An amber flame dances before me. So much beauty, power and potential. This little flame could light a fireplace to warm a home, or start a wildfire, ravaging everything in its path.

Me, I choose destruction. Before the flames begin to lick at my fingertips, I bring the match up to the edge of the cigar and a take a few deep draws. With a flick of my wrist, I extinguish the flame, but the spark lives on. Probably kill me someday, if I’m lucky.

“No, didn’t cause me any problems Joe. Got the stuff right here. I’ll drop it round tomorrow.” The voice on the other end of the line offers thanks, then compensation.

“Forget it kid. This one’s a freebie. See you tomorrow.”

I hang up and lay down on my bed. Joe’s a good kid, straight arrow. Hell of an arm on him too, coulda gone pro. Became a lawyer instead, and soon he’ll be just like any other member of his family. Damn shame. I liked him.

Smoke curls up towards the ceiling, creating monsters and memories above me. I blow smoke rings at them and try not to think.

Keep smoking and you’ll be dead before you’re sixty, that’s what Doc said to me. Doc, I says, I ain’t planning to be around that long.

Course, Doc copped it a few days later, so what did he know? He was a good man too, deserved better. I shoulda…

That’s all in the past now. Except when Isaac calls. “Got a job for you Jake.” Can’t turn down those jobs. He’s got my balls in the vice till the day I die. “Don’t want anyone finding out what really happened now do we Jake?”

The moaning and wailing starts early tonight. Not even midnight and she’s off. I stub out the cigar. I need a drink.

I don’t have much, and what I do have is nasty, not that I care. I pour myself a double in between slugs from the bottle.

The moans become screams, angry words I can hear clear as if she was in the room with me.

I grab my gun from the breakfast table and shove it into my waistband. I don’t need trouble round here. I open my door, cross the hall, and knock at the door opposite mine. No answer. My right hand reaches around to grab the gun hidden in the small of my back. I flick the safety off, and knock again.

“Miranda. It’s Jake from across the hall. You OK?”

The safety chain rattles as the door opens just a crack, enough for me to see her, thin and pale, with blotchy eyes from all the crying. She looks like hell.

“I heard shouting.”

“I’m fine.”

“Sure?” I try to look past her into the dark apartment. “No-one else here?”

She shakes her head. I flick the safety back on, and bring my right hand back around.

“OK. Just checking. You get some rest Miranda. Call me if you’ve got any problems.”

She nods absently, then shuts the door. Poor girl. I ever wind up that way, I know what I’ll do.

I return to my apartment and the sobbing begins again.

I meet Joe at a coffee shop downtown. I’d pick a bar, but out of courtesy I keep my drinking down during daylight. He spends a few minutes searching through the items I’ve brought him, becoming more excited with each new trinket. Again, he offers to pay, and again I say no. We compromise with him picking up the check, so I order a slice of pie. It was an easy tail, so coffee and pie seems a fair price.

Once Joe’s gone, I sit and think about the last few cases.

Finding Joe’s old man, that was tough. Tough, but worth it. Then there was the Kochek woman, and that creepy guy bugging her. It was a pleasure getting rid of him. And this last favour for Joe, a cakewalk, coulda done it with my eyes shut.

Brought me to this city too. I like it. It’s far from Isaac. Far from the things he asks – favours for powerful people too grand to be seen to stoop so low. That’s why I exist. For a price they keep their hands clean and have plausible deniability.

It’s no different from when we were in the forces Jake.

No Isaac. At least then I could cling to honour and duty. Now I just accept I’m a clever thug. One who, from time to time, chooses to do some good.

The little people. The poor. The desperate. Seeing them relieved, safe, solving their problems, finding them answers… helps me to sleep on the cold, quiet nights, when the ghosts begin to whisper.

That, and the scotch.

Purchase The Red Book to read “One in the Chamber” in its entirety. Official release is 1st December – pre-release orders taken as of 24th November.