Night kills

10

Life could be so good it almost hurt. It prompted Shellie to nestle close to David as Gloria jockeyed the big Chrysler north on Broadway. The car drove smoothly and seemed to glide over the potholes that dotted the street. The evening had cooled, but the warmth of the car's interior, and of the wine she'd earlier consumed, made Shellie deliciously drowsy.

The sound of a blaring horn jolted her alert. She opened her eyes and realized Gloria had been the one leaning on the horn.

A cab that had pulled past the Chrysler was swerving in front of it, seemingly inches off its front bumper.

"Jerkoff!" Gloria said softly but vehemently.

"New York cabbies, that's all," David said lazily. "You oughta be used to them."

"Being used to them doesn't mean I don't hope they should all come down with the plague." She raised her voice. "Lord, deliver to them locusts and fire and sickness, and let them drive fareless through eternity."

David chuckled and held Shellie closer in the softly upholstered backseat. "Did I mention to you Sis has a bit of a temper?"

"I hope it isn't hereditary," Shellie said. She saw with relief that the cab had pulled a safe distance ahead.

"David fights a constant battle with his genes," Gloria said, from the front seat. "Not to mention the devil. Or maybe it's all the same thing."

The cab's brake lights flared and it slowed abruptly, causing Gloria to stand on the brakes and the big Chrysler to cant forward. "Now that this asshole's ahead of me, he doesn't wanna go fast," Gloria said. "The guy's a great argument for the legalization of hand grenades."

"Ease up," David said. "You don't want to attract attention now."

Shellie thought that was an odd thing for him to say, but she was too comfortable and drowsy to give it much thought. She decided her life was fully in Gloria's hands and there wasn't much she could do about it, so she closed her eyes, rested her head against David's warm shoulder. There were times when the wisest and easiest course was to be a fatalist.

Shellie came awake when the car stopped. She heard a low rumbling louder than the engine. She'd dozed off, but had no idea how long she'd been sleeping.

David's arm was around her. He realized she was awake and gave her a comforting squeeze.

They'd reached their destination. Through the wide front windshield Shellie saw a gray steel overhead door rising. Beyond it, headlights illuminated a dark area with some barrels and boxes stacked on one side. About fifty feet beyond them was a brick wall, obviously very old. The wall bulged inward. The bricks were no longer aligned and ledges of broken gray mortar protruded from between them like too much icing between layers of cake. There was an old wooden workbench with what looked like tools stacked on it in the shadows near the wall.

"Apartment's upstairs," Gloria explained, nudging the accelerator so the big Chrysler glided inside. "It's furnished better than the garage."

"Much better," David said. "And it doesn't smell like petroleum products." He bowed his head and kissed Shellie's just above the bridge of her nose.

The overhead door descended with a clatter and closed behind them. Gloria turned off the engine, and the garage was suddenly very quiet. The headlights were on time delay and stayed on. They deepened the shadows not directly in their twin beams.

In the dimness of the car's interior, Gloria glanced over her shoulder. "Be careful getting out and walking. There's a plastic drop cloth on the floor because the car leaks oil." The Chrysler's interior light came on, and before David or Shellie could move, Gloria climbed out of the car and threw a wall switch.

The light from two bare overhead bulbs didn't cheer up the garage at all. The carelessly stacked fifty-gallon barrels were rusty. The cardboard boxes were taped, unlabeled, and coated with dust. Leaning against them was a tall roll of something opaque, maybe more plastic sheeting. There were no windows.

David got out of the car before Shellie and held the door open for her, like a gentleman. She was still a little drowsy, unsteady, and needed his support.

"Before we go upstairs," he said, "I have a present for you."

"Present?" Shellie saw Gloria get an unfolded black umbrella from where it was leaning in the shadows by the boxes and lay it on the car's hood. The cooling engine began to tick.

"A surprise. Before we go upstairs for our drinks."

For a wild second Shellie thought he might mean the umbrella, but that didn't make sense.

The car's headlights winked off, making the garage even gloomier. Shellie glanced around and didn't see an elevator. No stairs, either. There must be a door somewhere leading to an elevator or stairwell.

"Let's go upstairs and get comfortable and you can surprise her," Gloria said. She was smiling at Shellie, her dark eyes intense. Whatever light there was in the garage, they reflected.

"Better right here," David said, and again he kissed Shellie on the forehead. His lips felt cool.

"Stubborn," Gloria said, shaking her head. "I guess that's why you love him."

"One reason," Shellie said. She really did love David. More than anyone or anything at any time in her life.

Stepping back, David smiled down at her and reached into a pocket of his suit coat. Beyond him, Shellie noticed Gloria reaching for the umbrella as if to open it.

She didn't open it. Instead, she withdrew a long, pointed wooden shaft that had been concealed inside it.

"Close your eyes, darling," David said.

But Shellie didn't. Even through her wine-induced drowsiness and love and trust for David, the feeling of security she always had in his presence, she realized something was very wrong. A tingle of fear played up her spine.

Foolish. Why should I be frightened? He's here.

His hand emerged from his pocket not with a piece of jewelry or a gift box, but holding a small gun.

"David?"

He shot her through the heart.

She dropped to a sitting position, her legs straight out, and then toppled backward. He immediately took two steps, leaned down, and shot her again, twice, through the forehead.

Gloria tossed him the pointed shaft so it remained vertical in the air, as if she were a dancer tossing her partner a cane. Matching her stagecraft, he snatched it neatly with one hand. He felt the point with his index finger, testing for sharpness.

Gloria walked around closer to stand next to him over Shellie's dead body.

"Look at her face," she said. "She was surprised. You didn't disappoint her."

"I never disappoint the ladies," David said.

He bent low with the sharpened section of broomstick, and then slowly straightened up without it.

Gloria was breathing hard as she stared down at the foot or so of wood protruding from Shellie.

"Don't you ever wonder, David, how it would be if you didn't wait until they were-?"

"Grab the other end of this plastic sheet and let's move her so we can get busy."

"For everything there is a purpose under the heavens," Gloria said, still staring at the protruding section of broomstick. "Sometimes more than one purpose."

"Aside from your cynicism, this is no time to go biblical on me."

"It's exactly the time," she said, grinning. "And you didn't answer my question."