Garden of Evil Read Online Free PDF

fuckin’ painting in months, not at
any
price.’
    Jim checked his watch. ‘Listen – I’d better leave you two in peace. I have a whole lot of preparation work to finish up for tomorrow.’
    â€˜Stay for some chamomile tea,’ begged Nadine, taking hold of his arm and pressing her deflated breast against it. ‘We have so few visitors, don’t we, Ricky?’
    â€˜I really must go,’ Jim told her. ‘I have to take my cat for a walk.’
    As he turned to leave, however, the red parakeet suddenly ruffled its feathers and let out a harsh, high-pitched squawk. ‘
Silence
!’ it screamed. ‘
Silence
!’
    Ricky snapped, ‘Shut the fuck up, bird!’ Then he turned to Jim and said, ‘“Silence” – that’s the only word he knows. I’ve tried to teach him a couple of good old-fashioned cuss words, but all he says is “silence”!’
    â€˜
Silence
!’ the parakeet screamed back at him. ‘
Silence
!’
    As he walked along the landing past Apartment 2, the door suddenly opened and Summer stepped out. She managed to time her appearances almost to the second. She was blonde, tall, and stunningly pretty, with enormous blue eyes and a little ski-jump nose and naturally pouting lips.
    This morning she was dressed more demurely than she usually was, in a pink roll-neck sweater with short sleeves, which didn’t quite manage to reach down as far as her navel, and a pair of white deck shorts with turned-up cuffs.
    â€˜
Jimmy
! I thought you’d be at college!’
    Jim gave her a kiss on each cheek. ‘How’s it going, Summer? How’s the pole-dancing job?’
    â€˜Oh, didn’t I tell you? I quit. A guy came in from the Starstruck Model Agency and offered me much better money to do modeling. I have my first shoot Monday.’
    â€˜I thought you enjoyed the pole dancing.’
    â€˜It’s OK, but it’s much more tiring than you think. And those horrible old men . . . they can never keep their paws to themselves. Why aren’t you at college?’
    â€˜Oh . . . there was some kind of health-and-safety problem. We’ll probably be back to normal tomorrow.’
    Summer reached up and twisted his hair around her fingertip. ‘So . . . if you’re not doing anything this afternoon, maybe you could take me to the beach or something?’
    â€˜Summer . . . you know how much I like you, and I think you’re the most gorgeous girl I ever met. But let’s just keep it that way, shall we? You know, friends.’
    â€˜Friends can go to the beach together, can’t they?’
    â€˜I’ve seen your bikinis, when you’ve been sunbathing. How long do you think that we could stay just friends if you wore one of those?’
    â€˜Oh come on, Jimmy. I had a Brazilian only yesterday. I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet.’
    Jim gave her another kiss. ‘Get thee behind me, Satan. I’ll see you later, OK – round about eight? Maybe we can have a drink at Barney’s Beanery, and a bite to eat if you’re hungry.’
    â€˜I’m hungry for
you,
Jimmy. You know that.’
    â€˜Stop teasing me, Summer. I’m just a tired old college teacher.’
    Jim climbed the last flight of steps to his own apartment. He opened the front door and Tibbles immediately jumped off the kitchen table, as if he had been caught doing something wrong.
    He came up to Jim and rubbed himself against his legs and gave him two or three ingratiating mews.
    â€˜What have you been doing that you feel so guilty about?’ Jim asked him.
    He walked through to his living room and unlocked the sliding door that gave out on to the balcony. Below him, in the garden, a warm wind was rustling through the yuccas, and Santana the gardener was bent over the flowerbeds, trying to dig out a gopher hole. He looked up when Jim scraped one of the chairs on the balcony, and