Work to do

Trapped by her steely stare, which seemed to last an age, I felt the need to run and hide. Instead, I reached for the soft pack and tapped out an untipped. Pressing the fibrous roll between my lips I realised, too late, how stagey this must have looked.

Read from the beginning

“Thought you’d given up,” she said.

“That was yesterday,” I replied, feeling she’d just let me off the hook.

She took a step forward. I thought she was going to kiss me. Horrified, I stepped back, but not before she had plucked the coffin nail from my bottom lip, taking a shred of skin with it. Again, she fixed me with those baby blues.

“What took you so long, John?”

“What?”

“Why did it take you so long to get here… after you drove off?”

I was taken aback at this. Was I a suspect already? Even though I had rehearsed my answer to this question, I was expecting it from the prowl boys, not from Stevie. I hesitated for a moment, transfixed, like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

“I went for a coffee, I blurted out,” without conviction. Then, breathing a sigh of relief, I remembered the paper cup I left on the car seat. Sometimes you can be too clever.

I could see she was trying to work it out. Before she turned away, crumpling the cigarette.

“Some of us have work to do,” she said, dropping the twisted remnants onto the floor as she walked out the door.

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What next? Is John a suspect? What will he do now? Find out in part six:

Long dark night

O ~ 0 ~ o ~

TAKE SOME TIME TO READ SOME CRIME

Time for crime? Lots of short stories and other great reading matter, all with criminal intent and all written by yours truly: Raymond G. Taylor

Thanks for reading

Ray