69 Barrow Street by Lawrence Block Read Free Book Online Page A

It was a strong possibility. Stella seldom made mistakes, and if it was true, it would explain the way she emphasized keeping things on a platonic basis. Well, that was all right with him. The girl had a right to live her own life and it was none of his business if she preferred to go to bed with girls.
    Still, he hoped to god Stella stayed away from her. Stella was poison to anybody, man or woman. And Susan was such a sweet girl, such a remarkably nice person.
    Stella would be bad for her.
    When he heard Stella coming toward the room he hastily replaced the painting on the shelf and closed the closet door. She had seen the painting before, of course, but he didn’t want her to see him looking at it. She would just make some wisecrack and they’d be arguing again.
    She came into the room and flashed him a smile.
    “I’m having a party tonight,” she said.
    “What kind of a party?”
    “Don’t you know?”
    He knew, of course. It would be the kind of party she always had, the kind of party that made a Roman orgy look like a garden party on Long Island by comparison. His stomach turned over at the thought of it.
    “Just a small get-together,” she continued. “I’m having an even dozen people. Jimmy is bringing the stuff.”
    “Jimmy who and what stuff?”
    “Jimmy is Jimmy Henderson. The stuff is marijuana.”
    He closed his eyes. “Count me out.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “I said count me out. If you think I’m coming to one more of those pot-smoking scenes of yours, you’re out of your head.”
    “You’ve enjoyed them before.”
    “Only when I’ve been high. When it wore off I realized how sick the whole thing was. I’m not coming.”
    “You’re certain?”
    “Positive. I’ll go out and find a bar to get quietly drunk in.”
    “All right, if that the way you want it.”
    “That’s precisely the way I want it.”
    “Fine,” she said. “But that’ll leave us one short. I’ll have to ask your little girlfriend.”
    “Who?”
    “Your girlfriend—the one you ate breakfast with. Susan Rivers, I think you said her name was.”
    “Don’t ask her, Stella.” His voice was flat and devoid of emotion.
    “But I’ll have to, darling. Otherwise we’ll be one person short. And I’m sure she’ll be delighted to come. She’ll probably have a marvelous time.”
    “I don’t want you to ask her, Stella.”
    She looked across the room at him, a smile on her face. “You mean you’ll be coming to the party?”
    He shut his eyes. Then he opened them again, defeated. “All right,” he said. “I’ll be coming to the party.”

Chapter Four
    B ETWEEN 9 AND 9:30 THAT EVENING five men and five women opened the outer door at 69 Barrow Street. In turn they pushed the buzzer in the vestibule marked James Lambert, walked through into the hallway and waited for Stella to let them into the first-floor apartment.
    At first glance they appeared to be just a normal crowd of people between the ages of twenty and thirty. They were dressed informally, but there was nothing striking about their appearances, nothing that would indicate Bohemianism or non-conformity of any sort. They looked extremely average—a nice, quiet crowd of young people getting together for a few drinks and a good time.
    But Ralph knew better.
    He had met them all before. All of them had been to previous parties of Stella’s. In addition, more than a few had been Stella’s sexual partners.
    Ralph knew them all quite well.
    Jimmy and Rhonda Henderson sat together on the couch sipping drinks from water tumblers. Jimmy’s black hair was clipped close to a large skull that teetered precariously on his small, thin frame. Small, piggish eyes stared out from his head and surveyed the room. Rhonda, who had married him when she woke up one morning and found herself pregnant, was a soft honey blonde with huge eyes and creamy skin. She stood several inches taller than Jimmy. It wasn’t hard to tell by a glance at Rhonda that she was an