Daughter of Darkness by Ed Gorman Read Free Book Online Page A

convenience store was a taxi cab.
        She hurried, before it could get away.
        … she was not aware of the dark Ford van following from a distance of half a block, creeping slowly along the rain-glazed, neon-splattered streets…
        The cabbie had left his car running. A brave and foolish man. The back door of the cab was unlocked. She quickly crawled inside, sat back in the darkness of the corner. The cab smelled of barf and disinfectant and cigarette smoke and dampness. A two-way radio crackled forth words up front but uselessly, like signals sent deep into empty outer space.
        The cabbie took his time. He didn't come back for another five minutes or so. When he got in the cab, the entire vehicle heaved to the left and the springs sighed deeply. He was a big man, this one.
        He put the cab in gear and backed out of the parking lot, the reverse gear whining all the time he used it.
        He turned up the volume on the radio. An all-night talk show. A woman was talking about being raped and violated by aliens.
        The cabbie didn't seem to know she was there in the back seat. She sat up and said, "I have money."
        Two things happened at once: the cab driver let out an ear-shattering shout and the cab itself shot briefly to the right, into the oncoming lane. He quickly righted the vehicle.
        He turned around and looked at her and said, "You just scared the shit out of me, lady!"
        He had a nice face, kind of a baby face. He was probably in his late twenties and overweight by as much as fifty pounds. He wore a brown zipper jacket and a Cubs baseball cap. There was a vulnerability to him that she liked and trusted immediately.
        "I'm sorry," she said.
        "So now the gals are taking over, huh?"
        "Taking over?"
        "Yeah. You know, robbing cabbies."
        "Oh, no," she said, "that's not why I'm here."
        He watched her in his rearview mirror. She could see he was studying her, trying to decide for himself what she was really all about. He probably carted around a lot of really strange people in his cab. He probably knew a lot about really strange people.
        "I just need a ride," she said. "As I said, I have money." She held up a fistful of dollars, the same dollars the nun had found in her wallet tonight. "I'm sorry I scared you."
        "I guess I just didn't see you was all. All the cabbies gettin' killed lately, I'm just a little jumpy. So where's the address?"
        She told him.
        "Yeah, right, lady."
        "What? Is something wrong with the address?"
        "Not if you believe in fairy tales."
        "Fairy tales?" she said, baffled by his words.
        But before he could answer, his two-way radio began crackling. The dispatcher wanted to know if he could pick somebody up. He said that he already had a fare.
        After breaking the connection, the cab driver turned up the radio a little. A caller was saying that he found it strange that an alien race would travel all the way across the galaxy just to get laid. Especially with a different species. The cab driver chuckled.
        She sat back and stared out the window. They were on the Crosstown now. The rain was coming down harder. She had a bad headache. She couldn't remember her name. She felt utterly isolated. Maybe she shouldn't have left Coffey's. She liked him and he was certainly protective of her. She wanted to scream at the cab driver to turn off the nonsense radio program. She didn't want to be part of that world. She wanted to be part of Coffey's world again. His nice, warm smile. His nice, warm kitchen. His nice, warm guest bed. Why had the presence in her mind awakened her? Why had it given her this address? Where was she going anyway?
        She slumped back in her seat, cold and alone, and trying to block out the inane words coming from the radio show.
        She was trying very hard not to think about the man in the motel room,