by Lynn Kostoff
Ben’s chest felt tight and empty at the same time. He looked down at his hands and then closed his eyes. A moment or a lifetime later, he walked past Paige and down the stairs to his car.
He started back to his apartment. The sky was breaking on full dusk when he pulled off Everest and parked near the center of a strip mall’s lot.
Anchoring its north end was a restaurant named Little Athens. Ben went in and ordered one of the take-out specials and borrowed the phone book.
It listed twelve Deanes and eight Deans. With a little time, he could cull and winnow and eventually come up with the right one. What he’d do after that, though, dead-ended.
Ben stepped back outside while the two brothers who owned and ran Little Athens worked up his order. In the window of the video store next door was a large poster for a rental entitled Frog Man, which featured a malevolent cross-wired evolutionary mishap poised above the byline: HE’S LEFT THE SWAMP FOR YOUR NIGHTMARES!
Ben glanced at his watch and walked the length of the strip mall. He was waiting for something to replace the nearly intolerable weight of the clarity that had descended upon him. It was a clarity that denied everything but itself. He felt as if he were moving around a small room under lights that illuminated everything but were too painfully intense and bright to let him find what he was looking for.
Next to the video store was a lingerie shop named Cupid’s Arrow. It was followed by a veterinarian’s office called Paws Here. Next to that was G&H Accounting, and beyond it was a baby specialty shop named New Arrivals, every other letter in the name alternating pink and blue. It was followed by a liquor store named Spirits. The last store was empty, just a large plate-glass window with Ben’s head and shoulders reflected next to a black and white sign reading COMING SOON but nothing else to indicate what.
Ben bought a six-pack of imported beer at Spirits and started back down the strip. On the way, he almost collided with a young woman who’d come rushing out of one of the shops.
One of the brothers at Little Athens held up two white Styrofoam boxes and waved him in. Ben paid and headed back to his car.
He was about to key the ignition when he noticed a young woman a couple of parking slots over walking in tight circles with her head bowed. Just as he was about to pull away, she lifted her head and looked directly at him. Her face was wet.
Ben hesitated, then got out of the car. He called over, asking if she were all right.
The woman raised her arm and let it fall. “No,” she said. “I’m locked out of my car.” She turned partway and pointed at the driver’s side window. “I left the keys in the ignition and my cell phone on the front seat.”
Ben took a couple steps closer, and the woman turned and began quickly scanning the lot and storefronts. He stopped and took out his wallet and held up his badge.
“I’m off duty,” he said. “Maybe I can help.”
The woman slowly nodded and stepped away from the door. She looked to be in her late twenties and was pretty in a way that didn’t immediately draw attention to itself. She had trouble maintaining eye contact with Ben for more than a couple seconds at a time.
“I’m supposed to be somewhere,” she said. “That’s the thing.” Her voice trailed off. She wrapped her left hand in her right and looked toward the street.
The car was a dark blue Ford, a basic model, at least a decade and a half older than the woman. Standard locks. No keyless entry.
“Let me check my trunk,” Ben said. “See if I have a lockout bar with me.”
He walked over to his car, opened the trunk, and found the bar. The woman glanced at her watch, at him, then away.
Ben knelt by the car door. There was a clutch of packages piled at the woman’s feet. The top of one of the bags was partially open. Ben saw what looked like a pair of sheer black panties folded in on themselves.
“I guess it’s lucky I ran into you.” She gave a short, awkward laugh. “Or you into me, I guess it was.”
For a moment, Ben could smell her perfume, and when he looked up, he ran into her reflection above his own, their faces caught on the curve of the glass and emptied of color under the nimbus of the mercury lights.
Then the woman’s face disappeared, and Ben heard the rustle of plastic as she began to gather her packages.
He lifted the bar and slipped it between the door and glass and worked on jimmying the lock.
The drift of perfume again.
The scent was familiar, but the name eluded him.
Rain Something.
The bar jammed, hanging up until Ben adjusted its angle. He gently lifted, coaxing the bar, and snagged the locking mechanism.
A moment later, he stood up. He waited before he turned to the woman.
“There you go,” he said.
She put the packages on the front seat, and Ben caught her perfume again.
The woman turned and ran her hand through her hair. She gave a quick smile and thanked him, then got in and cranked the engine.
Ben watched her drive off, then walked back to his car.
Something Rain, he thought.
He sat behind the wheel until it came to him.
Late.
That was it.
Lynn Kostoff is a professor of English and writer in residence at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. He’s previously written A Choice of Nightmares and The Long Fall. Visit www.lynkostoff.com for more information.
Table of Contents
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Part Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
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