Interesting Times (Interesting Times #1) by Matthew Storm Read Free Book Online Page B

asked Tyler.
    “No,” Tyler had replied, looking
confused.  “I bought it in Oakland.”
    Oliver was about to say he had only been
joking, but then he wondered if that was something people actually did. Go back
in time to buy cars. The others had laughed at the idea of being time
travelers, though, so that seemed a bit far-fetched.
    At the moment Tyler was on his knees in
front of the rear door of a run-down pawn shop, attempting to pick its lock.
There had been a “CLOSED” sign in the front window and if there was anybody
inside the store, they’d ignored Tyler’s repeated banging on the front door.
    “God damn it,” Tyler swore. One
of his picks had snapped.
    “You’ve picked locks before?” Oliver
asked. 
    “I don’t make a habit of it,” Tyler
said, retrieving another pick from a kit he’d had stashed in his glove
compartment. “He’s got a good lock.”
    “Did it ever occur to you that he’s out
to lunch or something? We could just wait.”
    “It’s not like him to close during the
day,” Tyler said. “Besides, you want to be hanging around here while an
assassin is out looking for you? In this neighborhood? Somebody might
beat him to killing you.” 
    “Fair point,” Oliver said. He avoided
the Tenderloin as a general rule. It was as high-crime an area as could be
found in San Francisco.
    The lock clicked. “Finally!” Tyler
announced triumphantly. He pushed the door open. “See? Nothing to it. Let’s go
check it out.”
    Oliver wasn’t sure this was such a good
idea. It was breaking and entering, after all. But to be fair, a minor felony
was probably the least of what he had to worry about today. He stepped
cautiously through the door after Tyler.
    He found himself in a storage room lit
by one bare, flickering bulb in the ceiling. The room was filled with metal
shelves cluttered with old electronic equipment. DVD players, televisions, and
old computers were stacked on top of each other in haphazard piles. In one
corner he could see a man-sized gun safe. The room was covered in dust and
looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned in years.
    Tyler had taken his pistol out from
under his shirt. “Rocky?” he called. “You in here?”
    The shop was quiet. Rocky, whoever he
was, wasn’t answering. A rectangular object caught Oliver’s eye. “Is this a
Betamax?” he asked quietly. “I’ve never seen one of these in real life.”
    “Might be,” Tyler said. “You can ask
Rocky about it.”
    Oliver ran his hand over the ancient
video player. He was sure it was authentic. “Why would anyone hold onto this?”
he wondered. “Who would buy it?”
    “I don’t know,” Tyler said. “Probably
nobody. The thing is, he’s not really a pawnbroker.” He looked through the
doorway into the main room. “Rocky?”
    “What is he really?” Oliver asked.
    “He’s a…aw, shit.” Tyler said, spotting
something. He went through the doorway.
    Oliver peered through the doorway after
him. Tyler was in the center of the room, kneeling down next to an overweight
man in a dirty white T-shirt and jeans. The other man was balding, unshaven,
and didn’t appear to be breathing.
    “Oh,” Oliver said, feeling a knot form
in his stomach.
    Tyler felt the other man’s neck for a
pulse. “Come on, Rocky,” he said quietly. He waited, but then shook his head.
“Nope.  He’s all done.”
    “I’m…I’m sorry,” Oliver said.
    “Don’t be. He was an asshole.” Tyler
sighed. “How was Teasdale going to do you? Injection?” He tugged at Rocky’s
shoe and removed it, followed by the sock. Oliver winced as Tyler pried the
other man’s toes apart and inspected the skin between them. “Nothing there,” he
said. He went to work pulling off the other shoe.
    “Is that really necessary?” Oliver
asked. It seemed somehow obscene to be examining a dead man’s feet.
    “If you want to know what’s going on
here, then yes. There. See?” He motioned for Oliver to look at the skin between
the first two