WEB EXCERPT - Letters in Blood - # 40739 Tom Larkin paid fifty grand for his brilliant red casket months before they planned a sailor's funeral for him that night. His coffin cruised at 120 mph with its dash lit like a jet's cockpit, where the most-important reading to Larkin glowed on his Porsche's digital clock--4:00 AM. Perhaps it was his darkest moment before dawn, but he had other plans. He drove recklessly, hydroplaning northbound on Manhattan's flooded FDR Drive through sheets of pouring rain. The drive home took an hour, but, with minimal visibility in a torrent- ial downpour, the flooded Harlem River Drive leading to the George Washington Bridge concealed potholes rattling the fine suspension of his German-made wet dream. Larkin's greater problem-DWI-was a given they had counted on. Still, they drugged his last sour mash at Rao's, just to up the prelude's tempo to an evening dirge. With the bad weather, his inebri- ation, and hallucinations from a subtle drug taking hold of his senses, the distance between Larkin and home lengthened as time became his enemy. Vera, his wife, told him she'd kill him the next time he stumbled in after daybreak. It was no idle threat. He knew she could kill in a crime of passion, especially him. Death lurked at the start and finish of his race homeward, but, with two strikes against him, only he could fathom the third --his bent to self destruction. If all went as planned, Harbor Police would find Tom Larkin dead behind the wheel after hitting the muddy bottom of the East River, or any other river. They just wanted him gone, stateside or overseas, no matter what. Larkin still felt sharp an hour after downing his third double Jack Daniels. In his mind, past, present, and future were clear. Remembering his hat size, Social Security number, and the measurements of a dozen bimbos was no problem. He could read his driver's license number from three paces, backward, upside down, with either eye or both-without glasses. He'd been sharp for two hours before he started driving, but an hour after his last belt, the one first kicked in with the drugs and compounded his usual buzz. Seeing Vera as more dangerous than the road, he sped recklessly despite the hazardous conditions. He had no idea anyone wanted to kill him for anything other than his flagrant infidelities. To his right, the black depths of the East River was a fatal attraction. He could be a loser on two counts, but there was a third alternative, the loser's hat trick--call strike-three without a swat to stay alive. His own worst enemy, he knew they might find him dead before dawn on all three counts. "Bastards," he grumbled, cursing his so called buddies who let him get behind the wheel after he had been pumping drinks for hours. Their names escaped him. So much for clarity. Sharp as a rose thorn? he wondered. My ass. Where were those faceless nonentities? They were friends enough to buy his fourth drink in a dingy saloon, yet, they had turned their backs when he squinted to read the address on his parking stub. Had they callously watched him stumbling to his Porsche trying to get the himself home? So much for twenty-twenty fucking vision, he thought. Vera will kill me if I'm not out of here. What time you got, Pal? I can't read my damn watch." His mind and car sped out of control at a mile a minute. The East River beckoned. Who could ever see clearly in a dim twilight between happy hour and an untimely death? He shrugged and imagined seeing his own hands clutching the steering wheel but saw no flesh, only bone. In the rearview mirror, he caught the malicious grins of three Mexican capungos, bandits who'd kill as soon as spit. "Fuck off!" he shouted, shaking their image from his mind. Adjusting the mirror to be sure they were gone, he saw his own reflection as a skeleton and swerved toward the rive