The Twisted Window Read Online Free PDF Page B

Coke. I only said that to get the point across to Aunt Rene that I'm sick to death of her salty corned beef." She spoke slowly and carefully in an attempt to conceal her nervousness. "What I'm trying to say is, I don't want to ride in your car."
     
    The smile slowly faded from Brad's face.
     
    "What's wrong with my car? You have something against Impalas?"
     
    "No," said Tracy. "I don't have anything against the car itself. The thing is, I don't ride with people I don't trust."
     
    She started to walk north along the sidewalk in the direction of Third Street. After a moment's hesitation, Brad took a few swift strides and fell into step beside her.
     
    "I don't get it," he said in bewilderment. "I thought we were friends."
     
    "Let's not play games, Brad—if your name actually is Brad," Tracy said. "If you're looking for someone gullible, then Gina's your better bet. She believed everything you told us in the cafeteria. She's a small-town girl who doesn't know much about con men."
     
    "You're talking crazy," Brad said.
     
    "No, I'm talking smart. I let myself get snowed at lunch today, but that isn't going to happen again." She glanced across at him in an attempt to read his expression, but as they passed beneath a streetlight his eyes were thrown into pockets of darkness. "You were lying when you told Gina you were taking Shakespeare. I took that class myself last semester. I had to take it then, because it isn't offered in the spring."
     
    "You're right," Brad said after a moment's hesitation. "I did lie about that."
     
    "That's not all you lied about," Tracy continued. "The truth of it is you're not even a student at Winfield. I stopped by the office after school today and asked the secretary to look up your name. There isn't any Brad Johnson in the computer register. The secretary told me this same sort of thing has happened before. Last spring there were a couple of young guys who kept hanging around the campus, acting like they were students. It turned out they were dealing drugs they'd smuggled up from Mexico."
     
    "I'm not pushing drugs," Brad said.
     
    "Then what are you pushing?"
     
    "I'm not pushing anything. It's not like that at all." They had come opposite the park now, and he gestured toward a bench positioned in the shadows at the edge of the playground. "Let's go over there and sit down. It's too hard to talk when we're walking."
     
    "I'm not going into the park at night," said Tracy. "Just this afternoon, right in broad daylight—" She broke off in mid sentence, struck by what she was saying. A wave of comprehension swept over her, and she swung abruptly around to confront him. "It was you, wasn't it? You're the one who was hiding and spying on me!"
     
    "I did follow you into the park today," Brad admitted. "I don't see anything so terrible about that. I needed to talk to you and wanted to catch you alone, I didn't expect you to go tearing off like you did before I'd even had a chance to call out to you. Come on over and sit down and I'll tell you everything."
     
    "You can explain anything you need to explain right here."
     
    "What are you scared of?" Brad asked her jokingly. "Do you think I'm Jack the Ripper, looking for a victim?" When Tracy didn't respond, he regarded her incredulously. "Seriously, is that what you do think? Don't tell me you're afraid I'm going to attack you!"
     
    "That sort of thing does happen," Tracy told him. "It happened to my mother. Mother was an actress with a walk-on part in a Broadway show. She was just getting home from work one night when she was robbed and stabbed. It happened in the hall right outside our apartment."
     
    Brad seemed taken aback.
     
    "That's heavy," he said. "It's no wonder you're jittery about strangers. Still, that didn't have anything to do with me. I give you my word, I don't go around stabbing people."
     
    "Why should I trust you when I don't even know who you are?"
     
    "My name's Bradley Johnson," Brad said. "If you want proof, I