Fury on Sunday Read Online Free PDF Page A

time. He had to have a raincoat.
    The vestibule door was locked. He looked at the names.
Martinez
—
3B
,
Johnson
—
3A
. They were no good. Vince skipped thenames on the second floor too. He pushed the button under
Maxim
—
1A
.
    He waited. There was no answer. They must be in bed, he thought. He pushed the button again, more impatiently. He
had
to have a raincoat. Still no answer. He began to wonder how he’d feel after he pushed the button to Ruth’s apartment. He wondered just how he’d feel as he rode up the elevator with the pistol gripped tightly in his hand. He wanted that time to come, wanted it desperately. He felt angry frustration that he’d have to wait so long before it came.
    The buzzer sounded. Vince started nervously, but forgot to push against the door. He tensed violently and almost kicked in the thick glass. Then the buzzer sounded again and he lurched against the door and pushed through it.
    He moved quickly as a door down the hall opened a trifle. He ran to it and shoved his foot into the small opening.
    “Open up,” he said to the young woman who stood there.
    She gasped and tried to close the door. His foot prevented her from doing it. Vince reached for his pistol with an angry motion and almost shoved the end of the barrel into her face.
    “Do you want to die?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.
    The girl’s face went white, her lips trembled and she backed away from the door. He pushed his way in. The girl was cowering back against the wall.
    “Don’t,” she said. “Don’t do anything to me. Please don’t.”
    She winced as he turned on the hall light. In the bright light Vince could see that her hair was disarrayed and there were red scars on her right cheek where she’d been resting on the pillow.
    “Have you got a man’s raincoat here?” he asked.
    “What?”
    “I want a man’s raincoat,” he snapped at her.
    Then, without thought, he looked down over her pajama covered body. His eyes moved back to her young breasts pressing against the yellow silk. He pinched his lips together.
No!
snapped his mind and, mocking, in the background came the voice of Saul,
My dear boy, if the pressure is annoying, relieve yourself. You don’t need a woman for that
.
    He felt a drop of sweat run into his mouth.
    “Well?” he said angrily, forgetting for the moment what he was asking her about.
    “I live alone here,” she said, “I—I haven’t got a man’s raincoat.”
    His hand twitched at his side. He wanted to hit her for foiling him. He couldn’t go to another apartment. He was getting that trapped feeling again. He’d always been that way. If he wanted something and couldn’t get it the first time, he started to feel frustrated. That’s how he felt now. He couldn’t go to all the apartments when he had to get to the subway and get downtown. A fresh idea came to torture him; what if the guard regained consciousness and got the police out looking for him? Sooner or later he’d wake up and tell them. His breath grew restless, his finger trembled on the trigger.
    “Get in the bedroom,” he heard himself say.
    He followed her in, wondering why he wasn’t leaving. If there was no raincoat here, what was the point in staying? He fought against the ugly pressure in his body. He didn’t like it. No, he wasn’t that kind; that was insane.
    “Turn on the lights,” he ordered.
    She stood by the rumpled bed, looking at him and shivering a little.
    “What are you going to do?” Her voice was thin and afraid.
    He didn’t answer. Instead he went to the closet door as if he knew what he was going to do. He flung open the door and reached in, trying to avoid the sight of her slender body. She’s sort of pretty, the thought rose unbidden in his mind. Blonde hair like Ruth. I’d like to—
    He dug his teeth into his lower lip and turned to face the closet completely, not even looking at her. He reached in and came out with a black trenchcoat. He tried it on and it fit pretty well, and