The Ninth Nightmare Read Online Free PDF Page B

room is going to change into the chamber of horrors or that I’m going to hear screaming in the middle of the night. And nobody else is getting in here once I’ve locked this door behind you, and you can be one hundred and eleven percent sure of that.’
    â€˜Sure,’ said John. He could have tried to explain to her what he had seen on the reflected TV screen, but she would probably think that he was deliberately trying to frighten her so that she would ask him to come around and protect her. Either that, or she would think that he was mentally challenged, or that he had been smoking something more exotic than Marlboro Lights.
    â€˜Goodbye, then, Mr Dauphin,’ she told him. ‘And thank you. You’re a gentleman.’
    â€˜Well, I was the last time I looked. But don’t forget, will you? Anything outré occurs, anything at all, anything eldritch, you pick up your phone and it’ll be John Dauphin to the rescue. I mean that.’
    Rhodajane looked at him and gave him a very slight shake of her head. ‘Do you know something, Mr Dauphin? Half the time I don’t understand a word you’re saying. But I like you. I really dooski. I give you permission to have a dream about me tonight if you want to.’
    â€˜Well, I’d be careful about saying that if I were you, ma’am. Some dreams are good, but other dreams are not so good. And some dreams you can never really wake up from, even if you want to. Some dreams stay with you for the rest of your life, and you wish you’d never had them.’
    Rhodajane looked at him narrowly. ‘What are you, some kind of dream expert?’
    â€˜In a manner of speaking, yes, I guess you could say that I am.’
    They were both silent. It was only for two or three seconds, but in those two or three seconds something passed between them, one of those indefinable feelings that they were more than just cab driver and fare, more than just passing acquaintances who would never see each other again, except by coincidence. Ostensibly they had nothing at all in common, but John pointed at Rhodajane with a pistol-like gesture as if to say ‘see you later, OK?’ and Rhodajane closed her eyes as if to acknowledge that he would.
    John turned and waddled off toward the elevators and Rhodajane stood in the doorway of her hotel room watching him go. Behind her, Tyra was talking to a twenty-two-year-old woman who wanted to auction her virginity on the Internet.
    The woman was saying, ‘ I always dreamed of having a lover . . . but somehow it never happened. Every man I ever met turned out to be a nightmare .’

THREE
    Room 104
    L incoln was sitting alone in a corner booth of the Boa Vinda Restaurant, wishing that he hadn’t ordered such a messy dish as caldeirada , when his cellphone played Tracks Of My Tears . He shook open his white linen napkin and hastily started to wipe the thick tomato-and-saffron sauce from his fingers.
    â€˜ Lincoln ?’ said a woman’s voice, very small and far away.
    â€˜Grace?’ he laughed. ‘Wait up a second, honey, I’m in kind of a pickle here.’
    He put down his cell and finished wiping his hands and his mouth. Then he picked it up again and said, ‘Sorry. The waiter recommended this Portuguese fish stew and it’s absolutely outstanding but you pretty much have to take a bath in it to eat it.’
    â€˜ Lincoln ?’ the woman’s voice repeated, as if she hadn’t heard him.
    â€˜Grace? Are you still there? You’re very faint.’
    â€˜ Lincoln ?’
    â€˜Listen, honey,’ he said, ‘why don’t I call you back? I’m sitting in the hotel restaurant here and maybe the signal’s too weak.’
    â€˜ Lincoln ?’
    â€˜Hang up, and I’ll call you right back, OK?’
    He listened for a few seconds more, in case Grace answered him, but as he took his cell away from his ear, he heard a man say, ‘