Chapter 4
Flipping open the green-lined, yellow leaves of his legal pad, .Jim Hayes stared down at the blank page in front of him and tried to clear the alcoholic haze from his mind. The blunt tip of his soft-leaded, brown copy pencil was poised over the straight lines of the pad, but his hand refused to move.
His head rolled from side to side as the train jostled itself around a corner and then clacked its way down the long ribbon of steel track. Crap, he thought, why fight it? His head was a muddled mass of screaming nerve ends, all hammering against each other. He had spent most of last night in the club car drinking, trying to convince himself that the wild escapade he had embarked upon was the right one. He had staggered back to his compartment confirmed in his belief and had floppe
