"Good evening, Mr. Mayor."
Cook greeted Slo Deer with a smile.
At the sight of that smile, brutality flickered in Slo Deer's cold, sinister eyes.
Slo Deer knew Cook.
But not well.
His impression of Cook remained that of an "antique coin dealer," with, at most, the added assessment of "a little clever."
Anything else?
Before this moment, there had been nothing more.
Cook had been just like any other merchant: greedy and miserly.
But now, Slo Deer thought of much more.
For instance, the disappearances of Carol Deer, Kelot Deer, and Annepenny Lin, and the deaths of Quick Webster and Aymor Mor.
"Was it you?"
Slo Deer asked coldly.
"Are you referring to your two nephews, that lady Annepenny Lin, and Aymor Mor?"
"Yes, just as you suspected."
"I did it."
"I still can't forget how that lady Annepenny Lin tasted."
"A pity..."
"She was a little too delicate."
"Just like your two nephews, she couldn't take much rough handling."
Cook spoke with a broad smile and thrust his hips, making his enormous belly wobble.
"So you also planned the mistake that fool Hardy Lin made?"
Slo Deer asked.
"Yes."
"But not entirely..."
Cook nodded and continued.
Before he could finish, however, a laser beam shot straight at him.
But Cook seemed to have foreseen it. His hulking body displayed an agility utterly at odds with its size. He pushed off with his toes and twisted, letting the laser skim past him.
"There's no point in doing that."
"You should know that I sincerely want to make a deal with you."
Watching the laser disappear into the wall on the other side, Cook curled his lip in utter disdain. But when he looked back at Slo Deer, that disdain became an ingratiating smile, slick with a merchant's practiced charm.