Scarlet Billows (Brallon)

ii

"Dallon! Have you heard what Mack the Knife's been up to?"

Yeah, I'd say I've heard a thing or two.

New York City announced the first subway train without a crew. Wild, right? But! Guess what happened?

Two guys mysteriously disappeared and were found the next day under equally mysterious circumstances. Throats slit, no evidence. No clue who did it.

West Side Story won Best Picture! Have ya heard of West Side Story? Yeah, neither have I, but guess what I did hear?

Twenty-third and 8th, a pretty little blonde was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She made the six o'clock news. Probably not for the reason she'd always hoped.

What was her name? Started with an.. S? I think?

Speaking of blondes..

Another guy unfortunately, but possibly coincidentally, bit it the same day as Marilyn Monroe. Poor dear. Dears. But did anyone in the state of New York hear a word about it? Of course not! Mack the Knife is on the loose!

You'd think with a dangerous criminal roaming the streets of my own town I'd be a little bit more spooked than I am, but I've just had it. I don't get it! What's this guy's angle? What's the point in killing all these people? For kicks?

That's.. Sick. Real sick.

Just picking people off, one by one, two by two, for attention?

It's working like a charm, I can't deny it.

I mean. Mack managed to steer the minds of every male in a twenty-mile radius away from Marilyn Monroe. Not necessarily a no-sweat situation. At all.

Oh! Here's the kicker.

No one knows who Mack the Knife really is.

All the police know is that people keep turning up dead with the same marks on them and no evidence to lead back to who it might be.

Whoever Mack is, he sure is clean about doing some dirty, dirty work.

"...Officer Smith reporting a 10-34 on 25th and 1oth, this is a Code K. Suspect is said to be in dark clothing.."

So I tune into the police scanner every once in a while. So, what? If they didn't want people to know what's going on, then they probably wouldn't make it so easily accessible.

I guess I'm cheating a bit, the scanner's Ryan's, not mine. Per se.

"Twenty-fifth and 10th? That's just down the street from here!" Oh, yeah. Meet Ryan Ross. He's really into this whole Mack the Knife mania thing, mainly because Smith is a buddy of his and he can get some of the little details that no one gets. I get them, too. Not because I'm friends with Smith, but because I'm friends with Ryan and he's the most talkative person I know. Not a bad thing! He just.. Talks. A lot. About anything at all, "What do ya think Mack looks like? Do ya think he's some lonesome guy from the wrong side of the tracks?"

Mostly.. It's about Mack the Knife.

"Maybe. He sure is.. something."

I don't even know who this guy is, but he's such a pain in the ass, I can tell.

Some people are terrified of him, some people want him dead, some people think he's the most interesting man that's ever walked the earth, and then.. There are big shots who are selling that Bobby Darin song like hotcakes. That's where Mack gets his moniker. 'Manhattan's Very Own Mack the Knife.' All thanks to the New York Times.

Crime makes for great headlines.

Silly me, I've always thought the opposite.

"He's real mysterious, too," Ryan is a regular Sherlock Holmes when it comes to things like this. Hey, if they never catch the real one, maybe he'll get lucky with his own fictional version of the mystery murderer. Bit of a reverse Holmes situation, but with how enthused Ryan is about this whole thing, and believe me, he is, I think he'd be up to the task. A little extra pocket cash wouldn't hurt him much, either. Someone out there would eat that up, "Why do you think he's doing all this?"