(1988) The Golden Room by Irving Wallace Read Free Book Online

and that he has satisfied voters he has kept his campaign promise. By then he will relax, and devote himself to larger matters. It won’t be long.’
    ‘But how long?’ Avis persisted.
    ‘Let’s say maybe two weeks,’ Minna said. ‘Think you can stand that?’
    There was a chorus of assents.
    Minna was pleased.
    ‘All right,’ she said, ‘our policy of caution goes into effect immediately - today - tonight. Tomorrow I intend to hire a new doctor, who will be instructed to observe the same cautions. If all of you do as you’re told, we have not a thing to worry about. We can go forward and continue to live the good life.’
     
    After deciding to get rid of her horse and carriage, Minna Everleigh had gone shopping for the ever more popular horseless carriages or automobiles. She had liked the Peerless, but had found it too expensive at $4,000. Finally she had narrowed her choice down to either the Haynes-Apperson, the Columbia Electric car, or the Model A Ford. The Haynes-Apperson was also a trifle expensive. She had been drawn to the silent, ladylike Columbia coupe, with its curved plate-glass windows, silk curtains, broadcloth upholstery, and vanity compartments, but decided against it because it could drive only five miles before requiring a battery recharge. She had settled on the Model A Ford as the most practical vehicle. Despite the fact that it was a slow car, with a speed of not quite ten miles an hour, and therefore needing no windshield, horn, or lights, Minna had bought one of the 200 produced in 1903. It had cost her $900, and she adored it. Although Minna had never driven it herself, she allowed Edmund to chauffeur her wherever she went.
    Now, this morning in the front seat to the right of the begoggled Edmund, with the tonneau seat in the rear unoccupied, she was enjoying the drive to Englewood for her interview with Dr Herman H. Holmes. She was enjoying, also, the attention her Ford attracted, with its red body striped in gold, its vase of flowers near the steering wheel, and gleaming black fenders.
    Consulting the address in her hand, Minna watched the house numbers glide past, then tugged at Edmund’s sleeve. ‘There it is,’ she called out, ‘on the south-west corner of Wallace and Sixty-third streets. See it? The three-storey brick building with those battlements and towers on top? No wonder Bathhouse told me it was named the Castle. Pull up in front of it, Edmund, and park. I won’t be long.’
    After descending from her Ford, Minna walked around it to the front door of the peculiar building and used the doorbell. Moments later the door opened, and Minna found herself confronted by a surprisingly attractive middle-aged man in dapper suit and vest.
    ‘I’m Minna Everleigh,’ she announced. ‘I have an appointment with Dr Herman Holmes.’
    ‘I am Dr Holmes,’ he said, stepping back to admit her.
    He was a rather small man, she saw, perhaps five feet eight and 150 pounds. He was strikingly handsome, with a high forehead, hypnotic blue eyes, and bushy moustache upturned at the ends. When he spoke, his voice was soothing, melodious. Everything about him was gracious and charming.
    ‘Do come in and make yourself comfortable, Miss Everleigh,’ he added, gesturing her past the two fluted columns inside the front door. As she came into the foyer, he went on, ‘If my little residence seems excessive - there are, indeed, ninety rooms, about thirty on each floor - do not be put off. I built it myself, as a hotel for the Columbian Exposition. When the fair was over, I decided to stay on and to return to medical practice. I won’t exhaust you by showing you around. Why don’t you come with me to my office, where we can be cosy and have our little talk.’
    Walking to his office, Minna was bewildered by several staircases seeming to lead nowhere.
    ‘I never quite got to finish them,’ Dr Holmes explained. ‘Now, into my office.’
    Except for an oak table desk with eight drawers, a