False Negative or Kill Now, Pay Later

Don’t move," he said. "It makes the blood pump faster."

"Who are you?" Mary Glenny said.

Pelfrey held still as the stranger compressed his neck wound. He didn’t have the strength for anything else. Drifting in and out of consciousness, he heard the man tell Mary, "Tom Podgorny."

"Who?" Mary said.

"Your hero for the month."

(from False Negative by Joseph Koenig)

- o -

"Let me hold this," she said.

She took the cigar out of my mouth before I could do anything to stop her. We were as close as we could get without colliding and she kept on coming. Her free hand glanced off my chest and slid up around my neck. Without her shoes on, the top of her head was on a level with my chin, but she didn’t let that bother her. She came up me like a caterpillar climbing a wall. I didn’t help her, except insofar as the wall can be said to help the caterpillar.

Her lips were open, and I tasted champagne. I’m not enough of an expert on champagne to know if it was domestic or imported. I took a backward step; she stayed with me, and we were now in position to go into the juvenile-delinquent dance known as the fish. Con­tact was total, and I felt a strong pressure against my eyeballs. It wasn’t painful. It wasn’t even exactly un­pleasant. It was just there, and it seemed out of propor­tion. She shouldn’t have been affecting me that much.

She pushed off. If she had waited a fraction of a sec­ond longer we would have gone over backward.

"Weddings always make me feel amorous," she said. "I start kissing people."

...

Pope lowered his head, and stood absolutely still. "You followed me?"

"Oh, yes."

"I’ll kill you," he said, and then shouted, "I’ll kill you!"

"Why don’t you?" she cried. "Haven’t you had enough practice?"

(from Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Terrall)

TOCTPFA