Tarantula
Issues 81 - 83

The story opens in Rome. A man is being followed by a couple on a scooter with semi-automatic weapons. Ronnie Rome is beaten and bleeding, hiding in a piazza with a small canister over his shoulder, he has a song stuck in his head and can't make any sense of it.

Graves and Dizzy sit in the Blue Note club, suffering the jazz music. They are there because of Shepherd, because Graves believes he appreciated this sort of thing. Graves, like Dizzy, hates jazz. He talks of Shepherd's abilities with the nine other players in basketball, one of Shepherd's past skills, and a metaphor for Shepherd's abilities to manoeuvre the key players in the current situation. Graves asks how well Dizzy knew Shepherd, saying that the more he gets to know a person, the less there is to like about them.

Ronnie worries about the blood on his hands. Some is his, some belongs to a woman. She is coming for him, he's lost his gun and his cane, and the catr that's supposed to meet him isn't there. He thinks back to how he came to be so screwed. Ronnie arrived three days before, sent by Graves to retrieve the Veronese painting. Both graves and Ronnie believed he had all he needed to complete the task.

Graves tells Dizzy about Shepherd, and his basketball days in college. He never got a scholarship, supposedly because of his height, but Graves believes this was an excuse, and that Shepherd lacked a "killer instinct", at least until he returned from Vietnam. The young Shepherd hustles a black team on the court. Despite Shepherd taking a few blows, they lose badly. The game is being watched by two men, who the team believe are there because of the recent murder of a boy named Charlie Owens. They are all suspects, except for Shepherd, being the only white player. Shepherd buys his friends time to walk away by going to talk to the two men. Graves and Curtis Hughes have other ideas about Charlie's death, they have their own suspect, and he's standing right in front of them. Curtis wants to know what a white boy is doing uptown, and notes the sarcasm of Shepherd's respectful answer. Graves is sure that Shepherd is the man who beat Charlie Owens' head in, he just can't prove it yet.

Ronnie gets a knock at the door. it's Echo Memoria, his contact in Rome. She doesn't have the painting with her, and uses her sexuality to her advantage with "Roonnie". They decide to have dinner before getting down to business.

Shepherd meets up with Trini, a somewhat camp looking friend who works in a pizza parlour, and keeps Shep fed by bringing him 'mistaken' orders. They talk about Trini's brother Tim, who is in a coma, and why Shephers hasn't bothered to get a job. Trini offers Shep another present to follow his pizza.

Ronnie and Echo return from dinner. She tells him the painting is in a third floor apartment of the building they are in. There's no elevator, so Ronnie will take some time getting there. Echo goes ahead to get things ready.

As Shep arrives home, Curtis is sitting on his front step. Shepherd thinks both Graves and Curtis are cops, but Curtis corrects this assumption. he tells Shepherd that he's sure Shep killed Charlie Owens. rather than denying it, Shepherd challenges him to prove it.

Ronnie is passed on the stairs by a man carrying a semi-automatic. He spots the gun, and checks his pockets for his own weapon, and soon realises that the money has been stolen.

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