Cape Fear Read Online Free PDF Page B
Author: John D. MacDonald
Sam.”
“What’s happening?” Jamie demanded.
“Listen very carefully, son. I’m going to tell you something and I want you to remember everything I say.”
He explained the situation to Jamie. Jamie listened intently. Sam concluded by saying, “We’ll tell this to Bucky too, but I’m not sure how much difference it will make to him. He lives in his own Martian world. So I want you to stick closer than usual to your little brother. I realize that may cramp some of your fun, but this is for real, Jamie. This isn’t a television show. You’ll do that?”
“Sure. Why don’t they arrest him?”
“He hasn’t done anything.”
“I’ll bet they could arrest him. The cops have guns, see, that they’ve taken off dead murderers. Then they go up to the man and they shove a murder gun in his pocket and then they arrest him for carrying a gun without a license and put him in jail, see. And then they put the gun in thelaboratory and they look at it through a thing and they find out it was a murder gun and so then they electrocute him, real early in the morning sometime.”
“Brother!” Carol said.
“James, my boy, the reason this is a very fine country is because that kind of thing can’t happen. We don’t jail innocent men. We don’t jail people because we think they might do something. If that could happen, you, Jamie Bowden, might find yourself in jail sometime because somebody lied about you.”
Jamie thought it over scowlingly and then nodded. “That Scooter Prescott would have me locked up in a minute.”
“Why?”
“Because I can do twenty-eight push-ups now, see, and when I can do fifty I’m going up to him and I’m going to punch his fat nose.”
“Does he know that?”
“Sure. I told him.”
“You better go to bed now, dear,” Carol said.
At the foot of the front stairs Jamie turned and said, “But there’s one trouble. Scooter is doing push-ups too, darn it.”
After he was gone Carol said, “How did Nancy take it?”
“Intelligently.”
“I think it’s wise to tell them.”
“I know. But it makes me feel a little ineffectual. I’m the king of this little tribe. I should be able to go put the fear of God in Cady. But I don’t see how I could. Not with this office-type physique. He looks like he’s got muscles they haven’t named yet.”
“Is that Marilyn?”
He went out into the kitchen and let her in. She waggled and beamed at him and flounced over to her dish, stared with shock and disbelief at its emptiness, then turned and looked up at him.
“No dice, girl. You’re on a diet, remember?”
She slooped disconsolately at her water dish, trudged over to her corner, turned around three times and sighed as she collapsed onto her side. Sam sat on his heels beside her and prodded her stomach gently with his finger.
“Got to get your girlish figure back, Marilyn. Got to get rid of that flob.”
She rolled an eye at him and the long red brush of tail flapped twice. She yawned, with a little yowl at the end of the yawn, exposing the long white ivory fangs.
He stood up. “A great savage beast. Dismayed by kittens. Bedeviled by vicious squirrels. Every day is a hard day, Marilyn, for a four-year-old devout coward, isn’t it?”
The tail flapped dreamily and she closed her eyes. He wandered back into the living room, yawned. Carol looked at him and yawned.
“I caught it from Marilyn; you caught it from me.”
“So I’m taking it to bed.”
“Make sure Nance has hit the sack,” he said. “I’ll be right along.”
He turned off the lights, started to lock the front door and then opened it again and went out into the front yard, strolled down toward the road. Rain had washed the air clean, and it had the smell of June and the promise of summer. The stars looked small and high and newly polished. He heard the dwindling snarl of a truck on Route 18 and,after it died, the remote song of a dog on a far-off farm across the valley. A mosquito whined in his ear
“What’s happening?” Jamie demanded.
“Listen very carefully, son. I’m going to tell you something and I want you to remember everything I say.”
He explained the situation to Jamie. Jamie listened intently. Sam concluded by saying, “We’ll tell this to Bucky too, but I’m not sure how much difference it will make to him. He lives in his own Martian world. So I want you to stick closer than usual to your little brother. I realize that may cramp some of your fun, but this is for real, Jamie. This isn’t a television show. You’ll do that?”
“Sure. Why don’t they arrest him?”
“He hasn’t done anything.”
“I’ll bet they could arrest him. The cops have guns, see, that they’ve taken off dead murderers. Then they go up to the man and they shove a murder gun in his pocket and then they arrest him for carrying a gun without a license and put him in jail, see. And then they put the gun in thelaboratory and they look at it through a thing and they find out it was a murder gun and so then they electrocute him, real early in the morning sometime.”
“Brother!” Carol said.
“James, my boy, the reason this is a very fine country is because that kind of thing can’t happen. We don’t jail innocent men. We don’t jail people because we think they might do something. If that could happen, you, Jamie Bowden, might find yourself in jail sometime because somebody lied about you.”
Jamie thought it over scowlingly and then nodded. “That Scooter Prescott would have me locked up in a minute.”
“Why?”
“Because I can do twenty-eight push-ups now, see, and when I can do fifty I’m going up to him and I’m going to punch his fat nose.”
“Does he know that?”
“Sure. I told him.”
“You better go to bed now, dear,” Carol said.
At the foot of the front stairs Jamie turned and said, “But there’s one trouble. Scooter is doing push-ups too, darn it.”
After he was gone Carol said, “How did Nancy take it?”
“Intelligently.”
“I think it’s wise to tell them.”
“I know. But it makes me feel a little ineffectual. I’m the king of this little tribe. I should be able to go put the fear of God in Cady. But I don’t see how I could. Not with this office-type physique. He looks like he’s got muscles they haven’t named yet.”
“Is that Marilyn?”
He went out into the kitchen and let her in. She waggled and beamed at him and flounced over to her dish, stared with shock and disbelief at its emptiness, then turned and looked up at him.
“No dice, girl. You’re on a diet, remember?”
She slooped disconsolately at her water dish, trudged over to her corner, turned around three times and sighed as she collapsed onto her side. Sam sat on his heels beside her and prodded her stomach gently with his finger.
“Got to get your girlish figure back, Marilyn. Got to get rid of that flob.”
She rolled an eye at him and the long red brush of tail flapped twice. She yawned, with a little yowl at the end of the yawn, exposing the long white ivory fangs.
He stood up. “A great savage beast. Dismayed by kittens. Bedeviled by vicious squirrels. Every day is a hard day, Marilyn, for a four-year-old devout coward, isn’t it?”
The tail flapped dreamily and she closed her eyes. He wandered back into the living room, yawned. Carol looked at him and yawned.
“I caught it from Marilyn; you caught it from me.”
“So I’m taking it to bed.”
“Make sure Nance has hit the sack,” he said. “I’ll be right along.”
He turned off the lights, started to lock the front door and then opened it again and went out into the front yard, strolled down toward the road. Rain had washed the air clean, and it had the smell of June and the promise of summer. The stars looked small and high and newly polished. He heard the dwindling snarl of a truck on Route 18 and,after it died, the remote song of a dog on a far-off farm across the valley. A mosquito whined in his ear
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