75...

Alexis felt one hand clench on the Cadillac's steering wheel, the other on the metal lizard key ring. A tremor ran through her tightened muscles like a high voltage charge. She clenched her jaw shut and rode the wave of murderous anger, waiting for that blinding moment of instinctual answers.
"I'm assuming now," Matthew stated all slow and sweet, "that you're still holding onto the pretense of not knowing what I'm talking about."
Alexis continued staring out the windshield, no longer seeing the growing light from the beach, no longer really even seeing the road, and said nothing.
"Yes, I see. You didn't take anything from Professor Westbor? You gave nothing to Frank?"
Alexis slowly turned her head to face Matthew. The engine gave a jump as she pressed the accelerator all the way down. She looked not at the winding road ahead, but full on into Matthew's widening eyes.
"What're you..."
"Matthew, I don't care that you have threatened me. I don't care that you plan on spilling my blood."
The car continued to speed up. It thrashed like a beast with it's hindquarters on fire when the wheels left the paved road and hit a shallow ditch on the side. Without her eyes leaving Matthew's face, Alexis yanked the wheel to the side and put them back on the road with wheels screeching.
"Alexis," Matthew begun.
"I am telling you that I did not give Frank a goddamn thing, that I did not know Professor fuckface had anything worth taking."
The car went off the other side of the road, almost going up on two wheels when it hit the incline of the side of the hill which made one of the canyon walls. Alexis again deftly and blindly pulled the wheel to bring the car back onto the road while Matthew let a small shriek loose.
"Alexis! I’m not…"
"But Matthew," Alexis said without her voice ever leaving that dead calm sound. "For even bringing up Frank, for using his name against me, I'm gonna fucking kill you."
Matthew quickly began to raise his knife.
Alexis brought an amazing amount of force down on the break pedal. The Cadillac lurched alarmingly, attempting in vain to continue the deadly momentum it had been running on. She then quickly pushed down the emergency break pedal and turned the steering wheel into the skid that was just beginning. She could smell the thick, oily stench of burning tires. The screeching of the rubber peeling off onto the asphalt was met with a squealing coming from Matthew's seat.

74...

"Who?" Alexis' jaw clamped tight.
Matthew let out a slow, honey-soaked laugh.
"Frank."
"I don't..."
"Don't play games with me. We know all about your friend Frank. We even know exactly where he lives."
Alexis felt as if her blood had turned to insects, she could hear them in her ears, going mad, going ravenous. She was dizzy with the crashing culmination of fear and anger; like a wave of hatred crashing itself senseless on a glass beach of dread. She feared for Frank, for the appalling things her associates would do to him. She felt ravenous with desire to kill Matthew where he sat, as brutally as possible.
"He doesn't..."
"It doesn't matter," Matthew stated with a sick grin. Alexis noted that he was slowly fingering the point of his knife. "Nobody cares if he knows a damn thing, he's nobody. He's as much a nobody as Louis back there, he just doesn't realize that he's dead yet."
Alexis made a fist around the keys in the ignition. She felt the tail of the metal lizard key ring dig in to her palm.
"You know who wasn't a nobody Alexis? Your mark in Davis. Your job, psycho, was to subdue him and take him into a field office for them to deal with him. Your job was NOT to wipe his face off with a blunt object. Your job was not to leave his fucking body on the SIDE OF THE TRACKS!"
Alexis let the metal bite in harder. She stared into the darkness of the canyon surrounding the road. She focused on the pale light cast off from stores and bars and restaurants at the beach that was now beginning to throw the surrounding hills into silhouette.
"See, here's the problem Alexis. Not only did this guy have necessary information, he was someone who was definitely going to be missed. Oh, and the cops? They tend to get a little weird about brutal, nonsensical murders; particularly when the victim has a questionable past where nothing can quite be proven. You caused a lot of problems for a lot of people."
"What do you want me to do? Say I'm sorry?" Alexis asked sardonically.
"No. We want you to give back what you took from him."
Alexis focused on the approaching headlights of the only other car she had seen in the canyon. She watched them grow larger, igniting the car's interior in an apocalyptical white of high beams. She watched out of the corner of her eye as they passed and left the world dark once again.
"Matthew," she said slowly. "In all honesty, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "We figure you gave it to Frank. Which is why we're going to tear him apart when we find it."
He began to finger the tip of the knife once again and began speaking in a distracted tone.
“In fact, they probably already are.”

73...

Things were slipping for him, she could feel it, and she was going to have to play this one well. Her life depended on it.
"So Matthew," she said with just the slightest taunt in her voice. "I thought we're gonna have a little talk?"
Matthew continued staring forward, into the canyon ahead.
"Shut up."
"Matthew, that's no way to talk to a lady."
"My name's not really Matthew, as I’m sure you're well aware..."
"I don't give a fuck what your name is!"
The man who posed as someone named Matthew turned his head to quickly face her.
"Excuse..."
"Your little job here is to do me in. Your name is Fudge Tunnel for all I care!"
"Hey!"
"Hey yourself, fuckface! If you have something to tell me before you put one between my eyes, then you fucking tell me! I'm sick of your bullshit, psycho games!"
"I'll tell you what I have to tell you when I'm ready."
"Does your boyfriend get all impressed when you talk all tough like that?"
"I'll slit your throat too bitch. Watch yourself."
"I'm scared jizz chugger."
"You think I won't kill you?" He asked with an intensified, psychotic smile.
"No," she said. "I'm pretty sure you'll try.
"I'll succeed."
"I've had better than you blow their last breath in my face while I looked down on them with my best 'come fuck me' look."
"You have no idea what you're dealing with here," he said, turning back towards the windshield.
The car entered the deep dark of the canyon. Lights like stationary will o' the wisp floated in the distance, up hills and down unseen side roads.
"I don't care what I'm dealing with. If you're gonna kill me here, than you've really not given me an option. Why should I give a fuck who you are or what you have to say."
"Who said I was gonna kill you?"
"You've made it more than clear, asshole."
"Yeah, you're tough." He said in a quiet voice. His face became garishly illuminated in one of the rare canyon street lights now passing the car. "A lot of stupid, tough talk. And while I doubt, I mean really doubt, that you're not afraid of dying, I'll bet I know someone who will scream and cry like a baby when I track him down.”
“And who the hell is that?”
“Your… Friend… Frank…”

72...

"Drive," Matthew said, tossing the keys to her.
"You're just going to leave Louis in the parking lot?"
"What's another robbery gone wrong to the people down here?" He asked sardonically. "It gives the news something else to harp about for awhile. Drive."
Alexis pushed the keys into the ignition and turned it.
"Where?
"West. Go."
She pulled out of the parking lot quickly, but without causing undue notice, and headed west towards the fading suburban scatter and dark coastal canyons leading to the sea. She kept waiting for him to speak, but there was nothing save the humming of the Cadillac's engine. She cast a quick glance towards him. Matthew sat in the passenger seat, looking out the windshield with a small and sick smile on his face. When a number of minutes passed, with still no communication from him forthcoming, Alexis broke the silence.
"Hey Matthew?"
"Shut up."
"How'd you get there before me? To the bookstore I mean."
He let out a quick snort.
"I didn't, I had you, I was on your tail when you applied. I got in there right after you left and convinced Jeff to hire me. He's an easy, fucking mark." Matthew's face never left the windshield. "Then I slyly convinced him to hire you."
"Is Jeff dead now?"
"Shut up."
The apartment buildings along the road were growing larger and larger gaps between them. There were fewer and fewer street lights. With little competition, the street lights cast out a wider spray of illumination, but once the Cadillac passed out of the arc, it would be plunged into darkness whose intervals grew longer and longer. Alexis could see the dark silhouette of the hills before them, with a dark fissure of the canyon running through the middle. There were small signs of lights within the canyon that looked brittle and cold from there, they looked like some chemical flash meant to lure them into the gaping maw of a beast.
"How's Vanessa?" Alexis finally asked.
Matthew let out a small chuckle.
"Great, I'm sure she's pissed she can't be here herself."
"Maybe she'll get her chance to get at me anyway, some other time."
"Not fucking likely," he said, turning his head towards her and smiling like a death head skull.
She turned to him and flashed one of her disquietingly amorous smiles.
Matthew's intimidator crawled away quickly and he turned to face forward once again.
"Not fucking likely," he said again with quiet force.