Klempner

Although I can hear chaos from down the stairs, up here now, it’s quiet. There’s no-one in the dance room.

In the pool room, the only sound is the crunching of glass under my boots. I carry on to Finchby’s office.

All empty?

It seems so.

The time?

Time to go.

Except… as I’m about to turn and leave a girl, I see her; barely a teenager, some variety of Asian, Indian perhaps. Streaming tears, she skitters out from behind the desk, making for the kitchen.

I follow her and she cringes back into the corner. I offer my hand. “I’m not going to hurt you. You have to leave.”

She babbles at me in I’ve-no-idea-what language, then abruptly, her face swings up to mine and fingers outstretched, leaps up at me, clawing at my face. Reflexively, I jerk back, and she bolts past me and out, back the way I came.

Fuck!

I dash after her, but in the few seconds, she’s gone, vanished.

Where did she go?

Out?

Or somewhere deeper inside?

I check my watch… Three minutes…

Christ!

I have to find her… If she’s on the stairwell, perhaps I’ll hear her. I turn for the bar, heading for the stairs up and down, and there…

Fuck.

Baxter.

I reach for my Glock… And it’s not there.

Damn… When did I put it down?

Baxter flashes brows. And the knife in his hand. “Going somewhere?”

“I was planning on leaving.” I slip the knife from my belt. “Your friend Finchby has already left the building. I believe the money may be with him.”

“I’m not going to weep over Finchby. And I didn't do it for the cash. Well… mainly not for the cash. And I have my half anyway.”

We circle, eyeball to eyeball.

Make the first move?

Wait for him?

I move slowly, watching for the twitch of the hand. The nudge of the shoulder. The tell that he's going to stop talking and...

He slashes out… moves fast…

But it’s a feint and we both know it, calculated to draw a reaction from me.

Testing me…

My speed…

My reactions…

Younger than me...

How much by?

Ten years?

His knife...

inches.

Well used…

Left-handed…

gives him an

right-handers. I've

out. Hard. Fast. Teeth

jerk back and he follows through, but I grab him by the arm. We grapple.

close, I

Sweat. Sour.

scent

Not excitement.

Fear.

suddenly I'm overreaching… off-balance… and

neck but as he swings away, my fist lands in

forward, reaching for his blade, slashing out with my

my right hand and he twists away, still

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

he swerves away from my right

rib cage and

Got you, you bastard…

her. The Indian

to me and Baxter, she charges between us and I

my foot skids

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

my arms

I go down...

Baxter’s on top of

gasp as his blade slices across

The rasp

The metallic

Whose?

Mine…

grinning maniacally, he hovers, enjoying his moment, the knife poised at my

vein, he reaches into his jacket, he takes out

My Glock?

for my forehead, he

use

the balls

my elbows I swing round wildly, one way or the other,

There are none.

I’m staring straight up the barrel of

Is this it?

this is how I

have died over the years, I’m taken out by a shite

something I

Live by the sword…

works at these moments. The brain does

don’t think I’m

close and huge. The rest

My throat tightens…

honey and contempt in equal measure… “A hero with a

I know that

its owner.

her close to six feet in the spiked heels. The matching skirt just clears the crotch and the zip-front leather vest

and frames a face made up with emerald

“Mitch?”

it.

So does Baxter.

be a brothel. It might have been full of women offering their all. But nothing compares to Mitch

her dressed like this, not even in her

curved to strike a pose. And with an eye on Baxter that

silver loop. She hooks a finger into the loop and tooth

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