How would he even start once he stepped out of his car? Joe pulled up and into the area behind Lodestar's office that served as their parking lot. He hadn't been able to sleep at all. He had spent all night tossing, turning, and staring into the ceiling trying to make sense of what he had seen and felt the night he murdered Mr.Nibung.

Thankfully Louis broke the ice for him. His friend pushed a container towards him. On top of the container's teal lid were a spoon and a fork. "Joseph, I noticed that thing around your neck when you came busting into my home. Is it new? I don't think I've seen it on you before." Louis stood up and took a bottle of ginger ale from the cooler and placed it in front of Joseph after using a screwdriver to remove its cap.

"Oh.. a customer gave it to me a handful of days ago." Joe looked down to grab the leather cord and looked at the agate pendant. It was still very beautiful, he wanted to wear it all the time or at least carry the pendant on him. "Some girl on a bike, the chain came undone so I slipped it back on. It was pretty simple and well I think she likes me." He took the pendant off and handed it to Louis so that it could be looked at up close. Joe then pulled the container of food that Louis had said he'd have ready. It was still very warm and it was a welcome sensation since his hands felt like ice. "Look at this hotshot, Packing his food in a glass container. Fancy bastard."

 "Haha, yeah I like that the glass doesn't trap any color or smells from the foods I make. Go ahead, take a bite." Louis examined the agate pendant and traced some of the patterns on its circular surface "I think I know a way to fix it up to make it fit you a little better. Wanna let me have it while you work today? I'll hand it back at the end of the day." Louis puffed out his chest, "Louis knows your style very well and only he can transform this simple pendant into befitting a man of your caliber."

"Oh, yea? You know this stallion's gotta have shoes made of gold n gemstones." Joe laughed, opening the container of food to pick up a bite with the fork, "Do your magic, man. I'll be here all day." While he ate, Louis was rather quiet as he turned the Blue Lace Agate pendant in his hands and rubbed his thumb over the stone.

"So Joseph." Louis set the pendant down and leaned forward. His arms were crossed as he leaned forward. In a hushed voice, he asked, "You've done this many times and even with your own hands and a knife. I know you've seen people die." He licked his lips nervously and tilted his head to the side, "So why were you spooked?"

Joe breathed out heavily and set his cutlery down. "It's true. The first few times, it wrecked me but after some time it...stopped bothering me so much. We both know the money is good and being able to get the scum off of our lands felt great. Hell even getting beat and bruised felt good if I won." He rubbed his chin, pulling on his lower lip a bit. "When we arrived there he was already waiting outside, Louis. Not just outside on the porch in a chair either. We arrived at the front, he wasn't there from what I saw. So we decided to go around the back through the alley so I could jump the fence if there was one and break in through the back."

"Was there a fence though? Some places around the area don't have any." Louis asked.

Joseph nodded, "A short one made of metal with a flat top. Just a bunch of grass in the back, no fresh tire marks. I'm guessing he never parked the car in the back." He picked up his fork again to finish up the breakfast that Louis had made. "But still its too eerie, Lou."

Louis ran his fingers along the black leather strap of the pendant. "Maybe he had just a foreboding feeling, you know like deja vu? Don't you think?" Joe knew his friend fidgeted when he was nervous usually in the form of clicking his pen.

"I know what you mean but this was just too exact. His words were clear too. He was expecting his car and both of us. He wasn't afraid and he knew where Vernard and I were going to go after we had him. He knew that visiting the falls that night would be the last time he saw it in his life." Joe brought a fist to his mouth, his eyebrows furrowed, "He told me about some memories of his past while we headed out from his place and towards the falls." He set his hand down on the desk again and flicked a paper clip near the almost empty container of food.

"I'm a bit superstitious myself, my mother used to read some books and try to do lucid dreaming. Maybe he saw it in a black mirror." Louis bit his lip for a moment and smiled just enough to make Joe feel a little better. "You know about those people right? Is it religious? I don't know. But they believe they can truly foretell things using stuff like those tarot cards you gave that "

Tarot cards, like the ones he gave the bike girl? That was just like a game, wasn't it? just learning words for cards and trying to make sense of it? Nothing truly mystical about that." Joe didn't believe in those things even though his mother liked to pick a card every day for herself and him. His father never liked it and so his mother would always do it in secret. He thought about the meaning she would come up with for sometimes the same card, he didn't understand how she came up with them but it was an activity he looked forward to when he was small. 

​

"Anyway, the worst part was when I took my aim. There was a moment where I felt I was him-" Joe could tell his friend didn't believe that or at least felt it was crazy. The bewildered look on Louis's face said it all. But Joe knew Louis well, he knew his friend was thinking. He could tell because of the way Louis ran his thumb over the first joint of his index finger. He always did that when topics were tough and it made Joe suspect Louis knew more than he did. "a-and I felt his aching joints and his tired muscles. I felt the fog in his head and the hazy vision. I even saw myself, my body looking down the sight of the gun taking aim." Joe shuddered, "I heard my voice say something about silent fears roaring, mother of night and father of light. That shit was like nonsense but then trigger was pulled and I didn't feel it. I was back in my own body and shaken enough to nearly vomit."

Louis cleared his throat, "You should go to work, Joseph." and stood up to walk around the desk. He stood behind Joe's chair which made him feel like he was very well being ushered out without his say. "I'll work on that necklace of yours and do all this paperwork."

Joe tried to smile and tried to laugh. "If you say so. We do have to get the Disgustang done and delivered to the place that Mr.Nibung had written down." He got up and left to find Vernard outside already working or at least pulling together everything the two of them would need to finish the job.

Joe and Venard worked on replacing the missing body panels from the El Camino to cover their tracks. Why they were missing? They didn't know. But they knew the owner probably wouldn't have done it himself, he was as old as Mr.Nibung and it was very odd if they had fallen off on their own even in a crash of some sort. Joe felt something was being covered up but he didn't care enough considering his job wasn't really to investigate. Wait, The old man said he used to drive this thing. But it wasn't his car. Was the owner of the El Camino also invovled? The task of investigation fell on the shoulders of other members that worked under Piers and Elvira. But now he really wanted to take this upon himself. He hoped that the Black Viper bikers had been well integrated now and an event such as his encounter with those two guys, while he had been with Queenie, wouldn't repeat. Their presence didn't need to be questioned. The King Cobras were here to help even them, whoever they were, whether they knew it or not. We're not bad, right? Right.

 Louis had prepainted the panels to match the body color sometime while Vernard and Joe had been working on another car. That nice banana yellow...much like banana pudding which he hadn't had in a long time. The painted pieces had sat a bit and would need to be washed once assembled. Vernard held the panels up while Joe made sure all the attachments were solid and tight. They even replaced some minor things on the inside that had cracked and broken from use and age.

Now it was time to focus on the Disgustang. Between the two of them, Joe and Vernard even gave the Disgustang a nice wash and cleaning. They knew it was useless work considering the situation but they liked turning in cars looking clean and even polished for their older clients. A little something to treat them with respect and dignity. Even in death. Joe cleaned the tires to make them dark and glossy. Then he went touching up the white of the lettering with some paint. He wasn't that great at drawing but man was he good at cleaning up things like these with paint.

 In the paperwork, Mr.Nibung had checked and signed to have the car delivered to a different address than his own. It was still in the contract and they had every reason to do the job. It was clear to Joe that he wasn't the only one looking forward to not keeping the Disgustang under their care for any longer. Vernard was already washing his hands and he could hear Louis looking through the keys in the safe.

"Joseph!" Louis stepped out with the keys to the car and with the blue lace agate pendant in one hand "I turned that leather strap necklace into a bolo that better suits your looks. I used a bit of the stuff we have laying around to make the changes." He held it out.

Joe took it and noticed that it indeed was threaded differently. "You just changed how the cord works Louis. It's not even a whole loop anymore." He noticed that the ends of the leather strap had been untied and finished with some metal tips.

"Exactly! And it'll look way better than what you had before, my friend." Louis took the bolo back and slipped it over Joe's head and tightened it up a bit. "The stone looks better here by your neck and collarbone than lower on your chest. Its closer to your face and makes your eyes look nicer since they match." He patted Joe's shoulder "Oh and don't worry about going to where ever the paperwork tells us to take the car, I'll take it myself. Vernard and you can get off of work. We don't have anything else to do besides Elvira's vehicle fleet and we'll need to be well-rested for that...those jobs we'll do indoors."

Vernard stepped up, "Indoors? That means we can only have two cars here to have enough space around em to move comfortably."

​

Joe took a glance into the garage which was full of things they used along the perimeter of the walls. Vernard was right. Especially with the cars that Elvira employed in her fleet. They were rather imposing and wide land yachts. "And we can only really have the parts for two as well. Maybe three. How many cars are in the fleet we'll be fixing?"

"Around six. The rest don't need repairs yet since they can handle more abuse." Louis shrugged and began to move toward the El Camino which looked rather regal now with its repairs done despite the job it had just recently been used for. "It'll be a lot of glasswork, boys. So get ready to suffer some cuts. I know Verny is used to them."

"Yea he has like ten cats..of course, he'd be used to it. They have ten little switchblades in those little fuzzy mittens." Joe shook his head and used his thumb and index finger to pinch at his face. "I rather have Queenie rip more of my face up than suffer death by a thousand blades." He laughed and gave Vern a nudge. "I refuse to believe you're not a masochist."

"I'd do anything for my kitties, Joe. I hardly feel their claws anymore." Vern smirked, "At least I can take some damage. You're sharp and quick but as a horse, anything takes you down don't it? Anyway, work is done and we won't be taking walk-ins. Best we be leaving." With that, Vernard went around the back to drive off in his truck.

"See ya, Louis. I wish I could talk more about that experience but..there isn't anything else to say." Joe rubbed the back of his head, messing up his nicely combed hair. "It is still early though. It almost feels wrong to leave. But if we gotta, then sure. It's not like there's much to clean, we do a pretty good job cleaning...although.." He thought about the bicycle girl and how she seemed to think that the place was a mess. "Can I stay behind and tidy things up? I don't need the office open and I'll close the gate myself before I leave."

"Sounds good," Louis said as he got into the Disgustang and proceeded to back it out of the shop's lot. Before he left he waved at Joe.

​

The first thing he'd had to take care of would have to be those weeds growing from the cracks and get a good sweep of the whole property. He didn't want to feel the same embarrassment as before. Maybe that bike girl would show up again or he'd see her at the cafe sooner rather than later. Weed by weed he plucked from one corner to the other and tossed into a bin, "Greasy in death as I was in life, I'll show her who's...that sounds stupid..." He took their ratty broom and began to sweep with way more force than was needed. Unbeknownst to him, he'd be exhausted from his over-energetic way for sweeping by the time he finished. "I'm going to buy her a fuckin chai tea and she's going to like it. A bitchin croissant too. Girls love croissants."