"Hey honey," he slurred.

"What can I do to you?" he said suggestively.

“Are you the manager? Victor?"

"Yeah," he said.

"You one of the tenants' girlfriends? We've got a policy about anyone staying over more than a couple of days if they're not on the lease. Of course, I COULD be talked into letting it slide . . . with the right . . . encouragement."

The woman seemed eerily calm.

"Do you know Jane Collier?"

Victor sneered.

"Yeah, that bitch owes me a months rent. If you find her, tell that little slut that . . ."

Red had endured enough. She grabbed that rat by his cheesy Hawaiian shirt and hurled him through his front door, which would have been considerably less painful if the door had actually been open. He crashed through the door and landed about six feet inside, which was bad for him since the wall on the other side was only five feet away.

Red strode into the apartment, grabbing him by the leg and then throwing him into the living room where his glass coffee table was awaiting him.

Victor found himself bleeding from places where he didn't even know he had places, and he was sure that something on his body was broken.

He looked up, and even his dim brain could see that there was something animalistic in this woman's eyes. He was sure she was going to kill him.

Red put one foot on his chest as he tried to scamper away, pushing him to the floor.

“I am only going to say this once," she said, her voice almost physically dripping with venom and hatred, “the only reason I'm going to let you live is because Jane would probably be unhappy with me for killing you. You are beyond filth, and the world would be better off without you. You preyed on a young girl who didn't have the emotional capacity to stop you. If I EVER find out that you've done that to another living soul, I'll make you WISH I had killed you here tonight. Do I make myself clear?" She pushed down harder on his chest, making sure he couldn't breathe easily. He nodded wildly.

"I know you're thinking you can call the cops and that'll teach me. I've been evading the police for years. They'll never catch me . . . at least not until I've caught you and ripped the skin and muscle from your bones," she added.

She removed her foot from his chest, picked him up by the neck and pinned him to the wall with his feet dangling six inches off the ground.

"Do you still have her stuff?"

"Nuh . . . no," he whimpered.

"I suh . . . sold it," he added.

“How much money do you have? Both of your own and in petty cash?"

"Nothing!"

Red shook her head. Then she pounded him once against the wall.

“How much?"