1973 - Have a Change of Scene by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online Page B

kept my ears cocked.
    Around 11.00 Spooky arrived with seven of his buddies, so silently that, in spite of listening all the time, in spite of expecting him, I was taken unawares.
    If he hadn’t been a sadistic showoff he would have had me cold. Probably he felt completely secure with seven of his hulking buddies behind him.
    He stood before my desk and looked gloatingly at me: his tiny eyes red buttons of vicious hate.
    Slowly, he began to undo his belt.
    ‘This, Cheapie, is the payoff.’
    But by this time I had absorbed the shock of seeing him and I acted.
    Had he walked in, his belt swinging, he would have nailed me, but he wanted to see me cringe.
    I stood up, kicked away my chair, grabbed the pickaxe handle and hit him all in one swift movement.
    I didn’t give a goddamn if I killed him. I hit him with all the strength of my two arms and with all the weight of my body. My viciousness matched his.
    The pickaxe handle caught him on the side of his face. Two of his front teeth flew out and landed on my desk. Blood spurted from his nose. His jaw went slack and hung. He fell, his eyes rolling back and he lay in a crumpled, smelly heap on the floor.
    I didn’t even pause to look at him. I came around the desk like a rampaging bull, the bloodstained pickaxe handle flaying.
    His seven buddies scattered into the passage. I hit out right and left. I was demented with vicious rage.
    They ran, falling over each other to get down the stairs. I went after them, hammering their cowering backs to the second landing.
    Then I paused while they continued pounding down the next flight, like the frightened rats they were.
    Faces appeared at doorways. People gaped at me as I went up the stairs and back into the office.
    I hated to touch him, but I wanted him out of here. I grabbed hold of his filthy, greasy hair and dragged his unconscious body along the passage and to the stairs. Then I booted him and he rolled over and over to land with a crash on the lower landing. He lay there, blood running from his nose: as broken as anyone could be broken.
    I returned to the office, put the pickaxe handle in one of the closets, then called the cop house.
    I asked for the Desk Sergeant.
    ‘This is Carr remember me? Fifteen hundred bucks?’ I listened to his heavy breathing while be absorbed this information.
    ‘What’s on your mind this time?’ he finally asked.
    ‘Spooky looked in,’ I said. ‘He wanted to alter the shape of my face with his nail-studded belt. I had to get a little rough with him. I suggest you send an ambulance. he seems in urgent need of care and attention,’ and I hung up.
    For a few moments I sat still, taking stock of myself. I looked at my hands, lying on the blotter. There was no shake. I felt completely relaxed as if I had had a good round of golf, and this puzzled me. The whole violent affair had taken two minutes. I had done something that, three weeks ago, even less, I would have thought impossible. I had faced eight thugs, maimed one and had driven the others away. And now it was over I felt no sense of shock. All I wanted was a cigarette which I lit. Then, knowing Jenny would be along in an hour or so I got some cleaning rags from the closet and cleaned up Spooky’s blood.
    As I was dropping the rags into the trash basket I heard an ambulance siren.
    I didn’t bother to go out into the passage. I sat at my typewriter and continued to work on the card index.
    After a while two cops came in.
    ‘What’s going on?’ one of them asked. ‘What’s all this about?’
    Both of them were grinning and looked happy.
    ‘Spooky came here, got rough, so I got rough,’ I said.
    ‘Yeah we’ve seen him. Come on, buddy, the Sarg wants to talk to you.’
    As they drove me to the cop house they told me the latest ball scores they had heard over the radio. For cops, they were more than friendly.
    I walked up to the Desk Sergeant, who was rolling his pencil, but this time, his heart didn’t seem to be in it.
    He squinted