THE BIG NOIR

I ran up the stairs and opened the office door. It was already dark and the only light came from a lamp on my desk and the flashing red neon from the street outside. The phone on the desk was ringing uselessly to its self, but stopped just as I got to it. I looked at the clock. It was just after five-fifteen. Janice would have been sprucing up her lipstick and spraying her hair a good ten minutes before the hour, and would have shrugged on her topcoat and been out of the door at five on the nail.

No going the extra mile for that dame, no sir.

I sniffed the air. Her cologne was still hanging around like a spinster at a wedding. Cheap and nasty, just like the broad herself. I knew it was cheap because I’d bought it for her. Nasty, well she’d told me that herself, but it didn’t stop her from spraying it all around like disinfectant. I think maybe she thought she needed protection, but who from was anyone’s guess.

Not from me, that was certain. Some guy was going to get lucky tonight and I whispered a quick prayer for his soul.

I kicked the desk, hard.

I hopped over to the filing cabinet and opened the third drawer, the empty one labelled “current cases”. I took out the bourbon I had stashed there, opened it and took a slug. It didn’t do my foot much good, but it sure stopped it from throbbing.

I grabbed a glass and poured myself a stiff one, and sat down on a chair that looked so battered it even made me look good. Somewhere I knew I had a packet of smokes. I checked my jacket – nothing. I started to look through the desk drawers – nada. I thought maybe they’d fallen down the back, so I got down on my knees to pull out the bottom drawer.

On the stroke of five-thirty, the door opened and in she walked. I was still under the desk so I got a good look at her. Platinum blonde all the way to the roots, green eyes like pools you just wanted to dive into, cherry red lips that could tempt a Pope, and endless legs on a body that you could have played a tune on like a Stradivarius.

“You looking for something, handsome?” she cooed.

“Always” I said, “are you looking to be found?” I was sometimes pretty sharp like that.

She stared at me for an endless moment, the searchlights of those emerald green eyes burning into where she thought my soul might be.

“I’ve been hearing things about you,” she purred.

“Good things?’

“Maybe.”

Our eyes met for a lifetime too long.

“It’s dark in here” she whispered.

“That’s how I like it” I replied, standing up too slowly, so that my face got lit up by the lamplight.

The spell broken, she sat down in the chair opposite and crossed her legs just cautiously enough that they had my full attention.

“So, what can I do for you on this dark evening, Miss…?” I asked, kicking myself for knowing she was playing a game so far above my league and still trying to play it with her anyway.

“Have you got a cigarette?” she asked.

I patted my pockets uselessly. “I was just trying to find…”

She frowned, then grabbed for her purse and opened it, removing a gold cigarette case that would have paid my bills for a year. She removed two cigarettes, and put them both in between those impressive lips.

“You have at least got a light?”

“Light? It’s not something I’m known for” I said, instantly wishing I hadn’t.

She didn’t seem to hear, or chose not to. So I just struck a match and leaned forward. She took it from me, lit both cigarettes and handed me one. She inhaled deeply and immediately seemed transformed. The blue smoke curling around her and dancing in the reduced lighting only added to the magic.

“You have a reputation, it seems…” she began.

A reputation? Maybe I was in a higher league than I thought.

“…for investigating the dark corners where nobody else dares to go.”

“It’s been said before.”

“I spend my life in some very dark places too, you see? I’ve been reading about you lately and I was hoping you could shed some light on a few matters for me, help me to see them more clearly. I was hoping to do it myself of course, but, well, what with one thing and another, I never really seem to have the time…”

“Time” I replied “is the one thing I seem to have a lot of to spare.”

She stiffened suddenly as if I’d broken some kind of spell. Her hand went back to her purse and pulled out a card, which she then placed on the edge of the desk. She stubbed out her cigarette angrily and stood up, ready to leave.

“Be there. 9 o’clock sharp tomorrow morning” she said icily, “Come alone. You’ll be well paid.”

She turned to go, just slowly enough to make sure I got a good look at the architecture.

She paused at the doorway, turned around and looked me over again with a look that was part scorpion and part pussycat.

“You won’t let me down, will you?”

I shrugged.

Then she was gone, and there was nothing but a memory and a whisper of smoke and her perfume in the air.

I blinked and shook my head. It was almost as if I’d dreamt her up. I picked up the card. There was an address written in pencil on the reverse side. I turned it over. Matt black letters on a glossy black background said “Black Magic” and nothing else.

I went over to the window and pulled the blind to watch her as she sashayed over to where a huge black car was waiting. She was real enough all right. Her driver opened a door for her, and she started to climb in, stopping just long enough to lock eyes with me again as I stared at her and reduce my knees to jelly.

“So,” I thought “someone has to look into the darkness so that the rest of them don’t have to, eh?’

Well, there were worse things than that to have to do in life. The pay might be lousy, but the hours were good. I picked up my glass of bourbon from where I’d felt it and raised it to propose a little toast to myself.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me until it was too late, and then the whole room went black.