The End! (Until next week.)
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What percentage of Locke's motivation to pull off "crimes of the century" is based on his desire to impress girls is unclear but its definitely far from zero. In my 20-something year-old brain Daniels giving Locke a hard time here signals that they're buddies now and I think it reads it that way. Your mileage may vary.
Howver, they're not buddies ENOUGH for Daniels to stick around when the law shows up of course.
This next bit kind of flies in the face of the notion that cops straight-up don't come to Old Vegas which is something that's established later in the series but we're still building the world here and no one ever complained. (So I'm not sure why I'm inviting it now.)
So to that note, meet Detective Williamson. I do not remember his first name. I DO remember that he was named for my friend and longest supporter of all of my comic book nonsense, Bill Inzeo.
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The idea behind Locke and Williamson's relationship was it was kind of a Ralph Wolf (he's not Wile E. Coyote!) and Sam the Sheep Dog thing. They're adversaries by virtue of their day jobs but actually quite like one another.
I never fully explained this in-world but Williamson is supposed to be near retirement. (As is the case with all cop characters created by guys still learning to be creative...) Anyway, "Wills" as Locke calls him, is more interested in spending time with his kids than he is catching criminals. He enjoys his cat and mouse relationship with Locke and the fact that Locke is constantly escaping -- it keeps him busy and away from dangerous cases. He knows Locke is a scoundrel but he's not violent and it's a safe way for him to run out the clock. It works for Locke because he knows the guy pursuing him is kind of phoning it in.
It's a relationship I wish I'd done more with. Maybe I still will.
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And here we are right back where we started, with Locke ready to bust right back out and start another adventure!
Thanks for reading along. It's been fun revisiting this book like 20 years later. Next up is another short and then right into one of my favorite stories which is more than a little bit rom-com. If you like my Hallmark write-ups that one will be for you. One quick gag of a stroy first!
NEXT WEEK: Locke invests his part of the take in HIT ME BABY, ONE MORE TIME