Cold as the Clay by Stephen Osborne

Author:Stephen Osborne [Osborne, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

They were in the Cadillac, and the sun had been down for about an hour.

They had driven through downtown Indianapolis, which had been crowded with people heading to bars and nightclubs. A fender-bender close to the Slippery Noodle Inn caused traffic to come to a standstill. As he sat waiting for the opportunity to move again, Anton watched the people going in and out of the building. He realized the Slippery Noodle wasn’t a hotel, despite the name, but another tavern. Their sign boasted “live blues.”

“As opposed to dead blues?” Anton asked. His passenger in the back of the car hadn’t commented.

Anton drove aimlessly. He hadn’t yet figured out the layout of the city, which seemed to him to sprawl out endlessly. The GPS wasn’t on. They had no specific destination in mind. Euryale would let him know when to stop.

Anton wasn’t sure what she was looking for, and he didn’t dare ask.

They ended up on Washington Street, and it wasn’t long before they were in a neighborhood that Anton would have termed “less desirable.” The shops were dingy and a little tacky. There were a lot of liquor stores, all of which seemed to be doing a booming trade. The people on the street here were quite different from the ones they’d passed downtown. They weren’t well dressed, and many of them were decidedly poor looking. There were signs, though, that the area was being renovated. Some of the stores were bright and obviously new, shining like beacons in the gloom.

Anton made a few turns, expecting his mistress to give him directions. She stayed silent, so he assumed he was driving through areas of which she approved. On 10th Street, near a dilapidated old movie theater, Euryale suddenly spoke up.

“Pull over. Stop here.”

Anton did as requested. “Should I turn the engine off?”

“No. Leave it running.” Euryale reached out a gloved hand and opened the rear door. Anton almost got out to rush around to help his mistress out of the car, but he refrained. If she wanted help, she’d ask for it.

He watched her slowly move across the sidewalk to stand in the shadows by the theater’s entrance. The place obviously hadn’t been open for years, perhaps decades. The windows had been papered on the insides to prevent people from peering in. The weather-beaten marquee bore the name Rivoli and looked like it could collapse at any moment.

Anton continued watching but could barely make out the dark clad figure of his mistress in the shadows. What was she doing? As far as Anton could tell, she was just standing there. Why?

He settled back, allowing himself a little shrug. It wasn’t his place to question her motives. He pulled out his cell phone, intending to find a game to play to while away the time.

Before he even pressed a button, however, two men came around the corner.

A nearby street lamp illuminated their faces. One was a tall black man, with graying hair. The other was younger, white, with wispy facial hair and a receding hairline.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.