{Hare 023: The Cheshire Cat}

An old picture of him we acquired. They all seem to do this now.





{Who}

Joseph Christoph, a bigshot agent the Spooks sent to tail the boss. The Feds backed off real quick after Chappell put a bullet in his brain. We thought that would be the end of it, but it seems the Cat doesn't know how to stay dead.





{What}

As far as we can tell, the Cat is a Jabberwock , just like Chappell. We've seen him walk through walls, put an entire building to sleep, collapse a man's skull, and go from New York to Chicago in a day. And that's just the magic shit. He was dangerous before he died, and he's even more dangerous now.

There's something about that bastard that makes it damn near impossible to remember him. Scipka was going on and on about how he recognized Christoph immediately, but an hour later and he couldn't even tell you whether he looked at a broad or a fella. Good thing someone had the sense to write this bit down before that, but it makes keeping tabs on him a real pain in the ass.





{when}

We figured that the Spooks had someone tailing us for a while. We didn't figure they were going to send the Joseph Christoph. He was the man who crippled the Irrealta Family in New York. Earned himself a target on his back and a king's bounty on his head for it.

A little bird told us he was staying at the Palmer House last April. We set up an ambush in his hotel room, half a dozen of our boys and the boss himself lying in wait for him. By the time he woke up, he was staring down the barrel of a loaded Thompson. Chappell made an example out of him before dumping his body in the river.

We watched him die. We watched Chappell's pet fish shred the body to pieces. We watched his effects burn. What none of us understand is why we're still seeing him walking around like nothing happened.





{Where}

He's got to have some place he's operating out of, but so far we haven't found it. We searched his hotel room, but all we found was a slip of paper with the address of the Sharpers' stronghold downtown, tacked onto the wall. Chappell doesn't think he's in league with the Sharpers 'cause they don't right like the Spooks, but you never know.

Some of our inside men have been eavesdropping around the other groups to see if they've got anything on the Cat.

Sieskel - The Titans

They got nothing on the Cat. Portlands does seem like a likely hideout for him though.

Gretzky - The Cheesers

It's not like the Cheesers to send Hares and Carolls out into the open like this, so it's probably not one of their own guys. I did find a file about a colored man in Georgia who fits the bill, but there's no way in hell that's the Cat. Just a coincidence.

Viera - The Shelf Rattlers

The caretakers of the Library keep giving me different answers.

Some have never heard of him, some say they know someone similar, some say the Cat's a dame. Though the stories of what he can do are consistent, no two caretakers describe the same person. I'll send a note if I find something good.

Caleb - The Hypes

The Hypes know something about the Cat, though they call him by a different name. He's definitely the same guy, but they seem to be on good terms with him. We'll have to keep an eye on them to see if he tries to contact them.

Beats me who the fuck came up with the name "The Critic," though.





{why}

We don't know. It doesn't seem like he remembers anything from before he crawled out of that boat. He still hates our guts though, but that could be because we tried to kill him as soon as we crawled aboard.

He also seems to have a connection to the Sharpers. We had only recently found out the location of the Sharpers' place, and that was with weeks of surveillance. There's no way he found it through conventional means.





{how}

Seventy grand. Seventy grand is enough to move to Hawaii and never lift a finger in your life ever again. And all you have to do to get that seventy grand?

Put a bullet between the Cat's eyes. Chappell doesn't care how you do it, so long as he doesn't come back. What would it look like to the citizens under our care if the people we got rid of for them started coming back? It's not good for business, and we take care of our business. Nobody gets in the way of that.