John walked slowly through the crowd at the Lucky Aces casino – well, crowd might be giving it a bit too much credit but for an off the strip poker house it wasn’t doing bad business. As he walked John found his mark sitting at a table in the far corner that was filled with loud men throwing obscene amounts of money around. In the past John might have been brash enough to simply approach the man at the table, however, the beating he had taken – and the knowledge that had his buddy not arrived he likely would have died – a few years back had made John a far more cautious individual.

With that in mind John found a seat at a nearby blackjack table and began playing – being sure to win enough to be able to keep playing all night if need be without winning so much as to draw any attention to himself. Has he played he watched the his target from the corner of his eye. The man was middle aged but already balding and even from here John thought he could smell him. He was disheveled at best and it appeared to John that he likely hadn’t showered in a few days. John was certain that if it weren’t for the amount of money he was throwing around and the – at least – two goons that John could see nearby that the owner of the casino would have thrown his fat ass out long before now. As it was, however, this man managed the largest shipping company in the area and made his money primarily by taking large bribes to ship illicit goods without asking questions. Recently, however, word had reached certain concerned citizens that he had been spending a bit too much time at the police station. There was no proof that he had turned rat but those he did business with were willing to pay good money to remove any doubt.

After about an hour John saw the man stand and begin to waddle toward the bathrooms. Two men moved to follow him but he turned and waived them away with an annoyed look on his face. As the man said something John couldn’t hear to the men John left the table quickly and walk around the room before circling back to the restroom hoping he wasn’t too late and had not drawn too much attention.

As he entered the bathroom he saw the fat man’s feet beneath one of the stalls. Turning to lock the door and hang his overcoat John heard the man’s gravely voice say, “Look, I told you I don’t need a babysitter to take a shit, so unless you want to wipe my ass for me get the fuck outta here.”

John took three swift steps and pulling his switch blade kicked open the door to the stall. As the startled man started to yell something John slashed hard with his knife across the mans neck causing whatever he was going to say to die in his throat. As the man slumped back desperately trying to stem the flow of blood John pulled a paper sack out of his inside pocket and pulled a dead rat out. Placing the rat directly over the man’s heart John drove his knife through the rat and into the dying man’s chest.

John backed out of the stall and did his best to close the door which was hanging slightly off the hinges before deciding that the blood that was now starting to pool below the man would give away what happened anyway and simply letting the door hang. John quickly washed his hands and face of blood before putting his overcoat on and securely tying it to hide any signs of blood on his clothes. He then left the bathroom and as calmly as was possible made his way out of the casino before hailing a cab and heading toward the airport. A short vacation to New York seemed in order until any potential heat died down.