what are you doing here, harry? trudy asked.
what are you doing here? harry asked her. where’s maxine?
where’s maxine? where’s maxine? what are you trying to pull, harry?
harry pushed trudy aside and went into the apartment.
the apartment was clean anyway, but there was no sign of maxine, or of anybody else.
trudy kept jabbering behind harry’s back.
you got a nerve, harry. you got a nerve showing up like this. get out of here before i call the cops. and so on and so on.
harry had the stockings loose in his pocket. it looked like he was not going to strangle maxine with them, so he took one out and strangled trudy with it instead.
*
what was that all about? harry wondered when he got back down on the street. he hoped there wouldn’t be any complications or trouble about what he had just done.
he would worry about it later.
right now he had something better to do.
meet lorelei.
the address lorelei had given him was only five blocks away.
it was completely dark when harry got there. the whole street was pretty dark, with only a few lights showing in the windows of the apartment buildings that seemed to take up the whole street.
a long black car was parked in front of lorelei’s building.
a short flight of steps led up to the front door. harry climbed them. he lit a match to read the buzzer numbers and found lorelei’s.
he pressed it and waited. nothing happened.
he pressed it again, and heard a voice behind him.
are you harry?
he turned around. a big guy in a heavy gray overcoat was standing on the sidewalk beside the long black car.
i’m harry.
you looking for lorelei? the big guy asked.
yeah.
i’m larry. her brother. get in, i’ll take you to her.
harry walked down the steps. he tried to open the front passenger side door of the car but it was locked.
get in the back, larry told him. it’s not locked.
harry didn’t argue. he opened the door and got in the back. it had plenty of leg room.
larry got behind the wheel and pulled out.
it started to rain. larry turned on the windshield wipers. they squeaked.
where are we headed? harry asked.
southtown.
why did lorelei give me this address in the city if she lives in southtown? harry asked.
who knows? larry answered.
right, harry thought. who knows anything?
the end
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment