Лоуренс Блок - One Night Stands and Lost Weekends

For a second his face seemed to relax. Then it went rigid again and he broke off.

“What did you do?” It was Rita talking this time. I wanted to tell her to shut up, to leave him alone and just pray he would go away without doing what I knew he was going to do. The words stuck in my throat.

“Huh?”

“What did you do that got you in jail?”

He smiled. It wasn’t a pretty smile.

“Oh, I did lots of things.”

“I mean—”

He walked over to her, keeping the gun trained on me as he did so. Neither of them said anything until he was standing inches away from her. He reached out a finger and chucked her under the chin as if she were a little girl.

“I took something,” he said, “something that didn’t belong to me.”

“What was it?”

He chuckled. “It was a she. A broad. Looked something like you, come to think of it.”

She said, “Oh.” Her voice was flat and empty, almost lifeless.

“Not quite the same as you,” he said. “Wore her hair long but it was a shade darker. Built a lot like you, though.”

Without warning his hand snaked out and ripped her blouse all the way open, exposing her breasts. She took a step backward, drawing in her breath sharply as she did so.

He followed her.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Understand?”

She nodded dumbly.

He reached out and fastened a hand on her, and I could see how she shrank from his touch. For a moment I had a wild impulse to charge him. Maybe, with a little luck...

But I didn’t move. Even if the gun wasn’t loaded, even if he didn’t manage to shoot me, I still didn’t stand a chance. He could take me apart with his bare hands.

His hand tightened on her and she gasped.

“You’re built better than she was,” he said. “Bigger in the chest anyway. Let’s see how your legs stack up against hers.”

She didn’t move.

“Come on,” he said. “Get the skirt off.”

It took her a moment to respond. Then she unhooked the skirt and stepped out of it. She wasn’t wearing a slip — only a pair of black lace panties that matched the bra which was now in the backseat of the car.

I couldn’t help staring at her. Even knowing what was going to happen to her, knowing that we would both be dead in an hour or two at most, I still couldn’t help staring at her and realizing how breathtakingly beautiful she was. Her legs were long, with trim ankles and rounded calves leading up to swelling, full thighs.

“Nice,” he murmured. “Very nice.”

Her mouth opened and closed without any sounds coming out.

“The panties,” he said suddenly. “Get ’em off.”

“What—”

“Come on,” he snapped. “I don’t have time to waste.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

The smile was back on his face, leering and open and ugly. “You damned little fool,” he said. “Now what in hell do you think I’m going to do?”

She didn’t say anything. I could see the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m going to make up for four and a half years,” he said. “Now get the pants off.”

“Wait a minute,” I said.

He spun toward me and glared at me.

“Look,” I said, “if you let us go I’ll get you more money. I’ve got a few hundred at home. It’ll get you out of the state.”

He laughed. “Don’t be a damn fool all your life,” he said. “We couldn’t even make it to your home, and we’d never make the state line. They got the roads blocked off all around.”

“They know you escaped?”

“They sure as hell ought to,” he said. “I broke out with half the prison watching me.”

“But—”

He didn’t let me finish. “I haven’t got a chance in hell,” he said. “By now they’ve got the whole area sealed off and they’ll be closing in soon. They’re going to get me.”

“Look,” I began. “If you let us alone and if you give yourself up maybe they’ll go easy on you.”

This time his laugh went through me like a cold wind. “Cut the crap,” he said. “I was doing life for rape. You think they’ll commute my sentence because I gave myself up?”

“But—”

He laughed again, even harsher this time. “I killed a guard on the way out. Shot another one in the gut and he’s probably croaked by now. Still think I should give up? Or do you have any more bright ideas?”

I didn’t say anything this time.

“I’m just out to get what I can,” he said. “Right now I’m going to have some fun with your broad here. Then I’ll probably kill the two of you, depending on how I feel. Then when the law comes I’ll see how many of them I can take with me. And that’s all — no more time in stir, no more nights in a cell. See?”

I saw.

He turned back to Rita. “The pants,” he said. “In a hurry.”

She took off her panties, slipping them down over her hips and thighs and stepping out of them. She was shaking like a leaf. It wasn’t hard to figure out why.

“Please,” she said suddenly. “Please — don’t.”

This got him mad. “You little bitch,” he said. “I’m going to be dead in an hour or two — what the hell is it to you if I have some fun first? It’s not like I was taking something away from you.”

She hesitated. “I... I never did it before.”

He stared at her. “Huh?”

“I’m a... a virgin.”

“Sure,” he said flatly. “Sure, so am I. We’re all virgins. You and him — the two of you were just playing doctor in the backseat. Sure.”

“I mean it,” she protested. “Jim and I... we never went all the way.”

He turned to me. “She telling the truth?”

I just nodded.

He looked at her again. Then he looked at me.

Then he started to laugh.

“You little punk,” he said when he stopped laughing. “A guy like you, you wouldn’t know what to do with a broad like this. What’s the bit — just sit around necking?”

My cheeks were burning. But Rita was nodding very earnestly.

“Hell,” he said. “I outgrew that when I was in junior high. I guess some people take awhile to grow up.”

I still don’t understand it exactly. When he touched her, when he told me what he was going to do to her, I was still able to stand still and not do anything about it. But now something snapped, as if his insult had hit home and I had to do something about it.

I rushed him.

I came in low and the gun sounded like a cannon when it went off. The shot missed and he pulled the trigger again when I was within a foot or two of him.

The hammer clicked on an empty chamber.

I crashed into him and he rolled over on his back. The gun dropped from his hand and I reached for it, managing to pick it up. Then he was on his feet again and coming at me.

Behind me Rita had started to scream.

“You punk,” he snarled. “I’ll kill you for that.”

When he charged me I swung the gun like a club, putting everything I had into it. I had to nail him fast. If he got in one punch he could kill me.

The butt of the gun caught him on the side of the head and knocked him to the ground. It would have killed an ordinary man, or at least knocked him out. But he was shaking his head at once and on his feet a second later.

“Okay,” he said. “Now you’re going to get it.”

I was still holding onto the gun as he came in for the kill. He was wary now, knowing that I had the gun and that I wasn’t afraid to hit him with it.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Rita. She was standing in the same place as before and she was stark naked, screaming her lungs out.

But there was no one around to hear her screams. I cursed myself mentally for parking so far away from town. I had wanted privacy — now I wished I had settled for a nice quiet spot on lover’s lane by the river.