Ransom Read Online Free PDF

Abel had no trouble with what he had to do down there; she felt her palms in her brown kid gloves starting to sweat. She checked her watch: nine-forty-five. She moved on to a side path, watchful that she did not brush her stockings against the scruffy bushes bordering the path. God, how New Yorkers grabbed at their piece of greenery like people prizing shards of a bygone age. A hundred feet by twenty of patchy lawn, an ornamental pool that appeared to be filled with sludge oil, and several clumps of shrubs that looked as if they were hosed daily with acid: Walden Pond-on-6o,th. She glanced up at the tall building above her: how many tenants there ever looked down here hoping for a reflection of Thoreau ? Probably none; but she felt no pity for them. She checked her watch again, feeling impatience taking hold of her like a chill. Nine-forty-seven. Would Sylvia Forte be early, right on time, or late for her appointment ? Then the answer came up the street, the big black Lincoln Continental pulling into the kerb below her. The door opened and Sylvia Forte, red-gold hair so easily recognizable, got out of it …
    A faded and dented yellow cab lurched in behind the Lincoln and Lisa Malone got out of it. She shoved two dollars at the driver and moved quickly to the steps that led up to Cornwall Gardens. As she did so she heard the red-haired, elegantly-dressed woman who had just got out of the big black car turn back and say, “I’m early, but I don’t think Dr Willey will mind.”
    But / will, thought Lisa, seeing her own appointment suddenly disappearing; and she hurried up the steps. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the white-haired old man lean forward in the rear seat of the black car and say some-

    thing; the woman smiled, blew a kiss from the tips of her gloved fingers and followed Lisa up the steps. As they crossed the small strip of garden Lisa saw the dark-haired girl standing to one side, looking down the street as if waiting for someone who had promised to meet her here and was late. Lisa hoped the girl was not another of Dr Willey’s patients who had turned up early for an appointment. Her hollow tooth began to ache again - with impatience, she guessed.
    She went into the lobby, crossed to the elevator and entered it. There was no time to check what floor Dr Willey was on: the red-haired woman was already in the elevator with her, pressing the button for the tenth floor: that must be where Dr Willey had his surgery. The two woman stood side by side at the rear of the elevator, Lisa looking at the other woman out of the corner of her eye, the woman seemingly oblivious of Lisa. They were both dressed in brown wool suits; but Lisa guessed her own had cost less than half of what the red-haired woman must have paid for hers. Then there was the clack-clack-clack of high heels across the terrazzo floor of the lobby and the girl Lisa had seen waiting outside came quickly into the elevator. She stood in front of the control panel, pressed the master button, then a second button, waited till the doors closed, then turned round and faced Lisa and the red-haired woman. In her gloved hand was a small revolver.
    “I am sorry, Mrs Forte, but you will have to see your dentist another day.”
    Lisa felt the elevator going down beneath her: at first she wasn’t sure that the feeling was not just an emotional one. Then the elevator bumped gently to a stop, the doors opened and Lisa, looking past the girl, saw they were in a basement garage that seemed full of cars. A grey delivery truck, its rear doors open, was backed up almost against the elevator exit. A young blond man in coveralls, wearing the same sort of wrapround dark glasses as the girl, stood by the open doors of the truck.

    The girl jerked the gun at the red-haired woman. “Please don’t make any trouble, Mrs Forte, or you’ll get hurt. Get into the truck.”
    “Jesus!” The young man sounded worried. “Who’s the other one?”
    The girl shook her head, then