8:3 /act one
Ben pulled a pile of paper from his jacket. It was creased to fold diagonally, making it thick enough he had to fiddle to clear it from the cloth. By the time he’d done the magic trick of extracting the long, narrow package everyone in the room, except for Abe for who this would be a new experience, knew what they were looking at.
Abe must have read the tension in the room because they leaned forward with nearly as much interest as the others did as Ben smoothed the paper out over his thigh.
“Don Franco Rossi brought this to my office.”
Ivan went alert at this. “Don Franco went to your office?”
“Yes.”
“Himself?”
“Yes.”
“Huh.” Ivan nodded and settled back against the foot board with his arms crossed. Dempsey gave Ben a look that might be construed as admiring.
“Don Franco?” Prairie asked.
“He’s a local business man,” Ivan explained. “With a lot of influence.”
“He’s a gangster,” Siobhan corrected.
“That.” Ben shot a finger at Siobhan, then gestured at the papers. “One of his guys is missing. They found a story in his rooms.”
Siobhan indicated the papers with a lift of her chin. “That the story.”
“Look like.”
“Will you read it?”
“Nah,” Ben held the papers out to Siobhan. “You do it.”
Siobhan leaned to reach down the length of the bed and took the papers from Ben. She looked back at Kim.
“Do you mind?”
Kim took a moment to answer. “Why would I?” She shrugged then scooted over slightly, frowning as the iv wobbled in her hand. She considered asking Prairie to remove it but the time wasn’t right, so she just looped the iv out of the way and continued to scoot until she freed up half the pillow for Siobhan. Then she patted the empty space near her shoulder. “Here.”
Siobhan eyed the space, then moved to sit with her side brushing the mound of pillows. Another quick glance at Kim whose gaze remained steady as did her breathing, then Siobhan started to read.
Enter The Woods 