Suckers - J.A. Konrath

strong enough to breach the dark room. I held my breath and listened. No sound came from
within.
While I was preoccupied, Sauce-boy took the opportunity to swing the crowbar at me.
Luckily, my catlike reflexes switched on and I ducked before he took my head off. I shoved the
gun in his face and he froze.
"Sorry. Crowbar slipped."
"Drop it."
He complied.
"Into the house. Stay quiet or the last sound you’ll hear is your brain exiting through your
eye sockets. It’s sort of a bang/slurp sound. Trust me, you wouldn’t like it."
"This probably isn't new information, but you're kind of a prick."
"You caught me on a bad day. Now move it. Nice and slow."
I marched him three steps into the dark house, unable to see a damn thing. There wasn’t a
single light on, and all the curtains were drawn. I smelled incense, and something under it.
Something funky.
My partner took another step, made an uumph! sound, and pitched forward.
I flashed on the penlight to see what he tripped over, and saw it was a naked dead guy with
his throat ripped out.
While sauce-boy flailed around like a fish, I played the penlight around the floor, noticing
something distinctly odd. The throat wound was so deep the neck vertebrae were exposed.
But there was surprisingly little blood.
- 3 -
Andrew
The man smirked as I scrambled to my feet. Though I make it a point to give all of my
fellow human beings the benefit of the doubt, I had pretty much decided that he was a complete
asshole.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Never seen a dead body before?"
Actually, I had. Several of them. Gross ones. But he didn't need to know that, so I shook my
head.
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