Black Leather
by
Elizabeth Engstrom
Black Leather
by
Elizabeth Engstrom
IFD Publishing, P.O. Box 40776, Eugene, Oregon 97404 U.S.A. (541)461-3272 www.ifdpublishing.com
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All persons in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance that may seem to exist to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction.
All rights reserved.
Cover Art, Copyright © Alan M. Clark 2014
eBook Design, Eric M. Witchey
First eBook edition, Copyright © 2014 Elizabeth Engstrom, IFD Publishing
Ebook epub edition ISBN: 978-0-9887767-9-1
Originally Printed in the United States of America
Books by Elizabeth Engstrom
When Darkness Loves Us
Black Ambrosia
Nightmare Flower
Lizzie Borden
Lizard Wine
The Alchemy of Love
Suspicions
Black Leather
Candyland
The Northwoods Chronicles
York’s Moon
Something Happened to Grandma
Baggage Check
Word by Word (editor, with John Tullius)
Imagination Fully Dilated (co-editor)
Imagination Fully Dilated vol. II (editor)
Dead on Demand (editor)
Pronto! Writings from Rome (editor, with John Tullius)
Ship’s Log: Writings at Sea (editor, with John Tullius)
Lies and Limericks (editor, with John Tullius)
Mota 9: Addiction (editor)
Critics have said…
About Black Leather:
“...a darkly seductive page-turner by a writer who knows how to put the erotic thrill into a thriller.”—DarkEcho
“...an artfully written and highly recommended erotic and psychological suspense from first page to last.”—Midwest Book Review
About Suspicions:
“This is where she’s at her best.” —Locus
“A harrowing and suspenseful anthology filled with superbly crafted short stories about love, death, sex, and crossing the River Styx. Dark humor courses through these dramatic and sometimes horrific tales, in this blood-curdling anthology that leaves a fearsome chill in one's spine long after the last page has been turned. Suspicions is strongly recommended reading for those that prefer their literary entertainment with a decided flair for the unexpected.” —Midwest Book Review
“A spooky collection of tales.” —Publishers Weekly
“A hefty, genre-crossing pie spiced with images capable of snagging the imagination.” —Booklist
“Elizabeth Engstrom has selected twenty-five (four original to the collection) stories from the past twenty years of writing that reveal her as a suspicious sort. But then, aren't we all? We all suspect the unknown, death, sex, and “friends, family, love, work, technology, the government, and everything else.” It's just that Elizabeth Engstrom can take her lack of trust and craft fine fiction from it. Like many fine writers, Engstrom's stories are across all genres. Some can be termed sf, others as mystery or fantasy or horror, still others are simply "fiction." A few are light and humorous. Most are quietly dark, slightly skewed, angled toward that indescribable place just at the edge of shadow. All are worth reading. Many are worth pondering. By the end, at least one suspicion will definitely be confirmed: Elizabeth Engstrom is one of the best. No doubts.” —Cemetery Dance
“York’s Moon is so absorbing and unusual that you’ll almost miss how beautifully written it is—almost. Elizabeth Engstrom’s mesmerizing and unique style will draw you into a world of mystery, violence and heroic struggle. Ultimately, this story celebrates the uplifting power of the human spirit. Do not miss it.”
—Susan Wiggs, bestselling author of Marrying Daisy Bellamy
“With quirky, engaging characters, York's Moon is as much about understanding the human condition as solving a murder mystery. I cannot imagine anyone but Liz Engstrom writing this fine novel.”
—Terry Brooks, author of the Shannara series
“This book is most certainly not what you would call your average mystery. In fact, there are many facets of inspirational fiction, melancholy drama, and threads of romance scattered throughout, that mix in extremely well with the murder mystery that this novel focuses on.” —Once upon a Romance
About The Northwoods Chronicles:
“Engstrom, a skilled horror fiction stylist whose novels include the biographical Lizzie Borden (1991), here gives us a deliciously creepy collection of interrelated stories. White Pines Junction is a quaint, sparsely populated tourist town that, along with its many outdoors-oriented charms, harbors some very dark secrets. Aside from a little-publicized history of hometown thugs and serial killers, the town trades deaths with its garbage dump on a one-for-one citizen-rat basis and hosts a motel whose residents’ nighttime reveries become frighteningly true. Perhaps most disturbing of all, the town is tormented by an epidemic of mysteriously disappearing children. In one story, a preacher’s pregnant wife becomes increasingly psychotic until an unearthly force literally steals the child from her womb. In another, a harried wife finds the grisly means to dispose of her troublesome husband behind the soon-to-be-remodeled walls of her kitchen. Engstrom’s chilling scenarios will haunt readers’ dreams for days.” —Booklist
“Dark fantasy writer Engstrom (Black Leather) starts on familiar ground, but rapidly turns this ‘novel in stories’ into a genre-blending exploration of love, aging, grief and sacrifice. In Vargas County, children under 12 occasionally vanish, but the locals have long viewed this as a tithe taken by the town in exchange for the happiness of the other residents. This theme is explored directly in stories like ‘House Odds,’ in which real estate agent Julia has to decide if her grandchildren would be in greater danger in town or away with their drunken father. Other tales merely use the disappearances as a backdrop, such as ‘Skytouch Fever,’ in which aging Sadie Katherine is forced to choose between her steadfast beau and a rakish visitor, and the wittily ironic thriller ‘One Quiet Evening in the Wax Museum.’ Fast-paced, melancholy and beautiful, the overarching narrative binds a collection of good stories into a superb if unconventional novel.” —Publishers Weekly
“The Northwoods Chronicles conjured up in me the same excitement and wonder I felt when I read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. I was taken far away...inside my own heart, my fears, my hopes. I set it down to tend to life; forgot where I put it; got anxious just like Recon John when the monkey jawbone went missing. I finished it, but it's not over: I've been gifted with a life in a strange new world, not without its shadows, and the glimmer of weird on the water. This one is a keeper, and I'm one of its kept. Brava, Elizabeth Engstrom.” —Nancy Holder, author of Son of the Shadows
“To read Elizabeth Engstrom is to be guided by the sure hand of an accomplished writer whose stories have the power to transfer readers to places both real and surreal. We believe in the unbelievable, marvel at worlds created between dream and reality, and reach for all that transcends the limits of our imagination.” —Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
“From th
e ominous opening to the soaring conclusion, these braided stories – subtle and spooky and smart – will keep the reader spellbound.. The Northwoods is a scary place to live, but in Ms. Engstrom’s hands, it’s a fabulous visit." —Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
“Were he still alive, Rod Serling would like Engstrom’s book. Presented separately, each of her narratives would make a great segment of the classic “Twilight Zone” television program so popular in the 1960s. Taken together — and given Serling’s absence among us — they give us another way to hold a book in our hands that gives our spines a tingle and makes us wonder if Serling is really so far away after all.” —Eugene Register Guard
About Lizzie Borden:
“Marvelous stuff. The pressures on Lizzie were vivid and completely real. You know, I think I'd have killed him myself...”—Mercedes Lackey, author of the Heralds of Valdemar series
“Every door in the Borden house is metaphorically locked, and each room holds the terrible secrets of the occupant... Engstrom [moves] the reader inexorably toward the anticipated savage
denouement.”—Publishers Weekly
“Elizabeth Engstrom has woven a fascinating tale of a lonely, tormented and frustrated young woman.”—Rocky Mountain News
“A real page-turner and white-knuckler. The tension mounts without letup."—Maui News
“Engstrom crafts a character with motivation, mental confusion and smoldering resentment, a woman who could stand unblinking in a shower of blood as she bludgeoned her parents to death.”—Ogden Standard Examiner
About Lizard Wine:
“Lizard Wine is the book your mother warned you about, sleek, nasty, perfectly focused, smart as hell, absolutely convincing, and utterly single-minded. This novel wants to buy you a drink, whisper in your ear, coax you into a dark room and there seriously mess you up. Because Elizabeth Engtrom is a magnificently talented writer, her novel not only actually does these things, it leaves you grateful for the experience. Lizard Wine is the kind of book which enlarges and enriches the genre of the thriller.”—Peter Straub
“...Lizard Wine is a book that will make your skin crawl.”—John Saul
“...hard! Should carry a health warning: Just reading this could leave you bruised...”—Brian Lumley
“Excruciating suspense!”—Bryce Courtenay
“Lizard Wine is a disturbing vintage... With a true literary voice, Elizabeth Engstrom details the madness of human relationships... It is as if Franz Kafka, Tom Robbins and Shirley Jackson collaborated on a story which only Engstrom could write. A brilliant, page-turning read.”—Douglas Clegg
“Reading Lizard Wine is like sitting in a snowbound car with three very dangerous men and three vulnerable (yet-no-less-dangerous) young women, and watching in thrall as the balance of power trades hands through the night. Elizabeth Engstrom involves her readers equally with the pitiful and the pitiless, and as the sun rises on the living and the dead, we close this novel reminded that we can make our lives, or our lives can make us. Lizard Wine is a dark, rough draught, but it goes down as smooth as the grit will allow—and its after-effects are potent and lingering.”—Tim Lucas
“Supertaut storytelling...”—Kirkus Reviews
“I often stopped with a low mental whistle of awe at Engstrom's seamless style...”—Paula Guran, DarkEcho
“...Deliverance meets Misery...”—Derek Doran, The Fiction Addiction
“...Don't read this book alone at night.”—Eugene Register Guard
“...The message of Lizard Wine is clear. This could be anybody. This could be you.”—AmericaOnline
About When Darkness Loves Us:
“Finding the light when swamped in darkness is never an easy thing. When Darkness Loves Us is a collection of two novellas from Elizabeth Engstrom. One story follows a young farm girl as she is engulfed by an underworld and yearns to escape, and an old woman who is facing the monsters of her past. Two engaging stories make When Darkness Loves Us quite a pick.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Fresh, inventive, stylish and captivating, the work of a writer of unusual promise.”—Dean Koontz
“A moving story of redemption and love.” —West Coast Review of Books
“A masterpiece, and one of the finest tragedies I've read in years.”—Horror Show
“Behind that soft-voiced style is power, is surprise, is... ferocity.” —Theodore Sturgeon
Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Copyright
Critical Acclaim
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
About the Author
Connect with the Author
Other eBooks from IFD
Dedication
Dedicated to Alan M. Clark, the best possible friend, who encourages with enthusiasm, honesty, and wisdom.
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to Al Cratty, my wonderful, understanding husband who sings in the morning, Maggie Doran, whose friendship shows me a high standard of patience and empathy, and all others who have been rich resources of background information. A writers has many needs. Thanks to all who help to fill mine.
Chapter 1
Joseph was just lacing up his lawn mowing shoes when Cynthia called him for the fourth time that day. It didn’t take a Ph.D. to see that she was headed for disaster if she didn’t find a more productive outlet for her feelings, but he was at his wits’ end trying to help her figure out what outlet that might be.
The first time she called, she played sweet and coy, but he’d had a student in his office and couldn’t talk with her. The second time, he was out, grabbing a quick sandwich and cup of coffee in the cafeteria. The third time she was angry and crying, and he just listened to her, his guts in knots, feeling totally responsible for this deep well of hurt he had helped open in her soul.
He tied the lace on his nasty old yard-work Nikes, tucked in his t-shirt and stared at the phone as it rang. This will have to burn out some time, he thought, and picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Okay, Joseph,” Cynthia said. “I’ve learned my lesson. You’ve punished me enough. I think it’s time I came home.”
“This isn’t about punishment, Cynthia.”
“You’ve made your point.”
Joseph leaned up against the kitchen counter. “What point?”
“I’ve learned, Joseph, I’m not stupid. I know that I was out of line. I was too needy. I’m not needy like that
any more. I can come home now.”
“No, Cynthia.” It broke Joseph’s heart to be so firm with her.
“Is there someone else?”
“No.”
“Please tell me there’s someone else, Joseph,” she started to cry again. “I can fight against another woman. That, I can compete with. But the fact that you’re leaving me for nobody—” she blew her nose— “you’d rather be with nobody than be with me, oh, God...”
“Did you go to that counseling appointment?”
Silence.
“You have to help yourself over this, Cynthia. It doesn’t sound to me like you’re even willing to invest a few hour-long counseling sessions in our marriage. Why would you think I would invest everything I have in it?”
“I love you so much...”
“I have to go, Cyn. I have things to do. So do you.”
“Yeah.”
“Take care of yourself.”
“Can I call you again?”
“Sure. Of course. Try not to call me at work though, okay?”
“Okay.”
He was hesitant to hang up, hesitant to just abandon her, knowing how much she hurt. “You all right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
“Bye,” he said, then clicked off and put the phone firmly into its recharger before that distasteful conversation lasted any longer.
He ought to call Irene. Cynthia had been staying at Irene’s place for three months now, and this situation wasn’t resolving itself. By now, Cynthia should have a job. She should be working, and living in her own place.
He thought about calling Irene, thought about talking to her, thought about her cool, calm professional exterior. He wanted to call Irene because he wanted to talk to Irene, not because he wanted to talk to her about Cynthia. Irene was no dummy; she knew about Cynthia. No, Joseph wanted to call Irene, and it had nothing to do with Cynthia.
He drank a glass of water and went out to mow the lawn. He somehow always known that one day he would be sorry he ever got involved with the Nottingham sisters.
That day had come.
~~~