Shadows Everywhere Read Online Free PDF Page A

and dropped it into my shirt pocket.
    "I have some gold fillings, too," she said.
    "I'll remember." I patted my pocket and walked over to slouch in a soft chair.
    In the early-morning hours, after tying Thana firmly to the sofa and gagging her, I climbed back up onto the roof and left the same way I'd gotten into the Martinaire. I wore dark overalls now, lettered 24-HOUR SERVICE across the back, so I'd attract a minimum of attention and be difficult to remember if someone in the hotel did happen to glimpse me.
    From the phone booth on the corner I made the call to Norman Norden's residence. At first, whoever answered wouldn't put me through to Norden but when I mentioned Thana's name and said it concerned her safety, Norden was on the line in ten seconds.
    Norden sounded anxious, overwrought. When I told him I was holding Thana for ransom he let out a long, old-sounding sigh, as if he'd expected something like this to happen and now his fears were realized.
    When I told him how much it would cost to get her back, he simply said, "Very well," without even hesitating. I admired him then, and felt a little sorry for him, until I thought about his money. He asked me how he could he sure I had Thana. I told him not to worry, that I'd prove it to him, then contact him later. The agreement was the standard one, that he wouldn't call the police and I wouldn't harm Thana. He wanted to talk some more, get more assurance that his young wife wouldn't he touched, but I hung up on him to keep the conversation short. After slipping the gold wedding ring into the stamped envelope I'd prepared with Norden's address typed on it, I dropped the envelope into a mailbox near the phone booth. I bought a detective novel from a big all-night drugstore across the street, then went back to the dark alley fire escape of the Martinaire Hotel's west wing.
    Thana was awake and uncomfortable. When I removed the tape from her mouth it released a stream of curses and complaints.
    "Take it easy," I said. "You wouldn't talk to me like that if I had a million bucks."
    "You'd need two million!" she told me, chopping the words off angrily. "What did Norman say?'
    I looked up at her as I was untying the rope around her ankles. "That is where you went, isn't it? To telephone your demand for ransom?"
    I nodded, unwinding the rope and standing. "Your husband's worried about you, and he didn't seem to think a quarter of a million was too high a price to get you back."
    "Just the way you planned, hmm?"
    "Just," I said, untying her arms, then handcuffing her right wrist to the sofa arm in such a way that she could stretch out and sleep.
    "Don't think I'm not aware of what else you plan." She was glaring up at me with a dark, almost-a-dare defiance in her eyes, and I realized what she meant. "After all," she said, "rape carries the same penalty as kidnapping."
    "Maybe you're flattering yourself," I told her.
    "I know better!" she spat out at me. It was almost as if she were trying to argue me into it to prove she was right.
    I stood looking down at her and she met my gaze without blinking. "You're a means of making a quarter of a million dollars," I said. "You don't have to worry about being molested by me–if you are worried."
    I walked to the other side of the room where slanted morning light was beginning to edge in around the heavy draperies. When it was light enough out, they could he opened. That shouldn't he noticeable or remarkable from twenty stories below in the street, and 1 was beginning to feel like a prisoner in the apartment myself. Thana had been right to an extent. Desire for her would intrude itself into any man's mind after a while. However, one of the main reasons I never actually considered touching her was that I knew if I did, Norman Norden would never rest, would never let himself die, unless I'd preceded him. The money he could spare and forget, but I knew he had to have his wife back "as was."
    I stretched out in one of the bedrooms and slept