used to seeing crisp new hundred-dollar bills very often.
With a gloved hand she made a pass at the hundred. 'I get the money first.'
'Of course.' He nodded to her car. 'Why don't we walk over there?'
She eased up a little. Apparently knowing what he actually wanted made her more trusting. 'You shoulda come inside.'
'Oh, why's that?'
'Doris was playin' a buncha Hawaiian songs. You know, like a lotta songs Elvis sang in Blue Hawaii. Stuff like that. You like Elvis?'
'Very much.'
They reached her car. Even from there you could hear the piano bar. From this distance the red neon sign looked even bloodier through the tumbling snow.
She leaned over to open the door, and once again she almost slipped and fell.
He grabbed her by the hips. By now his face was frozen. He had the sniffles.
'Why don't you let me do that?' he said.
' 'S my car.'
He didn't pay any attention; He put his hand on the door handle and opened up the car. 'Why don't you sit down? I'll clean off the windows for you.'
'I ain't knockin' nothin' off. Full price.'
She was such a dignified woman. 'I wouldn't expect you to knock anything off.'
She glared at him and got inside, cracking her head on the door frame as she did so.
He smiled to himself. Maybe he wouldn't have to kill her.
Maybe she'd kill herself.
At first he tried to scrape her windows off with just his glove, but that didn't work because the snow was freezing into clumps of ice.
'Excuse me,' he said, leaning in past her and grabbing a scraper-brush she had on the back seat.
He went back to work. It took him five minutes to do all the windows. When he was done, he was breathless and freezing.
He went around and got in on the passenger side of the car. She had the heater going. It was as loud as a B-52. She had Jerry Vale on the radio. She was smoking a cigarette. Despite the freezing temperature the car smelled damp and mildewy. He suspected it had been burned once and then tricked up to sell on the used car market.
'This is some beast,' he said.
'You don't like it, you can always get out.'
'Just making a joke.'
'Well maybe I don' fin' your jokes so funny.'
'My apologies.'
'You wan' me to blow you or what?'
'Just like that, huh?'
'You wanna fall in love or somethin'?'
'Here.'
He guided her hand to his crotch. Or almost did.
She put out her hand, palm up. 'Cash, buster.'
He stared at her for a long moment. Cash, buster. Jesus. Did people still really say stuff like that? He reached into his coat and took out a ten.
'Hey,' she said. 'That was a hunnerd when we were outside.'
'Inflation.'
The interior of the car was dark. He couldn't see anybody anywhere in the parking lot. The wind was a pisser. It was like being on the tundra. He wished he was with somebody he really wanted to hump. It would be fun to snuggle up and do it with your clothes on and then get really sweltering from body heat.
He came up very quickly with the knife and put it exactly in I he centre of her right eye.
She cried out and writhed as if she were a madwoman that no number of men could hold down. When he jerked the knife out, she covered her eyes with her hands but blood was gushing so fast and hot that it ran through her fingers.
He next put the knife where he judged her heart to be, twisting the blade as he put it in her. His gloves were already soaked. A smell of hot metal-the taint of dark red-brown human blood-filled the car. He thought she might also have already started evacuating her bowels, too. This was no fun at all. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
She grabbed him by the shoulder and sank her teeth into his neck, shrieking as she did so.
My God, he wondered as he turned around to get some leverage and push her away, what was this bitch anyway, a vampire?
She broke the skin.
He knew this right away.
Broke the skin. My God. He thought of all the diseases he could get.
He grabbed her by the hair and tried to yank her head back, get her teeth out of his flesh. But no matter how hard he yanked, her teeth were still in there.
Pain now started radiating from his neck down through his shoulder and into his arm.
Frigging bitch.
It was difficult to get any purchase in the cramped car but after wriggling around, he was able to cock his arm and then land a strong one right on the side of her head.
She slumped over instantly, and he knew she was dead. Biting him had taken all her waning life force.
The stench was incredible.
Jesus.
He was about to open the door and flee when the headlights swept over him, coming up on his side of the car. His first impression was that the big-ass Cadillac was going to slide right into him, unable to stop on the ice.
He braced himself for the collision. Then he started thinking of all the implications of a crash, even a fender- bender. Police reports being chief among them.
The Caddy came seven, six feet away. Still sliding. He could see faces inside it. Two fat guys wearing Shriner fezzes. Two fat women in the backseat shouting warnings to the driver.
Four, three feet. Still sliding.
He closed his eyes and looked straight ahead, waiting for impact.
He counted to five and opened his eyes again.
The Caddy had stopped maybe a foot from his door.
He could see the people really well. They looked even fatter and even drunker. The men looked even sillier in their fezzes.
Their headlights, on downbeam, still splattered a warm gold glow over the side of the dead woman's car.
On the edge of that glow he could hear a car door opening, and see a tall, portly man come struggling his way across the ice up to the car.
'Darn close call there,' the man said. He looked to be in his fifties. He was loud. 'Darn close. Sorry if I scared you.'
Now that the man was leaning in a little ways, he had to sit just so, so that the man couldn't see the dead woman in the front seat.
'It's all right,' he said.
The man nodded to the bar. 'Why don't you come inside? We'll buy you a drink.'
'Not necessary.'
He could see that the man was sniffing around. The dead woman reeked. Maybe he couldn't see her, but he could smell her.
The man sniffed once more and then stood up straight.
