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 cared

Well used…

Left-handed…

gives

right-handers. I've done

out. Hard. Fast. Teeth bared.

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

I smell

Sweat. Sour.

scent of

Not excitement.

Fear.

breaks away, dancing back from me and suddenly I'm overreaching… off-balance… and I pull back

then grunts as I lash for his neck but as

I bully forward, reaching for his blade, slashing out with

my right hand and he twists away, still grinning manically, but he

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

well-practised. As he swerves away from my right

rib cage and

Got you, you bastard…

her.

the exit, apparently blind to me and Baxter, she charges between us and I twist

my

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

my arms

I go down...

on top of

gasp as his blade

The rasp of

metallic

Whose?

Mine…

hovers, enjoying his

reaches into his jacket, he takes

My Glock?

for my forehead, he backs

use the

got the balls for

round wildly, one way

There are none.

barrel of my own fucking gun and to Baxter’s crocodile

Is this it?

all this time… this is

wars with irritation. Of all the ways I could have died

I

Live by the sword…

at these moments. The brain does

think I’m

looms close and huge. The rest of the world vanishes around me.

My throat tightens…

and drips honey and contempt in equal measure… “A hero with a gun and a knife against an

know that

swing to its owner.

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

tumbles gloriously over smooth white shoulders and frames a face made up with emerald eyes

“Mitch?”

admit it.

So does Baxter.

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

never seen her dressed like this,

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

loop. She hooks a finger into the loop and tooth by tooth, slides the

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