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...
maybe eight inches.
Well used…
Left-handed…
that gives him an
practice against right-handers. I've
Hard. Fast. Teeth bared.
grab him by the arm. We
I
Sweat. Sour.
sour scent
Not excitement.
Fear.
and suddenly I'm overreaching… off-balance… and I pull
I lash for his neck but
I bully forward, reaching for his blade, slashing out
my right hand and he twists away, still
The other knife...
Ambidextrous?
Just well-practised. As he swerves away from my
the rib cage and
Got you, you bastard…
her. The
apparently blind to me and Baxter, she charges between us and I twist away to avoid
back, my foot skids
Drinks slops?
Blood?
In slow motion...
my arms wind-milling for
I go down...
on
…
as his blade slices across
rasp of shredding
metallic tang
Whose?
Mine…
his
vein, he reaches into his jacket, he
My Glock?
for my
not use
the balls for
elbows I swing round wildly, one
There are none.
staring straight up the barrel of my own fucking gun and to Baxter’s
Is this it?
time… this is how
irritation. Of all the ways I could have died over the years, I’m taken
something I
Live by the sword…
moments. The
think I’m
looms close and huge. The rest of
My throat tightens…
sultry, smooth, and drips honey and contempt in equal measure… “A hero with a gun and a knife against an unarmed man. And
know that
to its owner.
thigh boots set 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
over smooth white shoulders and frames a face made up
“Mitch?”
it.
So does Baxter.
have been full of women offering their all. But nothing compares to
have never seen her dressed like this, not
curved to strike a pose. And with an eye
finger into the loop and tooth by tooth, slides
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