The Sphinx by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page A

she doesn’t spend her whole life shut up in that
house at. Merriam?”
    “Of course not.
Why should she do that?”
    “I don’t know,”
said Gene. “The way that place is guarded, it seems like they lock themselves
in there and never come out.”
    Maggie stubbed
her cigarette out. “That’s a typical chauvinist attitude. If they won’t swoon
at your feet and beg you to take them to bed, they must be living some kind of
mysterious existence locked up in a weird old house. I mean, it’s the only
explanation.”
    “You didn’t see
the size- of those goddamn guard dogs. They were this big.”
    “They were
probably friendly St. Bernards coming to rescue you. If you hadn’t panicked,
they might even have given you a tot of brandy.”
    Gene checked
his watch. If he took a cab, he might get up to the Franco-African Bank before
it opened, which meant that he could catch Lorie in the street. “Listen,
Maggie,” he said. “I’m going out. I won’t be long. If Walter calls, or if Mark
starts sniffing around, just say that I’m out on an urgent diplomatic call.
I’ll be back in half an hour.”
    “Gene,” said
Maggie, warningly. “Don’t let this business go to your head. If the lady really
doesn’t want to know you, don’t go making a fool of yourself.”
    “Maggie,” he
said, shucking on his coat, “did I ever make a fool of myself?”
    “Only once,”
she said tartly, and went back to her desk.
    He stepped out
into the street and hailed a cab. The driver was a silent black with a huge,
pungent cigar, and by the time they reached K Street, Gene was glad to get out
into the chilly October air. He paid the driver, tipped him, and then walked
over to the wide stainless steel doors of the Franco-African Bank. A small
delegation of Algerians was waiting there, too, shuffling their feet and
talking to each other In thickly accented French. Gene couldn’t catch
everything they said, but he gathered that they’d been disappointed by the
Jefferson Memorial.
    One of them
said it reminded him of a sports pavilion.
    A few minutes
before the bank was due to open, two girls came walking down K Street and
joined the waiting customers. They looked to Gene like tellers, and so he
stepped across with a hesitant smile. “Ladies?” he said.
    They turned and
stared at him blankly. One of them had upswept spectacles,. and the other was
chewing gum with such relentless energy that every muscle in. her face was
working away like a rubber mask.
    “Excuse me,”
said Gene, “but do you ladies work here?”
    “What’s it to
you?” said the one with the gum.
    “Well,” said
Gene, feeling embarrassed, “it’s just that a friend of mine works here, and I
was wondering if you knew her. Her name’s Lorie Semple.”
    “Lorie? Sure.
She’s in the foreign exchange department.”
    “Do you know if
she’s coming in to work today?” asked Gene.
    “Never known
her to miss a day,” said the girl with, the gum. “She’s real fit, you know.
Exercises a lot. Isometrics, all that.”
    “Are you her
boyfriend?” asked the girl with tips wept spectacles.
    Gene shook his
head. “Oh, no, nothing like that. Just a friend.”
    “She could do
with a boyfriend,” said the girl, knowingly.
    “Why?” said
Gene. “Do you think she’s lonely?”
    “Oh, I don’t
know. She’s kind of wistful You know what I mean by wistful? She talks about
getting married a lot, and she’s a cute looker but she never has any
boyfriends. Maybe there’s something in her personality, you know. Also, she’s
very tall. I don’t think boys really go for girls that tall.”
    “My Sam says
dating her would be like dating the New York Nets. You know?” said the girl
with the gum.
    Gene continued;
“I know it seems kind of personal to ask you this, but do you like her?”
    “Oh, sure,”
said the girl with the gum. “Lorie’s a sweet kid. Real sweet. You couldn’t
dislike her if you tried. But then she’s pretty hard to get to know. I mean,