If she had gone to Boulder with Jack, would she have been that wrinkled, raggedy, toothless woman with dead eyes in just a few years?
Or maybe she’d decided a new life wasn’t for her when Jack spoke of settling for a lower-level job, a job beneath her qualifications and accomplishments and intellect. What a waste that would have been. Hadn’t history taught her that a person is remembered for the work he or she does … for what he/she accomplishes in life?
The only lovers remembered by posterity were the tragedies— Lancelot and Guinevere, Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde— and she had never liked stories with unhappy endings. Anyway, you weren’t memorialized for loving someone, but for the work you did—your contribution.
That’s what was really important, wasn’t it?
Joy returned to the ad agency the following Monday, throwing herself into her work, staying late every day that week, making up for the time she had lost. She had her usual vitality and did typically first-rate work and would start sleeping again, soon— and makeup covered the dark circles just fine; Visine took the red out, too.
Nearly a month had gone by since Jack’s death, when, on a warm Saturday morning, Joy kept her next appointment with Dr. Green.
After his usual checkup, he pulled the chrome stool over to Joy, who was seated quietly on the examination table.
“You did the right thing,” he told her.
She responded with one curt nod.
“If you’re having any difficulty falling asleep at night,” he said, eyes unreadable in the bisque-baby face, “I can give you something.”
“I’m fine,” she said, not wanting anything negative in her file. “Really I am. I don’t need a thing.” She thought her voice sounded funny, funny strange, that is—distant, and like someone else’s.
“All right, then,” the doctor said. He dug into the pocket of his white smock and handed Joy her monthly supply of pills. “Here are your capsules.”
Usually the nurse gave them to her.
Joy took the silver-capped bottle and put it in her purse.
At home, in the living room of her bungalow, with the afternoon sun streaming in, she fussed with the fern on the pedestal.
Something was wrong with the plant. Its green leaves were turning a yellowish brown. Was she watering it too much, or not enough? Was it getting all the sun it needed, or maybe too much? She wasn’t sure what to do.
Giving up, Joy sauntered into the bathroom. Time for her pill. Drawing some water from the sink, standing at the mirror, she uncapped the silver lid of the new bottle Dr. Green had given her and shook one of the clear capsules into the palm of her hand.
She stared at the glimmering capsule.
What if it contained something other than her rejuvenating medicine? What if it contained the stuff that had given Jack his heart attack?
She shook her head. No, no, she’d shown them she could be trusted.
But could they be trusted?
The pill was an inch from her mouth, and she saw her reflection in the mirror—saw her young face, staring into the old eyes— and she wondered whether or not to take it. Wondered whether life was in the capsule or something else.
With a little shrug, she popped the pill in her mouth and took a swallow of water.
One way or the other, her future was inside that clear-coated capsule.
A Look At: Reincarnal & Other Dark Tales
A YOUNG WOMAN’S NIGHTMARES ARE A TERRIBLE PROJECTION OF A SERIAL KILLER’S MAD MURDERS…
Prepare to meet a seductive vampire preying on the homeless, a mobster who meets his murderous match, a sexual predator who selects the wrong victim, a psychotic Santa, a tabloid ghost hunter, and a pop star who wants to live forever. And waiting for you are teenage hookers from hell, a bad girl turned good in a bad way, and a group of ghost hunters who spend a harrowing night in a very haunted house.
A riveting, brand-new collection of dark crime and darker horror by Mystery Writers of America “Grand Master,” Max Allan Collins.
AVAILABLE NOW
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Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins
About The Authors
Max Allan Collins was named a Grand Master in 2017 by the Mystery Writers of America. He is a three-time winner of the Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” award, receiving the PWA “Eye” for Life Achievement (2006) and their “Hammer” award for making a major contribution to the private eye genre with the Nathan Heller saga (2012).
His innovative Quarry novels were adapted as a 2016 TV series by Cinemax. His other suspense series include Eliot Ness, Krista Larson, Reeder and Rogers, and the “Disaster” novels. He has completed twelve “Mike Hammer” novels begun by the late Mickey Spillane; his audio novel, Mike Hammer: The Little Death with Stacy Keach, won a 2011 Audie.
For five years, he was sole licensing writer for TV’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (and its spin-offs), writing best-selling novels, graphic novels, and video games. His tie-in books have appeared on the USA TODAY and New York Times bestseller lists, including Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One, and American Gangster.
Collins has written and directed four features and two documentaries, including the Lifetime movie "Mommy" (1996) and “Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane” (1998); he scripted "The Expert," a 1995 HBO World Premiere and “The Last Lullaby” (2009) from his novel The Last Quarry. His Edgar-nominated play "Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life" (2004) became a PBS special, and he has co-authored two non-fiction books on Ness, Scarface and the Untouchable (2018) and Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher (2020).
Barbara Collins made her entrance into the mystery field as a highly respected short story writer with appearances in over a dozen top anthologies, including Murder Most Delicious, Women on the Edge, Deadly Housewives and the best-selling Cat Crimes series. She was the co-editor of (and a contributor to) the best-selling anthology Lethal Ladies, and her stories were selected for inclusion in the first three volumes of The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories.
As “Barbara Allan,” she and her husband Max Allan Collins write the long-running “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mystery series. Their Antiques Flee Market (2008) won the Romantic Times “Best Humorous Mystery Novel” award of 2009. They have also appeared under their joint byline in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
The Collins’s first novel together, the Baby Boomer thriller Regeneration, was a paperback bestseller; their second collaborative novel, Bombshell – in which Marilyn Monroe saves the world from World War III – was published in hardcover to excellent reviews. Both are back in print from Thomas & Mercer under their “Barbara Allan” byline.
Two acclaimed hardcover collections of Barbara’s work have been published, Too Many Tomcats, and (with her husband) Murder—His and Hers, with a follow-up, Suspense—His and Hers, coming from Wolfpack Publishing, who are bringing out the previous collections as well.
Barbara Collins has also been the production manager and/or line producer on several of Max’s independent film projects, including Mommy (1995), Mommy’s Day (1997), Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market (2001) and Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life (2005).The writing duo lives in their native Muscatine, Iowa. Their son, Nathan, is a Japanese-to-English translator with numerous books, manga and video games to his credit. Barbara divides her time between writing and providing Day Care for her two grandchildren, Sam and Lucy.
Also by Max Allan Collins
John Sand Thrillers
Come Spy With Me
Live Fast, Spy Hard
Other Titles
&n
bsp; An Eliot Ness Mystery Omnibus
Mommy & Mommy's Day: A Suspense Duo
Murderlized: Stories
Too Many Tom Cats: And Other Feline Tales of Suspense
Murder—His & Hers: Stories
Reincarnal & Other Dark Tales
Regeneration Page 22