The Killing Edge

by Forrest, Richard;

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  The Killing Edge

  Richard Forrest

  MYSTERIOUSPRESS.COM

  For Bo,

  who spent her time

  in the warming hut, helping.

  Chapter One

  The light mounted over the small dock cast a glow on the ice in the distance. The wind from the Sound that swept across the estuary turned cool and whipped painfully against her face. She made a tight turn, and her skate blades swept a sheen of ice to the side. She had moved too far from shore toward the main channel where the ice crusted in uneven ridges. Further movement in that direction could be dangerous, and she began to skate back toward the pier in easy gliding turns.

  As the Datsun 710 idled, L.C. Converse listened to the magnetic whine for a moment before bending deep under the hood of the car. The drive belt and water pump had checked out. It had to be a shorted diode in the alternator. A note on the service board for Little John to perform an alternator output test in the morning would solve the problem.

  L.C. slammed the hood shut, turned off the ignition, and then turned to walk through the quiet service department toward the showroom. The last mechanic had left an hour ago, and now only four cars, waiting for early morning work, occupied the bays. By nine the next morning the floor would be full, with other cars waiting for repair parked in the lot outside.

  In the showroom Vic Mange was dusting floor models with a chamois cloth. He stopped as L.C. entered, gave his checkered sports jacket a tug, and rendered a two-finger salute.

  “It’s starting to snow, L.C. Want me to close up early?”

  “O.K., if it keeps up. Otherwise, see if you can push wagons. We’re top heavy in inventory.”

  “Right.” He again gave the casual salute and returned to dusting cars.

  Snow had begun to fall. It slanted across her face and clouded her eyes, while in the distance, like white mantled insects it swirled around the distant dock light. It was time to leave for the warmth of the house. She shivered as the chill combination of wind and snow penetrated the ski jacket. It would be quicker to leave the ice at the dock rather than at the water steps near her own home. She began to skate in long even strides toward the pier.

  Recessed lights hidden in the ceiling molding and a small Scandinavian desk lamp flickered on with a touch of the wall switch near the door. L.C. thought it was a showy office, furnished to impress franchise inspectors, bankers and customers, rather than adhere to the needs of its owner who spent more time on the service floor than seated behind the highly polished rosewood desk.

  Two sets of closing documents with loan papers were arranged neatly near the lamp ready for initialing. L.C. sat at the desk and leafed expertly through the packages.

  It was obvious from the second set that Vic was overselling again. The applicant was an eighteen-year-old cook at a fast food franchise, and unless he decided to take all his meals at work, the payments would murder him. A clean used model would be more appropriate. A scribbled comment would set Vic right.

  A phalanx of photographs on the wall behind the desk showed L.C. in racing coveralls standing next to a 250 GT Ferrari at Daytona, Danville and Rheims. The trophies were set in a case near the settee in the far corner.

  Her hand slipped away from the ladder rung as the ice beneath her gave way and she slid into the chill water. Her body convulsed as cold shock increased her heart beat. Moving her arms in awkward motions she regained the surface and groped for the ladder. She grasped an icy rung as her skates fought for purchase on the rungs under water. Her breath came in wracking gasps as she used her arms and shoulders to pull herself toward the decking.

  L.C. flipped on the intercom when it buzzed. “Yes, Vic?”

  “There’s a Eddie Bennett out here who says he’s a job applicant.”

  “Tell him to come back during business hours. Never mind, send him in.”

  Eddie Bennett gave a wave as he crossed the office, slouched in the chair before the desk, and threw a leg over the chair arm. He smiled at L.C. as he took a package of gum from his breast pocket and inserted two sticks in his mouth. He was in his early thirties, with dark complexion and hair. He was tall, slim-hipped, and wore tight pants and a beige sport shirt open to the third button.

  “Tell the boss I’m here.”

  “I’m the boss.”

  “I’d like to see L.C. Converse about the service manager’s job.”

  “Do you always come late for appointments?”

  “I was in the neighborhood. Come on, honey. Tell the man I’m here.”

  “I’m L.C. Converse.”

  He smiled broadly as his lips pursed an elongated, “Oh.”

  She looked away from his eyes to search the desk for a scratch pad. “Do you have a resume?”

  “I’m a mechanic and service manager, not a typist. I’ve been at Farrell’s Chevrolet for the past couple of years.”

  “Why’d you leave?”

  “I was fired.”

  “At least that’s an honest response. Do you mind telling me why?”

  “Paying too much attention to Mrs. Farrell’s Chevrolet. I guess I wouldn’t have that problem here.”

  Their eyes met and she looked away. “You wouldn’t. Any experience with foreign makes?”

  “If it’s got wheels and an engine front or rear, I can fix it.” He looked past her at the racing photographs behind the desk, and then over toward the trophy case in the corner. “Hey, it’s coming back to me. You’re L.C. Converse, one of the first women to drive professionally.”

  “I was a driver.”

  “Was?”

  “I had an accident at Daytona last year. Come on, let’s see what you can do.”

  As she led him toward the service area she imagined his eyes on her back, and she became self-conscious of her slight limp. She stopped at the Datsun 710 in the third service bay and started the engine.

  Eddie Bennett leaned against the wall, chewed gum, and looked casually around the empty garage.

  “You don’t seem to be paying much attention,” she said and snapped off the ignition.

  “I heard it.”

  “I would expect my service manager to make a tentative guess as to the trouble with this car.”

  He looked at her and smiled. “There’s a shorted diode in the alternator.”

  She blinked. “That’s very good.”

  “I’m very good.”

  “And vain.”

  “I drive too. Never had a good car to work with, but I can drive like hell.”

  “I bet you can.”

  “Thought you’d be interested.”

  “A lot of people think they can drive production class, but few do it well.”

  “Are you always so serious?”

  “Usually.” She slammed the Datsun’s door and walked back toward the showroom. “We have a heavy clientele of women. They seem to trust us here, perhaps because I’ve been my own service manager for the past several years.”

  “I get along with women.”

  I bet you do, L.C. thought. “I would have to take you on a trial basis at $275 a week.”

  “I’ll be here in the morning.”

  “The mechanics start at eight. I expect the service manager to be here at 7:30,” L.C. said and went into the office without looking back. She sat at the desk and wondered why she’d hired him, even on a temporary basis. Perhaps because there were certain qualities in him that reminded her of Frank. She shook her head. She wouldn’t think about that.

  There was a grease smudge on one of the documents, and she frowned. They would have to be retyped, and in the morning
Jane Ellen would try erasure, make it worse, and mutter to herself as she redid them.

  Stripping off the coveralls and stuffing them in the hamper on the bathroom door, L.C. adjusted the needle spray shower. It was nearly time for her dinner date. Tomorrow’s chores clicked by in random sequence. If the snow continued the shop would be slow, and it would be a good time to tune the Ferrari. Then there was the problem of Jane Ellen’s underwear—or the lack of it. It would be propitious to wait until the buxom secretary had retyped the closing papers before discussing that situation. It had to be done—every time she left the office to walk to the parts or service desk, all work on the line stopped.

  It was also becoming obvious that she and Vic were getting involved, and that recently Converse Motors’ sales manager had decided that Jane Ellen was to be his next consummated transaction. Let her turn Vic on during her own time.

  A booted foot clumped down on her fingers. She groaned, withdrew her hand, and held precariously to the side of the ladder. She looked up, frightened, but the flare of the spotlight obscured the features of the figure looming over her. The foot swung forward with a kick that knocked her from the ladder and back into the water.

  L.C. dried with a large terrycloth towel and examined her reflection in the full length mirror. Her breasts were a little too small and her nose a little too large, although Will often said that it showed her good New England heritage. The legs were long, although marred by the still-red scar along one thigh. As long as she didn’t wear a bikini it wouldn’t show, she thought, and then smiled at the touch of vanity.

  If she insisted, they could drive the Ferrari tonight, although with the snow that might not be the best idea. The red car was her job. Several years ago it had been driven off an embankment by a slightly intoxicated actor who was playing at a nearby summer theatre. It had been totaled by the insurance company, and she had been able to buy it for parts. It had taken a year to rebuild the magnificent machine. It had a 3-liter engine in V-12 formation, three Weber carburetors lay in a valley between the heads that revued to 7,000 rpm and developed 280 horsepower. Will hated it, and said it wasn’t driven, it was aimed. If Eddie Bennett was any good they might be able to enter it in production class this spring. She shook her head. She had never seen the man drive, the idea was preposterous.

  Considering the storm, the morning’s choice of clothing had been excellent: white pants, boots, blouse and fisherman’s knit sweater. She scrubbed grease from her nails, made a few hasty passes at her closely cropped hair, dressed quickly, and went back to the office.

  As she picked up the sales papers to take them to Jane Ellen’s desk, she found herself looking at the two pictures in the silver frame on the edge of the desk.

  L.C. sat down heavily and stared at the photographs.

  She was in the water trying to swim away from the dock and her attacker. The ice had broken away near the ladder, but a little farther out it hardened to a thick crust. She turned toward the shore a few feet away and fought the ice with her elbows as she tried to reach shallow water.

  It had been years since they had died, and often days would pass without conscious thought until, as if from a hidden thundercloud appearing over a mountain range and sweeping across the land, the loss would strike. It sapped her strength and removed coherent thought until she sank into a dark void of depression.

  The loss of her husband and her father consumed her, and she lay her head across her arms and wept.

  Today was the anniversary of their deaths, a fact she had repressed all day in a round of ceaseless activity. It had been such a senseless thing, and now it welled to the surface, not to be ignored.

  Frank had worked so long and hard at the service station, and they had just obtained the dealership. The main building was still under construction and she had been working in this very room. Five years ago it had been a bare and functional room without furnishings or paneling. They had taped to the walls several travel posters of places they’d promised each other they’d eventually visit. She had kept the books on a card table and typed the correspondence on a small metal bench they’d bought at a junk sale. They had both been filled with the wonderment of the future.

  She had been working at the card table near the window when out of the corner of her eye she had seen her father pull the police cruiser onto the service station apron and park beyond the pump island. It had been his habit, during his rounds, to stop at the station, grab a soft drink from the vending machine, and exchange a few words with Frank.

  On that day five years ago, as she had idly watched from the window, her father had parked, gotten out of the cruiser, and taken three steps toward the station when the shotgun blast knocked him backwards.

  She had screamed as the young man with the shotgun had backed from the station office. The gun had wavered nervously from her fallen father back to Frank in the station door. Her husband had hesitated a moment, and then begun to run across the apron toward her father.

  The second blast had knocked Frank from his feet and killed him instantly.

  Her father had managed to fire three times before he died. The heavy magnum shells cut through the young man with the shotgun until three men lay dead on the apron beyond her window.

  L.C. cried without sound against the polished surface of her desk.

  She reached shore and pulled herself onto the grass now covered with a light layer of snow. In panic she hobbled, splay-footed toward the house, hearing the clump of boots on the dock behind her. She tried to cry out, but only guttural choking sounds came from the depths of her throat.

  “Let’s not do that,” a deep voice said softly from the doorway.

  She looked up at Will in the doorway and brushed tears away with the back of her hand. He was a man of large proportions, with a thick neck, massive shoulders, and hips that gave him a chunky appearance. During the past year, as he spent more time behind a desk, his abdomen had begun to protrude over his belt. His features were deeply cut with a quality that could change from sternness to compassion almost instantaneously. He smiled as he stepped into the room.

  “I remembered,” she said.

  “I thought I’d find you under the hood of your red monster.” She didn’t answer. “I know what day it is,” he said quietly.

  “I thought I had fooled myself enough to let the day drift by. I almost made it.”

  “You look ready. How about lobster at the End of the Pier?”

  “You’ll spoil me.” She slipped a Kleenex from the center of the desk and dabbed at her eyes. “You know I have a weakness in that area.”

  “Spoiling isn’t exactly what I have in mind when I buy lobster dinners prefaced by cocktails and accompanied with good wine.”

  “You can’t afford all that.”

  “I figured we’d go dutch.”

  “That spoils the seduction.”

  “It works if I pay for yours and you pay for mine.”

  “Oh, Will … my God!” L.C. threw herself across the room and fell into the large man’s arms. He held her tightly against his chest as she buried her head in his shoulder with small tremors quivering along her back.

  “It’s all right, Laura, it’s all right.”

  “Five years, Will. Five years, and right now I miss them both as if it were yesterday.”

  “Try not to think about it.”

  She was being carried and dragged across the white-green lawn. She struggled, but the hands on her arms made her powerless, while the slippery ground and unsteady purchase of the skates made it impossible to run. The back door was pushed open and she stumbled into the mudroom to fall to the floor with a whimper. She half turned and began to crawl across the floor until the hands grabbed her arm and leg and began to pull her through the house.

  “It was such a senseless thing,” she said. “Two good men dead, the one who did it was only sixteen.”

  “It was bad luck, L.C. The kid had already cleaned out the register. If your father hadn’t pulled up at that exact moment
, if he had been two minutes later …”

  She pushed out of his arms with determination. “O.K., it was five years ago, we won’t think about it anymore tonight. You really want lobster?”

  “Absolutely. Luigi says he’ll let us in the kitchen to pick our own.”

  “I’m famished,” she said although it wasn’t true. “Let me straighten up a sec.” She went back to the bathroom and stood before the mirror. She dabbed at her eyes until a cool blue gaze was reflected back, and then a few more brushes to realign the hair. She adjusted a small white beret and went back to Will.

  She left the office without a backward glance and let him turn off the lights and lock the door. In the showroom, Vic Mange was at the small sales desk huddled over a telephone in whispered conversation. Jane Ellen, she thought, and made another mental note of things to do tomorrow.

  Vic waved and covered the mouthpiece. “Take it easy, you two. Weather report is for over a foot.”

  “Close it up, Vic. We’re not going to sell anything tonight.”

  “Right, L.C.”

  Will took her arm as they walked in the falling snow toward where their cars were parked. “I was working on a 710 a while ago. I think it’s the diode, but I should have checked the alternator bearings,” she said.

  “For Christ’s sake, L.C. knock it off. My car or yours?”

  “That almost sounds like an improper suggestion.”

  “Mine then,” he said as he opened the door of the unmarked police car. “That damn thing of yours idles at sixty.”

  “You shouldn’t put chains on until the snow’s deeper. It’s bad for the road bed.”

  “It’s SOP to put them on as soon as it starts. Come on, our clawed friends are waiting.”

  The weight of the body across her hips made it impossible to kick out. Hands fumbled at her clothing, unzipped her jacket, unbuttoned the blouse, wrenched off the skates. Naked, she cried in terror.

  Will Barnes turned away from the car agency and drove cautiously down Main Street toward the shore. They were both quiet, the only sound came from the swish of the wipers and the clack of the chains.