The Shining Girls

Harper ^{22 NOVEMBER 1931}

The door swings open into the past and Harper hobbles through carrying a filthy tennis ball, but without his knife, practically into the arms of a bear of a man in the hallway. He is drunk and gripping a frozen turkey by one goose-pimpled pink leg. The last time Harper saw him, he was dead.

The man lurches towards him, bellowing and waving the bird around like a cudgel. ‘Hej! Cos´ ty za jeden? Co ty tu kurwa robisz? Mys´ lisz, z˙e moz˙esz tak sobie wejs´´c do mojego domu?’

‘Hello,’ Harper says, friendly, already knowing the outcome. ‘If I was a betting man, I would gamble on you being Mr Bartek.’

The man turns shifty and breaks into English. ‘Did Louis send you? I have explained this. There is no cheating, my friend! I am an engineer. Luck has mechanics just like anything else. You can calculate it. Even horses and faro games.’

‘I believe it.’

‘I can help you, if you like. Place a bet. My method is foolproof, my friend. Guaranteed.’ He looks hopefully at Harper. ‘You are a drinking man? Have a drink with me! I have whiskey. And champagne! And I was going to cook this turkey. There is more than enough for two. We can be congenial together. No one needs to get hurt. Am I right?’

‘I’m afraid not. Take off your coat, please.’

The man considers this. He realizes that Harper is wearing the same coat. Or a future variation of it. His bluster sags and puckers like a cow’s stomach when you punch a knife through it. ‘You are not from Louis Cowen, are you?’

‘No.’ He recognizes the gangster’s name even if he’s never had any truck with him. ‘But I am grateful. For all of this.’ Harper gestures at the hallway with his crutch and as Bartek involuntarily follows the motion, he brings it singing down onto the back of his neck. The Polack drops, squealing, and Harper leans against the wall for balance and smashes the crutch down on his head. Again and again. With practiced ease.

It takes him a long time to tug off the coat. Harper wipes his face with the back of his hand and it comes away bloody. He will need to take a shower before he goes to do what is required, setting the gears in motion for something that has already happened.