American crime stories by John Escott

Author:John Escott [Escott, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novela, Policial, Intriga
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 1998-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

Lazy Susan (Nancy Pickard)

'I want you to teach me how to shoot a gun,' Susan Carpenter said to her husband at breakfast.

'You want me to do what?'

Stan Carpenter stopped eating and stared at her.

'Take me to a shooting range.' Susan piled two tomatoes and a fried egg on to her bread so that she could eat it like a sandwich. It seemed to her a silly waste of effort to eat only one thing at a time.

Her husband’s amazement turned to delight. 'I think that’s a wonderful idea.' Ever since she’d been robbed the week before on a dark night in the parking-lot of the Mulberry Street Shopping Center, Stan had been telling her to learn how to protect herself, preferably with a gun. 'But do you mean it? You’ve always hated guns.'

'Well, I guess you win, dear,' said Susan, smiling.

'We’ll go to the range tonight,' Stan promised.

Susan had been more angry than scared when she was robbed.

The robber hadn’t hurt her much, just a little knock on the head with his gun. It hadn’t even broken the skin. But she was so angry about it!

'Fifty dollars!' she shouted at the nice policeman. 'One minute I had fifty dollars in my purse and then I had nothing! I have to work hours to earn that much money, and he takes it just like that! Fifty hard-earned dollars!'

She was right, of course, except about the 'hard-earned’ part. Oh, she went to the sales office where she worked each day, and she smiled at the customers, and her bosses liked her — most people liked her, they couldn’t help it. But there was more of her work that didn’t get done than did. 'Oh, well,' she was always saying, 'you know me… Lazy Susan.'

'How does it feel?' said Stan.

'It feels OK,' said Susan. Actually, the little gun was surprisingly pleasant to hold. She lifted it and aimed it as Stan had instructed her, felt angry all over again at the thought of the robbery, and pulled the trigger.

'That’s very good!' Stan shouted.

She’d never heard him shout before, but it was the only way of communicating at the Target Shooting Range. She wanted to point the gun at her mouth and blow the smoke away like John Wayne, but she didn’t.

'Good evening, ladies.' The expert in self-defense stood beside a screen, and began by saying, 'The victim of a mugging usually looks like this…' A colored picture appeared on the screen. It was of a little old lady who was carrying a shopping bag in one hand and a purse in the other. 'She’ll make it easy for the mugger to grab, push and run. He won’t usually choose a victim who looks as if she might fight back.'

Another picture appeared on the screen — a younger woman, who looked strong, and whose hands were empty.

'If you want to avoid being mugged, walk confidently! Keep your head up. Pull your shoulders back. Let your arms swing, and don’t carry a lot of packages. Carry your handbag under your arm, or hold it tightly with both hands.

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