The Midnight Men and Other Stories Read Online Free Page A

up living in a nice neighbourhood like this?”
    Kane observed the hulking figure of Terry Carson as he disappeared through the front door with a resounding bang. “Prime candidate, if you ask me.”
    Nathan’s head swept round. “No, no, no. Wait a second.”
    “What?” said Kane. “You just told me he’s making your life a misery, why not end it all tonight while you have . . .” He looked back at the pouch on the coffee table. “While you have the opportunity?”
    Nathan studied the young man’s red-rimmed eyes for a moment, then looked back down at his neighbour’s house.
    “Come on, Mr Parker,” Kane went on. “You wanted a low-key demonstration, and a perfect test-case has just stumbled home from the Dog and Duck.”
    Without looking round, Nathan could hear the malicious smile in Kane’s voice.
    “Let’s kill two birds with one stone.”
    Nathan inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly. Then, in a rush of adrenalin, he threw his head back and downed the rest of his brandy in one gulp.
    “All right,” he said, the drink burning his throat. “Let’s see what happens.”
    He marched back to the coffee table and sat down. Kane sauntered after him, hands in pockets.
    Nathan felt a sudden, overwhelming hatred for the boy. What he hated most was the way this scenario gave Kane all the power. That was a first in their twisted relationship. They were worlds apart, the two of them: he, a corporate lawyer, Kane a street criminal with a speciality for finding exceedingly rare and desirable objects. One of Nathan’s colleagues, who also collected the occult, had put them together. Ever since then, Kane had found half a dozen things for him, objects of underworld art that he could never show his wife, but which gave him some pleasure to look at in the dark watches of the night. But Nathan had always been able to knock the boy’s asking price down because they weren’t ‘must-have’ items. But now, this juju, if it worked, well . . . this was something he could put to great use. And what a use he had in mind for it! Unfortunately, Kane could see how badly he wanted it.
    The two men stared down at the three lumps of flesh for a protracted moment, then Kane picked up the cognac decanter and handed it to Nathan.
    “You might need some more of this,” he said.
    Nathan stared up at him distractedly.
    “To wash it down with.”
    With a trembling hand—adrenalin, he told himself, not fear—he took the decanter and poured out a double. Then, he added another measure.
    Kane watched with feverish curiosity as Nathan picked up the first piece of pink meat. He stared at it for a long time. Kane did not try to hurry him. This would be a big purchase, and he was willing to take all the time that was necessary.
    Nathan weighed the tiny piece of flesh once more, waves of nausea rising and falling within him. Then he closed his eyes and popped it into his mouth. He was swigging the cognac before the taste of the meat could settle on his tongue, chewing the evil talisman in quick successive bites and then, in a grimace of pain, he swallowed it, feeling it move down his oesophagus like a stone. The brandy may have removed the taste, but his gorge still rose momentarily at the thought of what he had just done.
    Nathan opened his eyes to find them filled with moisture. He blinked several times, until he could just make out Kane’s scarecrow figure sitting opposite.
    “Say the name!” Kane began shouting. “Say the name! Say it!”
    Nathan tried to say it, but an alarm bell seemed to be going off inside his head.
    If this works, and right now, it seems more than bloody likely that it does, you could kill a man—KILL A MAN—with two words!
    “I can’t,” he said, clutching at his constricting throat.
    He saw fear flash across Kane’s face for the first time. “You have to! You must say the name!”
    “Why?”
    “The pieces are poisoned!” Kane screamed. “If you don’t say the bloody name, it’ll be you who