How to Be Bad (28 page)

Instinctively, she placed her hand over the small bulge beneath her dress, and I knew what she was thinking. “It's just a baby, Caro,” I said. “It may not really belong to me, but nor do you. You never have done. It hasn't stopped me loving you.”

Lately, my interest in owning Caro or anything else had greatly diminished. You don't chase possessions when you're self-possessed. Now that I could finally afford a signed, mint first edition of
The Catcher in the Rye,
I no longer wanted one. I had stopped falling over things, and the only lists I made were shopping lists.

“You realize someone will come after us?” said Caro. “You know that, don't you? We'll never be truly safe.”

“Who is?” I said.

A nice old couple walked by. He had a gray mustache like Carl Jung; she had bright, intelligent eyes and a steady smile. They were linking arms, proud of each other and wishing harm to no one. “Do you think we could ever be as happy as that?” said Caro, staring wistfully after them.

“Not a fucking chance,” I told her.

ALSO BY DAVID BOWKER

I Love My Smith & Wesson

The Death You Deserve

HOW TO BE BAD.
Copyright © 2005 by David Bowker. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bowker, David.

    How to be bad: a novel / David Bowker.—1st ed.

        p. cm.

    ISBN 0-312-32826-5

    EAN 978-0312-32826-9

    1.   Booksellers and bookselling—Fiction.   2.  Women murderers—Fiction.   3.  Serial murders—Fiction.   4.  First loves—Fiction.   5.  Lists—Fiction.   I.  Title.

PR6052.O879H69 2005

823'.92—dc22

2004065827

First Edition: June 2005

eISBN 9781466832015

First eBook edition: October 2012