On the Run Read Online Free PDF Page B

danger and gave a long shudderingsigh and went absolutely limp and dead in his arms. This was a considerable woman. And a smart one. He released her abruptly. She staggered and caught her balance and moved back away from him.
    “What do you think I am?” she asked in a rusty indignant whisper.
    “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
    “Turn on the lights.”
    “Shut up,” he said. He put his hand against her shoulder and shoved hard to send her stumbling over to sprawl across the bed, hissing with alarm. He went to the window and lifted one of the flaps of the Venetian blind and looked across at number thirty-four. He saw no one anywhere near it. A light went on behind him. He dropped the flap, put the night chain on the door and turned and looked at her. She was standing by the bed, looking disheveled and smeared and indignant. He picked the purse up, hefted it thoughtfully and took it to her.
    “There’s the bathroom. Fix yourself up. Stay away from the phone and we can get along just fine.”
    She snatched the purse away from him. “Thinking everybody is an enemy or something! That’s paranoid.”
    “In a foxy world, sweetie, you can get to be a very tricky rabbit.”
    She gave him a contemptuous look and swept into the bathroom and banged the door. He stretched and yawned with the slackening of his tension. He had wanted to shock her off guard and watch her response. If it was indeed a setup, she would have responded to him. It would be expected of her. Fish grab the bait. It would just have been a little sooner than she would have expected.
    When she came out of the bathroom she seemed subdued and thoughtful.
    “Bourbon?”
    “With a little water, thank you.” She went over and sat at a round lamp table and lit a cigarette, shook the match out and tilted her head as she watched him. “You were just carried away, huh?” she said.
    “I didn’t know what I was doing.”
    “You knew exactly what you were doing. This whole thing is very damned devious, Sid.”
    “I lead a devious life. I was going to run. But I got to thinking. How did you know I might run? Do you knowwhat I would be running from? How did you find that out? How did you find me? After I know those things, I can run better. I can get the knees higher. A little more form and a little more endurance. So I think you better tell me a lot of things, Paula.”
    She took the drink and sipped it and put it down and opened her purse. “I’ll tell you everything I can tell you, Sid. Everything I know. But first sit there and look at these. My Polaroid credentials. Look at this one first. Jane Weese took it. Do you remember her? She’s still there. I’m standing by Tom’s bed. Would you know him?”
    “He looks so little. He was a huge man. In my memory, he was a huge man. He could be any old man in the world. My God, he looks old. Ninety-two? Does he know what’s going on?”
    “Mentally, that old man could take us both on at the same time. Here are pictures of the house, front yard, back yard.”
    He looked at them. He felt a flutter of excitement in his belly. “That old tree. I remember that old tree.”
    “You were only four years old, and you were there for only two weeks.”
    “Two weeks is a long time when you’re four.”
    “He’s dying and he wants to see you, Sidney.”
    “I accept the credentials. Now I need some answers.” She gave a little shrug of her readiness and acceptance. She looked at him steadily and then her eyes veered away. He sensed that her unease was a residue of the few moments when her sensual response to his casual roughness had, perhaps, undermined her confidence in an unexpected way. With that act he had forfeited the chance of any communion which would be unconditionally mild. There was an edge of awareness, an alertness of the female animal, a concealed aura of speculation.
    “How did he find me?”
    She named the firm he had employed. “A man named Fergasson found you. He traced you through