An Evil Guest Read Online Free PDF Page B

that it will.”
    “There’s an excellent chance,” he told her, “and it’s not a terribly high mountain. A couple of hours should be more than sufficient.”
    “We’ll drive up as far as we can?”
    “Correct.” He braked, seeing the lights of the checkpoint ahead.

THREE

THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN
AND BEYOND
    Gideon Chase got out of the car. Cassie Casey watched him talking to somebody who might have been a Mounty and to somebody else who might have been a customs officer. After speaking with Gideon for a minute or two, the Mounty came to her window and tapped on the glass. She lowered it, admitting night air that held a spring chill.
    “Are you a U.S. citizen, ma’am?”
    She nodded.
    “Talk out loud, ma’am. I need to hear your voice.”
    “I’m not,” she told him. “My position is a great deal higher. I’ll have you know I’m an undocumented national of indefinite residential status. Our government cherishes me, so if you mess with me you’d better look out.”
    “Mexican?”
    “Russian.”
    “You don’t sound Russian.” The Mounty himself sounded impatient.
    “I ’aff lied.” Cassie’s eyes were cast down demurely. “I am uf Byeloruss. Een my own country vimen such as I are calt belles. Here you tsay dingdongs.”
    The Mounty heaved a sigh. “Let’s see some ID.”
    “I haf a tattoo.” Looking up at him, she licked her lips. “Ees var’ preety. Tzum private place, da?”
    The Mounty reached into the car and grabbed her purse.
    “That’s twice tonight I’ve had my purse snatched,” she told him. “It was an American cop the first time.”
    The Mounty nodded. “He has my sympathy.” After glancing at her driver’s license, he returned her purse.
    Smiling, Gideon slid back into his seat and shut the door. As their car glided silently away from the checkpoint he said, “Any questions I haven’t answered?”
    “Five or six hundred. Will bringing out my star quality make me a star?”
    “Yes.”
    Cassie felt a sudden pang of sympathy for the Mounty. “Enlarge on that a bit, will you?”
    “If you were . . .” Gideon waved his hand vaguely. “A factory worker. In that case it wouldn’t, and I’d have to bring you to the attention of the right people. I could do it, but it might take a week. As it is, I don’t have to. You’re an actress already. That will be sufficient.”
    “My show is closing—what time is it?”
    “Two fifteen.”
    “Ummm . . . You didn’t look at your wrist. Or at the clock in front of me, either. I see it now.”
    Gideon said nothing.
    “All right, I’ll let that alone. Our show is closing tonight. Just a tiny bit under twenty-four hours from now I’ll be unemployed.”
    “You will be my partner in a difficult and dangerous enterprise that will make us rich.”
    “I haven’t said yes yet.”
    He shrugged.
    “I see. It doesn’t matter. Are we going to Toronto?”
    He shook his head.
    “Well, that’s what the sign said.”
    “We’ll turn off. Another five miles or so.”
    “There was a question I was going to ask you before we stopped. Only I know the answer now. I’m going to ask it anyway, to see how honest you really are. Why did the cop who brought me to this car say ultra-natural ash rose would put me to sleep?”
    “I can’t say. When you were talking to your friend Sharon you mentioned lipstick, then you said your news would wake her up. I suppose the implication was that lipstick was dull and so induced sleep.”
    “You heard us, too. You must have planted a bug in my apartment.”
    He shook his head.
    “I heard you leave, Dr. Chase.”
    “You did not. You heard your door open and close, and assumed I had gone.”
    “You were in there all the time.”
    “If you mean all the time that you yourself were, yes. I was. I came in before you did and left after you had gone.”
    “Taking nothing. Right?”
    “Wrong. I took away knowledge I didn’t have when I arrived. I know you’re wearing a gun on your right thigh, for