Sweetheart (25 page)
Authors: Andrew Coburn
Late that evening, alone in his apartment, Russell Thurston opened his door to a handsome, dark-haired youth who looked vaguely familiar. Thurston made a dispirited gesture and said, “Not tonight. I’m tired.”
But the youth lingered in the doorway, eyes soulful, shoulders slightly slouched. Thurston gave him a longer look.
“Do I know you?”
“No, sir.”
“But I’ve met you, right?”
The youth shrugged and mumbled that he was in town only for the evening and had to get back to the Cape. He had a job there. Thurston smiled.
“College kid, huh? But not Harvard, I can tell. You’re too neat. Too conscious of how you look. What college, kid?”
“Holy Cross.”
“Wow, a Catholic.” Thurston let him in and, at a portable bar, made two drinks, strong ones, stingers. For a second or so his head throbbed, images from the earlier part of the evening rushing back at him, but then he got hold of himself. Raising his glass, he said, “Win some, lose some, right, kid?”
The youth’s smile seemed ungenerous, neutral at best. Thurston studied him but failed to place him, which intrigued him, the way certain sly crossword puzzles did.
“Sir, could I have another?”
Thurston took the youth’s empty glass and turned his back on him. “Life takes queer bounces, kid. You gotta go with the bounce.”
The youth opened his blazer and drew out a Beretta semiautomatic pistol, which he had found hidden in his father’s library. “Yes, sir, you do,” he said and fired.
Serving as inspiration for contemporary literature, Prologue Books, a division of F+W Media, offers readers a vibrant, living record of crime, science fiction, fantasy, western, and romance genres.
If you enjoyed this Crime title from Prologue Books, check out other books by Andrew Coburn at:
Goldilocks
Voices in the Dark
No Way Home
Love Nest
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Copyright © 1985 by Andrew Coburn
All rights reserved.
Cover Images ©123rf/Engin Korkmaz, John Roman
Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
eISBN 10: 1-4405-4508-1
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-4508-5