Linger Awhile Read Online Free Page A

he could, he certainly would.’
    ‘Why do the two of you have the hots for this twenty-five-year-old dead woman?’
    ‘A dirty old man is the only kind of old man there is, Grace, and age brings out all kinds of strangeness.’
    ‘I don’t mind strange. Would you stay with me tonight?’
    ‘Sure, but let’s go to my place. I want to check my e-mail and set the video timer.’
    ‘What are you going to record?’
    ‘
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
.’
    ‘Has it got a happy ending?’
    ‘Not in the usual sense.’
    ‘I like happy endings.’
    ‘I have two machines. We can watch
Dead Letter Office
on the other one. That has a happy ending.’
    We were heading for Oxford Circus when I saw Istvan Fallok coming towards us in Marshall Street with someone on his arm – a woman I assumed. She was wearing a blue anorak with the hood up, tight grey jeans, and black-and-white cowboy boots. ‘Cowboy boots,’ I said. ‘Black-and-white.’ Balaclava and dark glasses under the hood. And gloves. When they saw us they stopped.
    ‘Wotcher, Istvan?’ I said. ‘What do you hear from El Paso?’
    ‘I hear that the last stage left a while ago,’ he said. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, there are times when four’s a crowd.’
    ‘And two is one too many,’ said Grace. ‘But at least you could introduce us to your friend.’
    ‘Not just now,’ said Istvan. ‘We’ll see you around.’
    ‘Maybe in Technicolor next time,’ I said as he and his silent companion walked past us and away.

7
Grace Kowalski
    8 January 2004. So that was Miss Justine (Dead Meat) Trimble? Irv says Istvan bundled her up like that because she was only black-and-white. Maybe he’ll unveil the full-colour version at a later date. OK. If that’s Istvan’s idea of a really good time I wish him joy of it. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against kinky. Kinky is OK in my book. Still, I suppose everyone draws the line somewhere. If I had a sister, would I want her to marry a necrophile? Consenting adults and all that. A prenuptial agreement with a posthumous clause. But then again.
    Well, of course Irv is no better than Istvan really. He wants to get his hands on that dead meat too. Men are trouble enough when they’re young, but when they’re old! If I didn’t know that form and emptiness are the same thing I’d be worried.

8
Chauncey Lim
    8 January 2004. Obviously I wasn’t going to hear from Istvan in the usual way so I made my preparations. I went to his place and I couldn’t see in because the blinds were closed. I’d rigged a bug with a tiny radio mike and a buttonhole vidcam. The letterbox wasn’t sealed so I stuck chewing gum on a non-vital part of the bug and put it in a little catapult meant for launching a toy helicopter. I stuck my hand through the letterbox, launched the bug, and hoped for the best. Then I went home to check the monitor.
    The bug had stuck to the ceiling but not in a place that gave me much of a view. I got the top of a speaker or whatever and below that what I assumed was a female and very shapely leg ending in a black-and-white cowboy boot. I did better with the audio. I’ll call the voices
I
and
J
:
    I
: Try to keep still, OK?
    J
: Why should I keep still? I didn’t ask to come here, I’d rather be dead. What gives you the right to stickthat thing in me?
    I
: I love you, that’s what gives me the right.
    J
: That’s what
you
think, you dried-up old piece of shit. Ow! That hurt.
    I
: If you’d hold still I could find the right place. Of course it’s going to hurt if I keep getting it wrong. Ah, there we go. How’s that?
    J
: Am I supposed to like it?
    I
: You’ve got a little colour now and you’re looking much better.
    J
: Get your hands off me, you creep. Stop taking my clothes off.
    I
: You’re getting colour from the top down, very nice. Ow! Why’d you hit me?
    J
: Just because you brought me back from the dead, don’t think you can put your hands all over me.
    I
: Would you rather be