Sci Fiction Classics Volume 4 Read Online Free PDF Page B

up as the second worst idea I'd had that day, next to sunbathing,
     and gathered my things together. I walked across the sand and between the
     buildings that had their backs to the bay. When I reached the street, I
     stopped dead at the curb. There was the squad car again and an ambulance.
     A crowd getting noisy. And the flashing red lights. I spotted Detective
     Harrington staring at me, and I waved and crossed. He met me by the police
     car.
    "Heart attack?" I asked, indicating the ambulance.
    "You could say that," he said dryly. "A man has had his head bashed in."
    I found it difficult to believe. It was as if someone had drilled a
     pipeline directly from the outside world into Starburst and was pumping in
     that which we were all here to get away from. Small wonder the people
     milling around us were in such a foul mood. I tried a sympathetic smile on
     Harrington, received no reaction and turned to go. I hadn't taken a single
     step when he placed a gently detaining hand on my arm.
    "Somebody said you were talking to the boy."
    "Somebody?" Suddenly I was very mad. "Just who the hell are these
     somebodies that seem to know everything, every goddamned thing that I do
     or say?"
    "Concerned citizens," he said with a slight trace of bitterness, as if
     he'd had his fill of concerned citizens. "Were you?"
    "Yes, as a matter of fact, I was." I looked at my watch. "About an hour
     ago. On the beach."
    "For how long?"
    I tried to ignore the people trying very hard not to appear as if they
     were eavesdropping. "Hell, I don't know. Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty,
     twenty-five."
    I looked at Harrington closely, trying to snare a clue as to what he was
     thinking. I did know that, for some reason, he still felt the boy had to
     be involved with these two appalling crimes. Yet, if the boy had committed
     them, he would have had to have been ordered to do so. And that meant the
     Carrutherses. Somehow I couldn't see those two becoming entangled in
     something quite so lurid. I was about to say as much when a flower-shirted
     man shoved through the crowd and confronted us. The stereotypes come
     crawling out of the woodwork, I thought and immediately wished there was
     something I could do for the big detective.
    "If you're the police," the man demanded in a voice as shrill as a
     woman's, "why aren't you doing something about this?"
    "Sir, I am doing what I can."
    "I don't like it."
    Harrington shrugged. The man was evidently a tourist, and the detective
     obviously felt as if he had more important people, like the natives, to be
     answerable to. "I'm sorry you feel that way, sir, but unless we can—"
    "I want some protection!" the man said loudly and was instantly echoed by
     several of the crowd who had paused to listen.
    Harrington smiled wryly. "Now how do you expect me to manage that with the
     force I have here? Did you know the man?"
    "Of course not. I only arrived yesterday."
    "Then what exactly are you worried about?"
    "Well, that killer's obviously a maniac. He could kill anyone next."
    The detective stared at him, then glanced at me. "No," he said quietly. "I
     don't think so."
    "Well, what about that andy." someone else demanded. "Why the hell don't
     you lock it up? It's dangerous."
    With that bit of melodramatic tripe, Harrington's patience finally reached
     its end. "Lady," he said with exaggerated calm, "if you can give me the
     proof, I'll snap that kid's tape faster than you can blink. But he belongs
     to someone, and there isn't anything I can do without proof. So why don't
     you, and all the rest of you, why don't you just go about your business
     and leave us alone. You want me to catch this man, boy, woman, whatever, I
     can't stand around here answering your hysterical, stupid questions."
    For a moment I was tempted to applaud. In fact, one or two people did. But
     I just stood aside while the crowd dispersed, far more rapidly than I
     thought it would. Most of the people disappeared into the hotel,