The Kidnapper Read Online Free PDF Page A

compensation. I’ll see to that. And next time you pull a stunt like this, you’re through. Get me?”
    “All right.”
    It wasn’t all right, but I didn’t want to force a showdown now. The time would come, soon enough.
    I went back to work, and Specs was waiting for me.
    “Hi, Steve, how you feeling? Boy, am I ever glad to see you! You know, I was coming over on Sunday, only I called first and your landlady she said you was still pretty low. Did she tell you?”
    “No. But thanks, anyway.”
    “What was the matter with you?”
    “Just flu or something. I’m all right now.”
    “Well, I missed you.”
    “Thanks, Leo. I missed you, too.”
    He liked that, when I called him Leo instead of Specs. From now on I wanted him to like a lot of things, because I had plans for him.
    That night, after work, we went out to eat and I said to him, “Hey, Leo, you doing anything tomorrow night?”
    “Friday? No.”
    “Well, how’d you like to go out with me? Sort of a celebration, seeing that I’m well and besides, it’s my birthday.”
    “Your birthday? Congratulations, Steve. Say, how old are you?”
    “Twenty-seven.” That was true, but it wasn’t really my birthday.
    “All right, Steve, sure. Where you wanna go?”
    “Just leave that to me. We’re going to have ourselves a ball.”
    The next afternoon I went over to this crummy joint where Specs had taken me that Saturday night. I talked to the old biddy that ran the place and I fixed things up.
    I fixed things up for Specs for all night, with that dizzy blonde and also the redhead. Anything he wanted, including all the stuff he could drink. Even a bottle of champagne.
    It cost me an even hundred bucks, but it was worth it if it worked. And it was worth it to Specs. The guy almost went crazy the way those two floozies worked on him—they had him thinking he was the answer to a maiden’s prayer. And he got higher than a kite.
    That was good, because he never noticed I wasn’t drinking much, or going upstairs either. Specs had it all to himself, and it was the biggest deal he ever had.
    Afterwards, in the morning, he passed out and I drove him home and put him to bed. He lay there with a smile on his face, and when I saw that smile I knew I had him. From now on he’d be easy to handle.
    They didn’t put that in any of the kidnapping stories I read, but that was the way I got Specs for my driver.

Chapter Five
    “O h, Steve, you’re so wonderful. I missed you so much.”
    “I can tell that.”
    “I don’t care. I don’t care about anything, as long as I can be with you like this.”
    “Sure.”
    “When you weren’t here yesterday, I didn’t know what to think—I almost went crazy worrying.”
    “I had to see about my sick benefits.”
    “Steve, I been thinking.”
    “What about?”
    “You know, since last September, I saved up nine hundred dollars. You got any money saved?”
    “Sure. I got a little.”
    “Steve, why don’t we get married?”
    I sat up.
    “Don’t get sore, I was just thinking about it, how swell it would be.”
    “You think so, huh?”
    “Oh, you wouldn’t have to worry any. I wouldn’t be any trouble, you know that. I mean, I wouldn’t care whether we got a house right away, or a lot of furniture. I wouldn’t care if we lived in a tent, just so we could be together. All the time, like this.”
    “This is what you go for, isn’t it?”
    “Yes. I’m not ashamed, I love you so much I’d do anything—I always used to think it was so awful and everything, but now I know. Because I love you, and I’m not alone any more.” She ran her hands through my hair; that was another thing about Mary, she couldn’t keep her hands off you for five minutes.
    “So how about it, Steve? I meant it, what I said, that you wouldn’t have to worry. I wouldn’t ever nag at you, you know what I mean. If you wanted to go out and have a couple of drinks, or stuff like that. And I could keep on working here, it’s a good job—or if