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City Limits. Will Oursler
Читать онлайн.Название City Limits
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781479439966
Автор произведения Will Oursler
Жанр Ужасы и Мистика
Издательство Ingram
“Acting job hell,” he said huskily. “You don’t change your driver’s license and identification card and stuff when you take a stage name. You been up to something, and I want to know what.”
“Later, Sid. After I feel better.”
The red-haired Alice Dill said, “Leave her alone now, Sid. She’s been through enough.”
I managed to insert a question to Gloria as to whether or not she recognized whoever had beaten her.
She shook her head wearily. “I didn’t even see them. I was standing at the sink when they came through the door from the parking lot. I started to glance up, and something hit me alongside the neck. I think it was a judo chop.”
“You didn’t see anything at all?” I asked. “You don’t even know how many there were?”
“At least two,” she said. “A man and a woman. I got a bare glimpse of their feet as I went down. I think it must have been the woman who came in first and hit me in the neck. Or maybe I just imagined that because it was the ladies’ room, and I assumed whoever was coming in the door was female.”
Sid Trask said, “She’s already told all this to Sheriff Merz. Leave her alone.”
I looked at him. “Don’t you care who beat your sister?”
He was seated in a chair on the opposite side of the bed, and Alice Dill was seated in the window sill alongside of him. He started to get out of his chair, but the redhead pushed him back again.
I said to Gloria, “We won’t talk about it now, in front of your company, but are you still willing to tell me what you were going to?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.” Her eyes warned me to drop the subject.
“Think about what?” Trask asked. “What were you going to tell this guy, Sis?”
Gloria simply ignored him.
I said, “Has it occurred to you, Gloria—Gladys—that when you get out of here, the same people may be waiting to work you over again?”
Gloria looked frightened and Sid Trask made a growling noise deep in his throat.
“Well, has it?” I insisted.
She said in a low voice, “Yes.”
“For your own safety I have a suggestion,” I said. “Suppose I pick you up personally when you’re ready to leave the hospital, and hide you in some hotel in town? I’ll arrange a police watch to protect you.”
“Listen, Buster,” Sid Trask said. “When she’s ready to leave the hospital, I’ll pick her up and take care of her. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the cops themselves who beat her up. Or maybe even yon. What’s this stuff about Gladys telling you something? You people been giving her a third-degree?”
Ignoring him, I continued to look at Gloria.
“I—I don’t know what to do, Mr. Macauley. I’ll have to think about it. I’ll be here several days yet.”
Her brother demanded, “What’s this information you want, Macauley?”
Alice Dill said thoughtfully, “You know what Mr. Macauley’s current project is, Sid? It was in the papers.”
“What?” he asked.
“The call-girl racket.”
Sid Trask stared at her for a moment, then he stared at me for a while, then he surged to his feet. This time the redhead’s push didn’t sit him down again.
“Why, you bastard,” he said to me. “You say my sister’s a call girl and I’ll knock your silly head off.”
“I didn’t say it,” I said reasonably. “Your girl friend did. Why don’t you knock her head off?”
He started around the bed and Gloria said sharply, “Sid!”
He stopped long enough to look at her.
Gloria said, “You start a rumpus in here and I’ll ring for the nurse and have you barred from future visiting. Now sit down.”
He stared at her for a time, then went back to his seat. He said to me, “I’ll look you up outside the hospital, Buster. Expect me.”
There wasn’t much point in staying longer, because I obviously wasn’t going to accomplish anything with the brother there. I told Gloria I’d be back another time and left.
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