Read Online Dead Man's Hand by Steven Meehan - Free Book Online Page A

Looking over to Bella I asked, “Would you care for anything?”
    “Did you just ask for a
specific bartender?”  I simply nodded and noticed genuine curiosity in her
eyes.  “Well if you’re going to make request like that I’ll just have to
sample the work.” Looking over at the waitress she added, “Could I have one of
those as well?”
    “Yes ma’am.”
    I glanced over to Patrick
and asked the polite question.  “I know you have something to drink
already but could the lovely waitress get you another beer or something else
for when you finish that one?”
    As if it were on cue he
deflected the question by taking a healthy sip from the bottle.  When he
was able, he looked up at the waitress and spoke to her instead of answering
me.  “I’m still working through my first drink.  And I wouldn’t think
of ordering anything else while I still have more than half of my drink left.
    “Very good, sir.” She
said to Patrick before returning her attention to me. “Is there anything else
you require, sir?”
    I shook my head as I
replied, “No I think that should be all we need for now.”  I leveled my
gaze to Patrick and said in an all too casual manor, “Though I’m sure you act
this way so you can get your read on people.”
    As he went perfectly
still I knew my hunch had been right.  Before he could formulate a reply I
continued.  “That bombastic attitude you’re throwing around is what tipped
me off.  Yeah you’ll learn about people and their play,” I granted. 
“Well it’s certainly one way to learn about people.  With all of your
outrageous behavior I’m pretty sure you provoke quite the accurate reactions.” 
On a whim I made sure to pay particular attention to his eyes as I finished my
thought, I wasn’t expecting a miracle but they have been known to happen upon
occasion.  “But there is no guarantee that the accurate reaction isn’t
just in character.”
    Apparently Patrick didn’t
want to verbally agree with me because all I got out of him was a very slight
shrug.  How does he manage to control himself like this ?  At
this point I wasn’t going to back down, I was going to get him to react at some
point today.  “It’s a clever tactic, when it works and you get an honest
reaction.”
    “I’ll be the first to
admit that there are some who manage to wrap themselves in an alternate persona
so well that the technique is of little use.”  Well that was nicely
worded.  He never admitted or even denied that he was doing just
that.  To hear him speak you would think from his tone that he was merely
chatting about the weather.
    Though his
acknowledgement did show me a glimpse of something that I could latch onto and
assault.  It wasn’t a big target to be sure but it was still a target to
attack, weaknesses are weaknesses no matter how hard to manipulate.  So
with a nod of agreement I offered my own honest opinion of his obviously
favored technique.  “Every trick has its own weakness, that’s for
sure.  But that is the very reason I refuse to use that kind of strategy.”
    Patrick attempted to roll
the slight twitch of his eye into another movement altogether.  And he
managed to do it wonderfully.  In fact I would have missed the twitch
altogether if I hadn’t been carefully watching for it.  But I had seen it
and that was all that mattered.  This master was human after all.  He
had a weakness, slight as it was, but it was there.  Thank goodness for
pride.  Unfortunately from what I could tell he had a reason to be proud,
but he took it just a hair too far.  He was so proud of how well he could
read people that he couldn’t suffer any to question his skills.
    Still wrapping himself in
the emotions of a stone, Patrick looked me right in the eye and asked, “So if
you’re not a fan of what I do, what do you do to gain your edge?”
    “I’m a simplistic
man.  I’ve always just enjoyed basic study and observation.”  I
replied smoothly.
    But I must