A Little Red Book of Murder Stories by Bill Pronzini

Author:Bill Pronzini [Pronzini, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: suspense, thriller
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2021-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

The Monster

This short-short is the rare breed (rare for me at least) that comes to a writer full-born, first sentence to last, in a sudden inspirational flash. I wrote it in an hour, virtually as it appears here—and I seldom consider any piece of writing finished without extensive revision. The final payoff line, so I’ve been told, is as nastily shocking as the one in “Night Freight.”

He was after the children.

Meg knew it, all at once, as soon as he was inside the house. She couldn’t have said exactly how she knew. He was pleasant enough on the surface, smiling, friendly. Big and shaggy-haired in his uniform, hairy all over like a bear. But behind his smile and underneath his fur there was menace, evil. She felt it, intuited it—a mother’s instinct for danger. He was after Kate and Bobby. One of those monsters who preyed on little children, hurt them, did unspeakable things to them—

“Downstairs or upstairs?” he said.

“What?”

“The stopped-up drain. Downstairs here or upstairs?”

A feeling of desperation was growing in her, spreading toward panic. She didn’t know what to do. “I think you’d better leave.” The words were out before she realized what she was saying.

“Huh? I just got here, Mrs. Thompson. Your husband said you got a stopped-up drain—that’s right, isn’t it?”

Why did I let him in? she thought. Just because he said Philip sent him, that doesn’t make it so. And even if Philip did send him … Oh God, why him, of all the plumbers in this city?

“No,” she said. “No, it … it’s all right now. It’s working again, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

He wasn’t smiling anymore. “You kidding me?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Yeah, why? Over at the door you said you been expecting me, come on in and fix the drain.”

“I didn’t—”

“You did, lady. Look, I haven’t got time to play games. And it’s gonna cost you sixty-five bucks whether I do any work or not so you might as well let me take a look.”

“It’s all right now, I tell you.”

“Okay, maybe it is. But if it was stopped-up once today, it could happen again. You never know with the pipes in these old houses. So where is it, up or down?”

“Please …”

“Upstairs, right? Yeah, now I think of it, your husband said it was in the upstairs bathroom.”

No! The word was like a scream in her mind. The upstairs bathroom was between their room, hers and Philip’s, and the nursery. Baby Kate in her crib, not even a year old, and Bobby, just two, napping in his bed … so innocent and helpless … and this man, this beast—

He moved past her to the stairs, hefting his tool kit in one huge, scab-knuckled hand. “You want to show me where it is?”

“No!” She cried it aloud this time,

“Hey,” he said, “you don’t have to bust my eardrums.” He shook his head the way Philip did sometimes when he was vexed with her. “Well, I can find it myself. Can’t hide a bathroom from an old hand like me.

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