A Killer is Loose by Gil Brewer Read Free Book Online Page B

Lord,” I said.
    “No, pal. Look up—up at the ceiling. That’s right. Sure, pal….” He reached toward me, fast. I backed away quickly, feeling scared. For the first time a dim light showed in his own eyes; a light that was indescribable and sadly insane. It was like seeing a candle flickering at the end of a long black tunnel.
    I kept on backing across the room, with him following me, staring at me, craning his neck. He kept nodding to himself and smiling kind of quietly with that crazy flickering light in his eyes, his face like slick marble. He reached out with his hand, feeling for my face.
    “Stand still, pal.”
    “Why?”
    “Just stand still. Let me look at that eye of yours. Listen, pal, does that eye hurt you at all? Ever have both eyes hurting you, pal?” He stopped walking, dropped his hand.
    “Some, a little. My right one, mostly.”
    He stood there nodding to himself with the light in his eyes brightening and waning, glowing and fading, almost as if he breathed with his eyes.
    “Sit down in the chair, there,” he said. “Here.” He grabbed the roll of paper and dropped it on the bed. “Sit down, pal. I want to look at that eye of yours.”
    “I’m all right.” I didn’t move. I had my back against the wall by the door now. I wasn’t going to sit down for this guy.
    “Traumatic, too,” he said. “I’d have to— Well, let’s see.” He scratched his head. Abruptly the light went out of his eyes and he turned toward the bathroom. “Lillian, you ready yet? Hurry up.”
    “Yes, Ralph. I’m hurrying. I’ll be right there, Ralph, honey.”
    “See that you are, Lillian.” He turned to me. “A man has to have a woman,” he said. “You’re married, you ought to know that.”
    “Sure.” I heard her scrabbling around in the bathroom, probably anxiously intent on dressing. The fan hummed and buzzed and Angers’ face was a white marble blank again. “Are you married?” I asked.
    “No. I like Lil, but now I’m not so sure she’d make a good wife. Lately she seems stupid, pal. Coming across the country she wasn’t that way at first. It’s only lately I noticed it.”
    “Oh. You came quite a way?”
    “Quite a way, pal.”
    I wanted to find out where he was from, what all this was about. But Angers didn’t look like the type you could pump much. He looked a little too wise for that. It might take time. I hoped it wouldn’t be long. So far I could imagine no way out of this. If we went to my house, things could come to a head quickly. The law might be waiting there now.
    I stood there watching him and it seemed almost as if he were trying to remember something. There was no expression on his face, but he stood very still, looking over at the wall.
    “Pal,” he said, “we’ll fix that eye up, don’t you worry.”
    I took the plunge. It might as well be now.
    “How do you figure?” I said.
    “Was your eye infected?”
    I quickly told him about that rummy up in Jacksonville with his lousy thumb. Right away I wished I’d said nothing, but it was a sore subject with me and one I talked too freely about. Also, it seemed to me that talk, right now, was important. It took up time. Talk about anything.
    He kept nodding, still staring at the wall. “I thought as much, Steve. But we’ll fix it, first chance I can get.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’m a surgeon. An eye surgeon.”
    “Oh.”
    I began to fade right into the wall at my back. The fear that was already in me blew a big cold breath. Angers turned and glanced at me. But the crazy light wasn’t in his eyes; he wasn’t interested just now.
    “Maybe you could be the first patient at the hospital,” he said. But then he shook his head. “That might take a little while, though. And that eye needs tending to, pal.”
    He kept looking at me.
    “Hospital?” I said. It didn’t sound like my voice at all.
    He was nodding his head. “Sure. We’re going to build a hospital, pal.” He gestured toward the big roll of