyrum never had much use for his son. Hyrum confirmed this by saying, “and I don’t believe for one second that his wife had the brains to plan something like that.”
“You want them dead,” Norm just said it. “That about the size of it?”
“Damn straight,” Hyrum replied with a very determined look. He then eased up and said, “and my boys been telling me, you having some problems with your day job. This treaty feller, he’s causing all kinds of a fuss.” Hyrum seemed to become genuinely confused for a moment and he asked, “don’t rightly see how he hadn’t offed himself yet but, stranger things have happened.” He then got back on point, “the thing is, I can help you with that if you need it. I can make it all worth your while in a lot of ways. You don’t even have to quit your day job, if you don’t want. What do you say Norm? For old times sake?”
When Norm walked out of the barbershop he eased up a bit. The goon squad began to disperse and they were obviously not intent on taking him on a short ride to a shallow hole. The only one that approached him was Baxter and Norm just ignored the guy and began walking back to his car. Baxter fell in step right beside him. The guy didn’t seem to have too much to say. He simply asked, “how did it go?”
“None of your business,” Norm told the man as he stopped at his car door. Then Norm looked at the guy and smiled, “I guess Hyrum don’t trust you much, does he Baxter? That does tell me he ain’t quite as stupid as I thought.” If Baxter took offense he did not show it. He was as blank as always, behind those sun glasses of his. He was quite emotionless as he reached inside his jacket. Norm looked down at the man’s hand and told him, “you looking to loose that arm?”
Baxter slowly removed his hand from his coat and what he produced was not a gun. In fact, it was not anything that Norm had expected. It was just a small portable memory chip, the kind that was pretty common in almost any office. Baxter handed it over and said, “Mister Kingsley instructed me to give you this. He thinks you will find it most helpful. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Norm looked at it and before the man walked off he asked, “what the hell am I supposed to do with this?”
As the man did walk off he said, “whatever you want.”
Norm quickly shot back, “I know that! I mean how does the damn thing work. I don’t know how to use this shit!”
Baxter vanished around the corner.