Read Online Cold Dead Past by John Curtis - Free Book Online Page A

shop.  He gave it a yank and could barely move it.
    "Damn!"
    Vinnie gave it another strong pull and slipped on the icy brickwork of the alley.
    "Goddamn!"
    Brian was working the loader and laughed when he saw him fall.
    "You think that’s funny, you sombitch?  Get your ass back here and give me a hand!  Must be packin’ the thing with rocks."
    Brian came over and grabbed the handle on the other side of the can and they lifted it.  They could only manage to get it a couple of inches from the pavement and struggled on over the slippery, uneven surface to the back of the truck.
    "Jeez. You weren’t kidding.  I definitely am gonna have a talk with this guy."
    They dropped it with a dull thud in the slush by the loader.
    "Just give me a minute, ‘kay?" asked Vinnie.  He flexed his gloved hand. "Was cuttin’ off the circulation."
    Brian, impatient, kept hold of his side of the can. He aimlessly brushed out a clear spot in the slush with his steel-toed work boots.
    "You ready now?  I wanna get over to the Mickey D’s and get me some breakfast."
    "Yeah,yeah," said Vinnie as he grabbed the handle and took a deep breath.
    They grunted in unison as they heaved the can up to the lip of the loader.  Metal banged against metal as the can made contact, then a screeching noise as it began sliding back toward the ground.
    "Grab the fucking bottom," said Brian through gritted teeth.
    "I just heard something pop in my back."
    "I don’t give a fuck.  Just grab the damn bottom.  I’m losin’ my grip on the thing!"
    Vinnie ran his hand down to the bottom of the can. He caught it just as it was about to slip off the back of the truck.  They managed to get it halfway into the loader when Brian said, "Wait a minute" and pulled off the lid.
    "I’m gonna drop it," whined Vinnie.
    Then the metal ring handle on Brian’s side of the can broke.  As it hit the ground, Charlie Harper’s head and arm flopped out onto the pavement.

 
                                                            CHAPTER 10
     
     
    Jay stood at Meg’s door with a bottle of wine in his hand. He hesitantly reached out a finger and rang the doorbell.  As he waited for her to answer, he nervously fingered the cork on the wine.  The hall light came on and a moment later he was smiling back at her face as she opened the door.
    "Let me take the wine," she said, as she closed the door behind them.
    "I wasn’t sure what you were fixing for dinner," he said, as he slipped off his coat. He hung it on a rack on the wall next to the door. "The guy at the store said that this would go with just about anything."
    "It’s fine.  Why don’t you go and sit in the living room and watch some TV while I finish up in the kitchen?"
    Jay watched her as she walked away.  It was something he had gotten in the habit of doing when they had been together.  There was something in the shape of her body and how it moved. Lithe and graceful. He couldn’t get enough of it.  After she’d disappeared from view, he stepped into the living room.
    The room was painted a powdery rose color.  Perfectly appropriate to the house, which was a Victorian workmen’s cottage.  It had been decorated with period antiques and a comfortable leather sofa, which stood in front of a blazing fireplace.
      Jay took a seat on the sofa, which had been grouped with a couple of club chairs and a heavy wooden coffee table. The arrangement had been angled so that a person sitting on the sofa or chairs could enjoy the fireplace as well as the big screen television and stereo that were set up in a corner of the room.  As he picked the remote up from the coffee table, he noticed his face looking up at him from the jacket of a copy of his book.
    Out of curiosity, he picked it up and flipped through the pages until he found a receipt marking page twenty.
    He called out to her, "I see you bought my book.  Did you like it?"
    There was the sound of things