Cold Rain (33 page)

Molly considered this for a moment. ‘Would it have made any difference if you had said something?’

‘You would have known upfront that whatever happened between you and Buddy doesn’t change how I feel about you.’

Molly walked for a while without speaking, and I thought she might be ready to give me another chance.

When she finally spoke, I knew all my chances were behind me. ‘When I look at you, David, I see that night all over again.’

I wondered if she meant the deaths of Buddy and Roger and Denise or if she was talking about the humiliation of watching herself on Buddy’s homemade video.

‘We beat them, Molly.’

‘We didn’t beat anyone. We survived.’

‘We survived together,’ I said.

‘I need to start over. I don’t want to carry that night with me for the rest of my life.’

At the airport the next morning, Molly and Lucy were there to send me back into the winter. I got a hug from both of them, a daughter’s kiss from Lucy.

I PICKED UP WORK AT THE FORD dealership in DeKalb a few days later. I told Milt, ‘For a while.’

Then I gave him a wink. ‘And don’t ask me to lie. I won’t do it even if it costs me!’

Milt grinned with his big horse teeth. ‘You‘re giving me shivers!’

‘He was a good man, wasn’t he?’

‘Tubs? Tubs was golden, David. Look at the boys he raised if you don’t believe it.’

‘I never knew that until he saved my life,’ I said.

Milt smiled but he didn’t know what I was talking about. ‘When was that?’

‘The night I got shot.’

Milt tried to put it together, but he couldn’t understand how a man already in the grave could save his son’s life.

Back in the wastelands again, I got my wish and managed to put my name on the wall every month as the number one salesperson, but even stone-cold sober I wasn’t any Tubs Albo.

I kept in touch with Molly by e-mail. It was all business, selling off property a piece at a time, moving the date of dissolution back a couple of different times so we could settle things financially and have the divorce as the last event of our relationship. Lucy kept me informed about the more intimate matters of their life.

Oklahoma had offered her a full scholarship, and she accepted it. Molly sold the house they were living in and was shopping for another catastrophe she could resurrect. Robert bounced out of Molly’s life, and now there was a man named Ted, who was a cabinetmaker.

Fifty-something. Flat ass. Boring.

One day, in early June, I was working a couple in the closing booth when Milt called me out. ‘Got a customer wants a pickup. Won’t deal with anyone but you.’

I pointed at the desk where I had been working.

‘I’ve got buyers here, Milt.’

‘I’ll take the T.O. myself, David, no split. You go take care of the pickup.’

I knew better than to hope for what I was hoping, but I couldn’t help myself. Milt was conning me, and Milt didn’t play games when it came to making money.

There was no way he’d pull me off a close to go talk to some tire kicker about a pickup. So there was only one person it could be.

Two salesmen were keeping Molly company when I walked up. I doubt they were talking trucks.

‘You looking for a pickup?’ I asked.

Molly smiled at me the way she had the day I met her. ‘Might be.’

The salesmen left us, and I walked over to be close, though not daring to touch her. ‘What brings you north, Molly?’

‘I got an offer on the farm a couple of days ago.’

‘A good one?’

She smiled. ‘Good enough.’

I waited.

‘I thought before I took it I’d talk to you about it.’

‘The farm is yours, Molly. You don’t need to talk to me.’

‘That’s the thing. The minute I got the offer I knew we needed to talk. When I sell the farm that’s it. It’s all gone.’

‘I thought that was the point.’

‘So did I.’

‘Well, if you’re asking me my opinion, I’d say the only way to know is for the two of us to drive to the farm and take a look at it.’

She laughed. ‘That’s a long drive just for a look!’

I gave her a sly smile. ‘They’ve got motels between here and there if we get sleepy.’

She grinned prettily at the idea. ‘You can leave? Just like that?’

‘I can do any damn thing I feel like, Molly. I’m fear-less these days.’

‘I knew a guy like that once.’

‘Why’d you let him go?’

‘He got careful. That was part of it. Mostly he knew too much about me.’

‘Hard to forgive a man that, I expect.’

‘We need to talk,’ she said after a moment. ‘About a lot of things.’

I took her hand and held it for a moment to be sure she wanted me as much as I wanted her, and then I said, ‘What do you say we do that on the way home?’

I wrote this novel because I was fortunate enough to meet Martha Ineichen a quarter of a century ago. I hope you like this one, darling. I want to thank the people who offered their insights after reading an early draft of this story: Shirley Underwood, Rick Williams, Harriet McNeal, and Burdette Palmberg. You helped me more than you know. A special thank you goes to my brother Douglas, who introduced me to Tubs Albo when it mattered; to Matt Jockers I have real gratitude for teaching me the delicate art of patching drywall. It’s a skill every novelist should possess. Much appreciation as well to Don Jennermann for a lifetime of encouragement in this hard, beautiful profession.

Finally I wanted to thank my agent Jeffrey Simmons and my editor Ed Handyside, the two men who brought this story to life.

CRAIG SMITH lives with his wife, Martha, in Lucerne, Switzerland. A former university professor, he holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Southern Illinois.

His first novel, published in the UK as
Silent She Sleeps
and in the US as
The Whisper of Leaves
, won bronze medal in the mystery category of ForeWord magazine’s Book of the Year Awards.

The Painted Messiah
and
The Blood Lance
, the first of his novels to chronicle the exploits of T.K. Malloy, have received international acclaim and been published across the globe in ten languages.

www.craigsmithnovels.ch

The Whisper of Leaves

The Painted Messiah

The Blood Lance

International Best-Selling Action
from Craig Smith

A legend persists that, after the ‘scourging’, Pilate commanded that his victim be painted from life. Somewhere, the painting survives, the only true image of Christ, granting the gift of ever-lasting life to whoever possesses it.

Kate Kenyon, the wealthy young widow of an English aristocrat, has an addiction to mortal risk. She feeds it by engaging in the armed robbery of priceless artefacts with her accomplice and lover Ethan Brand. Their latest target is a priceless ‘Byzantine’

icon hidden in the tower of a chateau by Lake Lucerne. So far they have never had to shoot anyone. This time will be different.

Thomas Malloy is a retired CIA man looking for his first lucrative freelance assignment. His chance comes with a presi-dential favour to a rich but ailing televangelist. Malloy’s task seems simple enough: pick up the preacher’s newly acquired painting from a Zurich bank and get it to the airport. But, once in Switzerland, Malloy’s old friend, the enigmatic Contessa Claudia de Medici tries to warn him off his mission.

Sir Julian Corbeau is an international criminal holed up in Switzerland to avoid US extradition proceedings. He is also the sadistic head of the modern Knights Templar. He
had
the painting and now he desperately wants it back and swears to wreak a bloody revenge upon those who stole it.

As the contenders vie for possession the bullets fly, the body count rises and the secrets of the portrait gradually unfold.

TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN,
SPANISH, RUSSIAN, CZECH, POLISH, GREEK AND

TURKISH

OUT NOW ISBN: 978-1-905802-15-9 Price: £7.99

Craig Smith’s sizzling sequel to 
The Painted Messiah

Kufstein, Austria, 1939

At the foot of a mountain known as
The Wilder Kaiser
lies the body of an SS officer, his neck broken but his face a picture of bliss and serenity. The dead man is known to history as Otto Rahn, Himmler’s own archaeologist. Rahn’s pursuit of the legendary Blood Lance of the Cathars has not only led to his own downfall but set in motion a tragic chain of events reaching far beyond the holocaust.

Switzerland 1997

Lord Robert Kenyon is a wealthy financier and a senior member of a humanitarian order calling themselves The Knights of the Holy Lance. Whilst climbing the North face of the Eiger with his new bride, he is attacked and murdered and his young wife Kate left for dead.

New York City 2008

When billionaire Jack Farrell, long suspected of connections to European crime syndicates cuts loose after defrauding his own company, ex CIA agent Thomas Malloy is assigned to track him down. The trail leads to Germany and the Order of the Holy Lance. With his friends, former art thieves Kate and Ethan Brand, Malloy set out to unlock the secrets of the order: Malloy seeks his man; Kate must find the truth about what happened on the slopes of the Eiger eleven years before – and exact her vengeance. Their first step is to kidnap a corrupt lawyer, connected to the order, from his home in Hamburg. Things don’t quite run to plan – and all hell breaks loose.

OUT NOW ISBN: 978-1-905802-29-6 Price: £7.99

Scotland has a new crime detective: a big man with
a big heart… and very few scruples
 

DC Cameron Stone spent three months in intensive care before he could recall what happened: the high speed pursuit of a vice baron through the night streets of Glasgow that took the life of a teenage mother and her child. Then the message from Audrey on the back of a ‘get well soon’ card announcing that she had left him and taken their young son, Mark, with her. Booze, anti-depressants and therapy have all failed to enable him to resume his old job.

So now Stone lives the worst part of town. He pays the rent by running errands for a private detective. His chores include tracking down a teenage runaway and surveillance for a woman who thinks her husband is sleeping with her sister. He’s also paid by his former colleagues to do the work that’s not quite clean enough for them to do themselves- putting the fear of God into any local scumbag who thinks he can’t be touched.

It’s been a bad week. Audrey has moved into the plush home of a plastic surgeon and is getting difficult about access to Mark.

He finds his runaway in a brothel and just gets roughed-up for his trouble. There’s the knife wielding kids on the stairs outside his flat and the daubing on his door:
Burn in Hell Baby Killer
.

The only brightness on his horizon is his growing friendship with Liz, the sunny Irish nurse who lives on the next floor.

But things are about to get worse for Cameron Stone.

Somebody is out to destroy him and everything he loves- unless he can get to them first.

‘This great book makes me want to read the next instalment-Ingram having promised some interesting times ahead for
Cameron Stone.’ Paul Blackburn
Eurocrime

‘There were some stunning debuts last year but if we could only
pick one it would be this world class Scottish thriller… With a
cracking storyline and dialogue so authentic you can hear the
neds speak, this Paisley author scored a massive hit with a debut
that promises to be the start of something big.’

Shari Low
The Daily Record
January 2010

OUT NOW ISBN: 978-1-905802-20-3 Price £7.99

From the multi-million best selling creator of
John Rambo and
The Brotherhood of the Rose

On Christmas Eve in snow-covered Santa Fe, New Mexico, tens of thousands of pedestrians stroll through the festively decorated streets. Among them is Paul Kagan, a spy on the run trying desperately to protect a special package; a baby who just might be the key to a lasting peace in the Middle East. He is pursued closely by three extremely dangerous men, members of the Russian mafia whom he has just betrayed.

Attempting to elude his hunters, Kagan seeks refuge in a quiet house on the outskirts of the town. Once inside he discovers it is occupied by a woman and her 12-year-old son hiding from other evils and whom he has now put in mortal danger as his hunters manage to track him down. In the tense hours that follow, Kagan tries to calm the woman and the boy by telling them the spy’s version of the traditional Nativity story as he prepares the house for the onslaught he knows to be coming…

‘Master storyteller David Morrell gives us an amazing holiday
classic that thrills us with heart-pounding suspense while tugging
at our emotions.’

Tess Gerritson, best-selling author of
The Bone Garden

OUT NOW ISBN: 978-1-905802-18-0 Price £7.99

Myrmidon Books Ltd

Rotterdam House

116 Quayside

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 3DY

www.myrmidonbooks.com

Published by Myrmidon 2010

Copyright © Craig Smith 2010

Craig Smith has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.