"But what if the purveyor of the stock enjoys the fear? Enjoys the slaughter?" His throat opened for another beet and pulled it down with a lazy swallow: "Then what? Does the act trump the end product? Or enhance it?"

Vittesh set his fork down and looked thoughtfully at the golden crust of his triangular piece of Triopita. "Well then, I'd imagine that it would impart an even more flavorful taste to the meat for this individual."

"Do you think" -- he waved his fork around -- "In this hypothetical scenario that the purveyor of the meat would be able to distinguish between the bad hormones and the good? Would our sadist enjoy the fear-infused meat more than the humanely treated? If so, is it a matter of perception over reality?"

"So it's a matter of choice, then? He chooses to slaughter the livestock? Cruelly?"

"Yes."

"Interesting," Vittesh returned to the task of sawing a piece of his dinner, but his movements became slow, thoughtful. His buoyant aura retracted, becoming curiously withdrawn."And... this unscrupulous purveyor of livestock," his black eyes flicked up and latched onto Danny's: "That so inhumanely slaughters his animals --

"Not animals --

"Quarry?"

Danny gave a devilishly charming smile. "Prey."

Vittesh's eyebrows bounced up.

" Packs a punch doesn't it? To go from somethin' as unsuspecting and unassuming as animal, to prey."

"Well, for there to be prey in this hypothetical scenario there would need to be a predator, would there not?"

" There is."

Vittesh set his silverware down with a decisive chink. "We are not talking about meat, are we."
.x.

For those of you that had a sneaking suspicion that something sinister was being communicated -- well, you'd be correct.

As though speaking in tongues, these two savvy business men are exchanging critical pieces of information. Danny is -- in a moment of impulse? -- confessing that he is the murderer from all the news headlines.

But what I love even more about this scene -- and what may be an even bigger mystery than why Danny would admit to such a thing -- is how calmly Vittesh takes this all in. It is only when our Danny begins goading Vittesh, trying to tempt him, that Vittesh leaves the scene, flustered.

What does Danny sense in our affable Vittesh that he would even entertain such a thought ? And what does Vittesh sense in Danny that he was not terribly surprised at the confession?

Some things to think over (;