Velvet Rain - A Dark Thriller Read Online Free PDF

half-past five, the sky a delicious blue. Inside the restaurant, two men on counter stools served him a disapproving glance. One of them was plump and balding, the other thin, his head buried under a straw hat. A family of three sat in one of the booths near the window, a small boy refusing to eat his carrots with all the shriek of fingernails on a blackboard. His mother kept shushing him, and his father spilled his coffee when he reached over to give the child a curt slap. A teenaged couple sat at the back, staring into each other’s eyes. When the coffee cup struck the floor, neither lover blinked.
    A waitress hurried over to clean up the mess, an attractive brunette with her hair tied back. She might have been twenty-five, thirty at most. Nice legs.
    “Be right with you,” she said, looking up, and Kain took the first booth next to the window. He slipped his pack on the floor beneath the table. He watched her work, and she caught him looking. When she finished, she came over with a friendly smile he was certain wasn’t job-related courtesy.
    “Just a burger,” he said. “Just ketchup. And a Coke.” She took his order and passed it on to the cook. A half hour later, as he came out of the restroom, she was standing in the lobby waiting for him.
    “… Can I help you?” He didn’t know what else to say.
    “You look like you need a ride,” she said. “Saw you get dropped off.”
    “Where you headed?”
    “Rocheport.”
    “When do you get off?”
    She held up her keys and smiled.
    ~
    They took the interstate to Rocheport and stopped for a beer at Barry’s B&G. The barkeep drew them two drafts. He had arms like tree trunks and narrow eyes of cinnamon that studied the drifter closely.
    “You from around here?”
    Caught mid-sip, Kain stumbled. “East,” he said. “Miami.” Not a total lie. He had been there two years ago. They’d been close, too close, and it had been the last time he’d ventured anywhere within fifty miles of where the population outnumbered the livestock.
    The barkeep smiled at the woman. “How you been, S-J?”
    “Still makin’ a livin’, darlin’.”
    “I hear ya,” he said. “Danny-boy quit on me last week. Been busy as hell.” He looked at Kain and measured him up. “Interested?”
    Kain was about to say, Just passing through, then considered the good woman beside him. She’d been eyeing him playfully, as if she wanted him. He wanted her, too, she was a real looker, but he had no intention of staying long—whatever long meant to other people—and he didn’t want to upset her. Still, right here and now, her company, just a warm voice to talk to, was something he needed. Something real.
    “Thanks,” he said, as genuinely as he could. “I’ll think about it.”
    “You okay, buddy?”
    Kain had twinged a bit, as if stuck with a pin. Static. From the barkeep, suddenly. It had been dormant for months, rearing its ugly head about five weeks ago. Some kid in a corner store. He’d been feeling it on and off ever since. He could put no finger to its rhyme, nor reason. But he had some ideas. He only prayed he was wrong.
    The waitress asked if he was all right.
    “Just a little headache.” If only.
    “You know, you remind me of somebody,” the barkeep said.
    The drifter put on a grin. “Cousin, maybe?”
    The big man chuckled in a half-assed sort of way. He gave a short shake of his head, then went about his business.
    “Miami?” the waitress asked. “What’s it like?”
    “Almost as hot as Missouri.”
    “Isn’t it awful?” She stroked his arm. “It’s usually pretty cool this time of year. They say it’s gonna break soon, though. More rain’ll help.”
    They talked casually for a time, the place growing half full by nine, that inexplicable static growing with it. By nine-thirty, four brews each into the evening, they were back at her apartment building. She asked him up, and he accepted. She had wanted sex, he had wanted it too, more than ever, and of