was shut the door and drive. Get on I-10 and drive west and don’t stop until I hit the Pacific.
She’d have to go back to the stripper pole and escort jobs. Too bad about that, but I didn’t ask to be part of a murder.
Her door remained open, leaving the interior light on. I reached over to pull the door shut when I heard her cry out. I wasn’t sure. The cars were so loud above us. I called out to her.
No answer.
I got out of the car and went around to her side. Her door was still open. Before shutting it, I looked down at the bag.
I had to see them. Seeing them all there would make it easier leaving her.
I leaned down and reached for the bag. That’s the moment I felt the punch of the bullet hit me from behind. Right under my rib cage. It knocked me down against the seat of the car. I could smell her there on the vinyl, and the hot odor of the dirt and tires beneath me.
I slid down from the seat and onto the hard, dry ground.
I could see her above me, gun in her hand, pointing it at me. I tried reaching up to the door handle. Then something slammed into my chest and this time I heard the pop of the gun against the rushing of cars above us.
I couldn’t breathe. My mouth worked but nothing came.
She leaned over me.
She kissed me then. The last one.
You ever think about the last kiss you’ll get? Who will give it to you? If perhaps it’s someone like Valerie out there waiting to do it?
Maybe there are worse things than that.
“I’m sorry, Karl. You don’t have to worry now.”
I tried to speak, spitting blood at her instead.
The train’s whistle brought me back.
Valerie was gone.
So was the Impala.
I could see the ribbon of the overpass above me. It seemed so high. I’d never noticed that before. How high above Grand the interstate was. I couldn’t hear the cars on it anymore. They had all gone away.
Everyone had gone away.
I’d reviewed the pictures of Valerie enough. I was tired of it all. There was just the last one of her left anyway.
I could see the moon between the lanes above me. Just a fingernail, really, that was all.
Paint it red and claw my fucking heart out.
The train off Grand cried out again. Maybe it was heading west. It didn’t matter. I would be riding that whistle into the black, bringing that last picture of Valerie along with me.
BLAZIN’ ON BROADWAY
BY GARY PHILLIPS
South Phoenix
Somebody Told Me” by the Killers pumped from the overhead speakers as Ivan Monk entered the busy fitness club. The facility took up the fourth floor of a new high-rise offering a pool, sauna, and a large expanse of machines and free weights.
Passing by the spin class, he heard the instructor joke into her hands-free set, “My friend told me, looking at the mess of clothes on my bed, ‘Girl, you need to get you some new gear.’” The woman, a bronze-hued Latina in a form-fitting outfit, laughed gleefully. She would have been at home on the cover of Maxim. “And I realize that light blue sports bras against dark skin can be distracting, but I can get them three for a good price at Big 5. I guess I kind of had it hanging out in some of my outfits, but you know, really, I hadn’t noticed.” She chuckled again.
Monk noticed. Every man in the class and a couple of the women noticed too. He regretted he couldn’t linger and hear more about her choice of workout clothes. He asked a trainer, “Excuse me, where can I find Nazeen Loveless?” The guy pointed a veined finger at a door, and continued his count as a sweating hausfrau completed a series of crunches.
Monk went to the door and knocked lightly. Built into the nearby wall was an aquaterrarium—half gravel and the other side a miniature pond. Various plants he didn’t recognize pop-ulated the tank, as did several reptiles. A dark green toad sat on a rock, croaking and glaring at him between blinks. Monk glared back.
“Come in,” a throaty voice announced.
He entered and shook the proffered hand. From his research Monk knew that Nazeen Loveless was past fifty, but she was still a striking woman with a toned body encased in a silk shirt tucked into a mid-length skirt with a slit. A heavy silver bracelet slid up and down