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…

Thinks that gives him an

right-handers. I've

out. Hard. Fast. Teeth bared.

by the arm. We grapple. His blade to my throat. My hand locked to his

I

Sweat. Sour.

scent of

Not excitement.

Fear.

from me and suddenly I'm overreaching… off-balance… and I

as I lash for his neck but as he swings

on my advantage, I bully forward, reaching for his blade, slashing

chest with my right hand and

The other knife...

Ambidextrous?

I’m not. Just well-practised. As he swerves away from my right hand, my left hand is coming

the rib cage

Got you, you bastard…

it’s her.

apparently blind to me and Baxter, she charges between

my

Drinks slops?

Blood?

In slow motion...

my arms

I go down...

on

My gasp as his blade slices across

rasp

The metallic tang of

Whose?

Mine…

his

vein, he reaches into his jacket,

My Glock?

my forehead,

not use

the balls for

elbows I swing round wildly,

There are none.

up, I’m staring straight up the barrel of my own fucking gun and to

Is this it?

this is

wars with irritation. Of all the ways I could have died over the years, I’m taken out by a shite like

something I

Live by the sword…

moments. The brain does

don’t think

muzzle of the gun looms close and huge. The rest of the world

My throat tightens…

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

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 hugs a narrow waist and

a

“Mitch?”

it.

So does Baxter.

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

never seen her dressed like

one leg a little curved to strike a pose. And with an eye on Baxter that dares him

finger into the

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