Maxine and Berle are on the run with Charlie’s half-million bucks and a shrunken head in a box. Charlie wants Maxine back, he wants his money back, he wants the head in the box and he wants Berle dead.
I open the box and inside there’s a head. A head shrunk like a prune, a bone through the nose, small freckles on the cheeks black as ants. Lips stitched shut, the ears pierced and studded with emeralds. The eyes, closed, small white stitches in the lids, the hair long and blond straggles in the bottom of the box like worms working their way up and over the neck.
Jack Remick 