The Night People Read Online Free PDF Page B

ice cube tray from the refrigerator. “Hi there.”
    “Where’s Ida Spain?”
    “Ida?” He laughed. “Did you check the bedroom?”
    Jim pushed past him and looked into the darkened room. It was empty. “Where is she, damn it?”
    “Hey, fella, get a grip on yourself. How the hell should I know what happened to her?”
    Jim went through the darkened bedroom on the run and yanked open a door at the far side. It led back into the hall.
    “That door should be locked,” Pinky mumbled behind him. “Somebody must have opened it.”
    “Yeah.”
    “What are you so excited about, anyway? I thought you didn’t know the girl.”
    “I don’t.” He walked back through the kitchen, past the laughing people, and out of the apartment, feeling curiously empty inside. He was like a boy watching someone else eating his cake.
    There was nothing to do then but go home, and he walked slowly toward the cab stand down the street. She had cheated him again, he knew, and it was almost as if she was trying to avoid the meeting between them. What manner of woman was this, he wondered, What manner of woman …?
    The house was dark when he got there, and the car was gone from the garage. Doris would be at the movies again, not expecting his return until tomorrow. He dropped a couple of pieces of bread in the toaster and put a pot of coffee on the stove.
    Suddenly the telephone leaped to life in the living room and he went to answer it.
    “Hello?”
    “Jim?”
    “That’s right. Who’s this?”
    “Bill Kook.” There was a note of near-terror in the voice. “Look, Jim. I was at the party tonight, with Ida Spain. We were in the kitchen when you arrived….”
    Jim’s body tensed. Had he really been that close to meeting her?
    “Where are you now? Is she still with you?”
    “Yes, she’s here. At my apartment. She stepped into the bathroom for a minute and I had to call you. Jim,” the voice dropped to a whisper, “Jim, I’ve found out something about her. I suspected it when she made me run out on the party, and now I’m certain about it. Jim, can you come over here right away?”
    “Can you keep her there?”
    “I’ll try. But hurry!” Then there was a click as he hung up on the other end.
    Jim Crandell dropped the phone and grabbed up his coat. He was out of the house in ten seconds, running down the street until he was out of breath and had to slow down or drop. He had to find a taxi, a bus, anything. He had to hurry. He had to hurry before it was too late and something happened that he didn’t fully understand.
    And then at last a cruising cab!
    And he was racing across town, for the final rendezvous with Ida Spain….
    The apartment was dark, and when nobody answered his ring he tried the door. The knob turned readily in his hand and then he was inside, focusing his eyes through the dimness of the room.
    “Ida Spain.”
    He spoke the name softly.
    And then he was looking into the wide staring eyes of Bill Kook.
    “Bill….”
    There was only a tiny trickle of blood from the neat little hole in Bill’s forehead.
    “Bill!”
    Nothing moved.
    “Bill, who is Ida Spain?”
    But Bill Kook would never answer him in this life….
    He didn’t wait for the police.
    Once again he arrived home, tired and depressed and oddly empty. Only now the car was there, and when he opened the door he could hear the sounds of Doris from the kitchen.
    “Aren’t you surprised I’m home a day early?” he asked.
    “I guess so, dear. I hadn’t thought about it.”
    “How was the movie?”
    “Good. It was a mystery.”
    “Doris, someone killed Bill Kook tonight,” he finally said.
    “That man from your office? How terrible!”
    “Doris,” he sighed, “I don’t know what’s the matter with me lately. I’m a bundle of nerves. I’m all shot.”
    “Look, dear,” she cuddled up next to him, “why don’t we leave this town and go back to New York where we belong. Why don’t you go in and quit your job tomorrow?”
    He thought