Cape Fear Read Online Free PDF

robe. Her hair was rumpled. She gave him a look which implied that she was utterly exhausted.
    “Ready for dates?”
    “I guess so. I’ll probably miss half of them. Here’s the list, Daddy.”
    “Do you even write numerals backhand?”
    “It’s distinctive.”
    “It sure is. Don’t they teach handwriting anymore?”
    “It has to be legible. That’s what they say.”
    He went over to the bed and moved the indispensable kangaroo and sat down. She had got Sally for her first birthday, and it had shared her bed wherever she was ever since.She no longer chewed the ears. There was very little left to chew.
    “Do we do this to the background music of the gentleman with all the adenoids?”
    Nancy leaned far over and turned off the player switch. “I’m ready. Wheel and deal.”
    He went through the list and she missed five. After twenty minutes she had them all, no matter how he mixed up the order. She was a bright child and highly competitive. In her own special way her mind was keenly logical, orderly, not creative. Bucky seemed to be more like Nancy. Jamie was the dreamer, the slow student, the imaginative one.
    He stood up and gave her the list, hesitated, and sat down again. “Parental department,” he said.
    “I think I have a very clean conscience. At the moment, that is.”
    “This is instruction, honey. Strange-men department.”
    “Gosh, we’ve been over that a zillion times. Mom too. Don’t accept rides. Don’t go off in the woods alone. Don’t hitchhike ever. And if anybody acts funny, run like the wind.”
    “This is a little bit different, Nance. This is one specific man. I’d half decided not to tell you, but I think that would be a little stupid. This is a man who hates me.”
    “Hates
you
, Daddy!”
    He felt slightly annoyed. “It is possible for somebody to hate your mild, lovable, shabby old father.”
    “I didn’t mean it like that. Why does he?”
    “I was a witness against him a long time ago. During the war. Without my help, he wouldn’t have been convicted.He’s been in a military prison ever since. Now they’ve let him out. And he’s in this area. Your mother and I believe he came out here one day a couple of weeks ago. He may do nothing at all. But we have to assume he might.”
    “Why did they put him in jail?”
    He looked at her for a moment, gauging her fund of knowledge.
    “Rape. She was a girl your age.”
    “Golly!”
    “He’s not as tall as I am. He’s about the size of John Turner, and just as big around as John, but not as soft. He’s bald and quite tan, with very white, cheap-looking false teeth. He dresses poorly and smokes cigars. Can you remember that?”
    “Sure.”
    “Don’t let any man answering that description get anywhere near you for any reason.”
    “I won’t. Golly, this is pretty exciting, isn’t it?”
    “That’s one word for it.”
    “Can I tell the kids?”
    He hesitated. “I don’t see why not. I’m going to tell your brothers. The man’s name is Cady. Max Cady.”
    He stood up again. “Don’t study too long, chicken. You’ll hit the exam better if you get plenty of sleep.”
    “I can’t wait to tell all the kids. Wow!”
    He grinned at her and tousled her hair. “Big deal, hey. Drama enters the life of Nancy Ann Bowden, subdeb. Danger stalks this scrawny lass. Tune in tomorrow for another chapter in the life of this American girl who smiles bravely while—”
    “
Stop
it, now!”
    “Want your door closed?”
    “Hey, I nearly forgot. I saw Jake in the village. He says he’s got room to pull the boat out now, and you know how he is, so I told him to go right ahead and we can work on her this weekend. Is that all right?”
    “That’s fine, chicken.”
    When he went downstairs Jamie was back home. Carol was in the process of shooing him off to bed. Sam told him to wait a moment.
    “I just told Nance about Cady,” he said.
    Carol frowned and said, “But do you think … Yes, I see. I think that’s wise,