Cinderella by Ed McBain Read Free Book Online

her left eye. It didn't occur to her for a minute that they might try to kill her. She had already given them her sister's address, hadn't she? All she was thinking was that she had to get out of there fast because her connection sure as hell wasn't going to wait on Collins Avenue and Lincoln Road forever.
        In the other room, they decided they had to kill her.
        When she came out of the bathroom with a Band-Aid over her left eyebrow, Domingo had the knife in his hand again. There was a funny look on his face.
        Ernesto was standing just inside the door to the apartment, blocking it. He had a funny look, too.
        She ran right back into the bathroom, and locked the door.
        It was very quiet out there.
        All she could hear was the sound of her own heart.
        And then, all at once, they began whispering in Spanish.
        What she had to do was get the bathroom window open. Get through it and jump down to the street. She was on the second floor, she knew she'd hurt herself if she jumped, but not as much as they were going to hurt her if she didn't. The lock on the door was one of those push-button things on the knob, a Mickey Mouse lock, they could kick open the door in a minute if they wanted to. She figured if they hadn't done it already they were afraid it would make too much noise. She once had a dealer kick in her door because she owed him money, man, it woke up the whole building. So she figured that's why they weren't doing it. Just whispering outside there in Spanish instead.
        The window was painted shut.
        She looked around for something she could work the paint with.
        Nothing.
        She looked around for something she could smash the window with. She had to get the fuck out of there!
        Nothing.
        She heard a sound at the door behind her.
        A scraping sound.
        They were trying to loid the door. They were sliding a credit card between the doorjamb and the door, working the spring lock, trying to force back the bolt with the card. She picked up the towel she'd used earlier to stanch the flow of blood over her eye. She wrapped the towel around her right hand. She hit out at the window with it, smashing the glass, and just then the door behind her opened. She screamed even before she turned.
        Domingo was standing there with the knife in his hand.
        
***
        
        Hair fell on Larkin's shoulders, on the faded blue smock they gave you when you came in, it was impossible to figure out how to tie the thing, you had to be a magician. Same kind of smock they gave the women on the other side of the salon. He wondered if Vincent ever wore women's clothes. Some of these fairies, Larkin bet they dressed up like girls when they were alone together. Wore lipstick and everything. Larkin looked at himself in the mirror and wondered how his mouth would look with lipstick on it. Brown hair, dark eyes, wide forehead, prominent nose, strong mouth-an overall impression of rough-hewn good looks. Put lipstick on that mouth, it'd be like painting a gorilla's toenails. Vincent's face was more delicate. A pale oval. Hazel eyes. High cheekbones. The pouting feminine mouth. Black hair done like a fairy's, though, that was the clue.
        "Been hot enough for you?" Larkin asked.
        "Please," Vincent said, and rolled his eyes. "Don't ask."
         Sounded like a fag, too, sometimes.
        "You still plan on going to Europe this summer?"
        "I may leave Calusa permanently," Vincent said.
        "Oh? How come?"
        "Just tired of it."
        "Where would you go? You just got here."
        "Oh, I don't know."
        (In Miami Beach at that moment, a medical examiner leaning over the body of the blood-smeared woman lying on the bathroom floor ventured the learned opinion that she was the victim of multiple stab and slash wounds and that the cause of death was severance of the carotid