"Oh come on, he didn't hurt anything," Samantha said. "Get my man a drink, will you?" The bartender glared at her and then placed another beer in front of Floyd.
"You're a real nice lady," the drunk said.
"I'm a real shit is more like it," Samantha said. With a trembling hand she poured herself another glass of whiskey. "Either of you ever met Mrs. Pryde? Judah's wife?"
"What about her?" the bartender asked.
"I killed her tonight." She laughed as the bartender's face paled. "I mean I didn't kill her directly, but I may as well. I may as well gone up and shot her in the head for all the good I did her."
"What happened?" the bartender asked, daring to lean close.
"I fell asleep, that's what happened. I fell asleep in the woods and let her into the house. Let her walk right in and set up an ambush. I should have got her out of the house. I should have got her and the kid out of the house." She gestured to the mirror behind the bar, at her wrinkled skin, bloodshot eyes, and gray hairs. "I'm a fucking wreck. Hey, what time you got?"
"One fifteen."
"That means it's my birthday." She raised her glass in a mock toast. "Forty fucking years old. Can you believe it?"
"Happy birthday," Floyd said, raising his beer in salute.
"Forty." She looked into the mirror again and shook her head. "Time was when I never would have fell asleep after two days, even if I didn't eat or drink anything. They used to call me Wonder Woman, can you believe that? This one time I tracked some slimeball all the way from New York to Bangkok. Five days I went without sleep, hardly any food or water. Brought that fucker back alive and then the next day I was back at it. Now I can't even stay awake for two days. I'm a disgrace. It's no wonder Tanner put me on a desk. Nowadays I'm more like Blunder Woman, you know?" She guffawed at her own joke and then lifted the whiskey bottle to her lips.
"Maybe you're being too hard on yourself," the bartender said. "You tried, right?"
"Oh sure, give me an A for effort. Put a fucking gold star on my forehead because I tried real hard. Five people are dead now because of me. That boy has to grow up without a mother now because I fell asleep! You think I'm being too hard on myself? How hard do you think it's going to be for him?" She reached across the counter to grab the bartender by the shirtfront. "You think that shit is going to make that little boy feel better when they put his mother in the ground?"