The Last Quarry by Max Allan Collins Page B

up and she was saying, “Oh, oh, oh,” really liking it; but halfway through I slowed it down and kissed her neck and breasts and ears and shoulders and face, and she was crying, and maybe I was crying, what the fuck are you going to do about it?
    The finish was slow and gentle and, again, I don’t remember going there, but we were in bed, Janet sleeping contentedly next to me, snuggling to me. Killing her in her sleep would have been so easy. Notthe accident Green had requested, but painless and she would never know a thing.
    But I wasn’t about to kill her.
    She was coming alive, this woman, she’d been sleepwalking through a coma of a life, and now she was alive, and killing her would have been a goddamn crime. I had a new agenda I was working on, but a wonderful tiredness had me suddenly, and then I was asleep, too.
    The next thing I felt was a hand gently caressing my neck, and then I heard Janet, saying, “Hey, Samson—wake up a second.”
    My eyes somehow opened, and she was sitting on the edge of the bed, in a white blouse and dark skirt, smelling great, but ready for work, not for me.
    I sat bolt upright, startling her a little, though she laughed.
    “Hey! Hey, relax....I’m leaving for the library. Thought I’d better see if you have anywhere to be.”
    I tasted my mouth; it wasn’t worth the effort. “No. No appointments....Can I just crash here?”
    “Sure.” She stood, smoothed herself, looking professional and adult, whereas I felt like a kid sleeping in instead of going to school. “I’ll leave the extra key on the kitchen table, if you wanna go in or out.”
    “When’ll you be home?”
    “I get off at five, today. Don’t you fix supper—I will!”
    “Listen—Janet....”
    She was poised at the door to the kitchen, and turned to me, eyebrows arched. “Yes?”
    “Tonight....We have to talk.”
    Her mouth twitched with amusement. “Isn’t that usually the woman’s line?...Or maybe you just want to explain why a guy selling veterinary medicine carries a gun.”
    That sucker-punched me, and I glanced over at the chair where my corduroy jacket was draped and saw the nine mil’s butt sticking up out of the pocket.
    When I turned back to Janet, she’d gone.
    I ran after her, bare-ass, but she was already out the kitchen door and on her way across the alley to the lot were she parked her Geo.
    Over the next hour or so, I showered and made myself a little breakfast, and tried to get my thoughts together. How much did she know about me? When had she noticed the nine millimeter—just now? She sure didn’t seem worked up about it....
    All the days of surveillance, and being on top of her in more ways than one, I still had no idea why anyone on the planet, much less a mogul like Jonah fucking Green, would want this sexy little librarian wasted. The only thing she was guilty of was shitty taste in men.
    By late morning, I was pacing in her living room, the nine stuffed in my waistband. I’d come to a decision—Iwould tell Janet some kind of story that stopped well short of the truth, but would be enough to motivate her; and I would grab her and haul her ass out of here, to safety somewhere.
    And I would deal with Jonah Green, and everything that meant. Killing the guy who hired you is a non-starter in my business, but then I was ready to retire again, anyway, so what the fuck.
    But why wait?
    The sooner I got Janet out of Homewood, the better. I would go yank her out of that library, run her back here to pick up a few things, and we’d be on the road. That was the plan. That was the new plan....
    And I was just about to go out the door and head down to the street, where my rental was parked, when somebody on the other side of that door began to work a key in it.
    I took a step back, and the door swung rudely open, and standing framed there, key in hand, was a young woman who was not Janet, but an attractive enough example of the female sex, even though her ragged jeans and a jean jacket and