With an Extreme Burning

With an Extreme Burning by Bill Pronzini Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: With an Extreme Burning by Bill Pronzini Read Free Book Online
Authors: Bill Pronzini
now.
    “You've been in my purse. How could you do that?”
    “No, I haven't. You left it on the dining room table the other afternoon, right on the edge. I brushed against it accidentally and things spilled out when it fell.”
    “Oh, sure, right. Accidentally.”
    “I'm not lying to you. Now don't you lie to me. Why're you carrying condoms around with you?”
    “What's the next question? Am I still a virgin?”
    “That isn't the point—”
    “Isn't it? Sure it is. But I'm not going to tell you. What I carry in my purse is my business and what I do with my body is my business. Okay? All right? And don't you ever go through my personal stuff again. Don't you ever !”
    “Listen to me—”
    “No,” Amy said, and grabbed up her shopping bags and stormed out of the kitchen.
    Cecca sat at the table. She'd handled things badly; Eileen would probably say she couldn't have handled them any worse. It had taken so long to mend the painful rift that the divorce had caused, and now she'd let that damned phone call rip it open again. Why hadn't she just told Amy the truth instead of letting herself slide into the mother-from-hell role?
    Too late to tell her now? Maybe not. She took another minute to compose herself and then went upstairs to Amy's room. The door was shut; she knocked and tried the knob. It wasn't locked.
    Amy was in her bra and panties. The shopping bags and their contents were all over the room, as if she'd hurled them around in a demonstration of her anger. Glaring, she said, “Now what? You want to search my room, too?”
    “No. I want to apologize.”
    “Oh, you do? Isn't it a little late for that?”
    “I don't mean about your purse. That really was an accident; I wasn't snooping. And you're right, your personal life is your own and you're entitled to your privacy. If you want to tell me about the condoms, fine, but I won't ask you again. Is that fair?”
    “… I guess.” But Amy wasn't mollified. When she felt wronged she had a tendency to nurse her anger. Just like her father in that respect, too.
    Cecca said, “I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm sorry for that, too. But I had a reason.”
    “What reason?”
    “Another one of those calls this afternoon. Only this time he said something that upset me. Something ugly.”
    “What did he say?”
    Cecca told her.
    “God, what a dickhead creep,” Amy said. She plunked herself down on the edge of her bed. “But you should have known it was just crap.”
    “I can't help worrying. I love you, you know that. The thought of anything happening to you …”
    “Nothing's going to happen to me. I mean, he wanted you to worry. That's how those weirdos get off.”
    “I know that.”
    “So don't let him get to you, okay? If he calls again, which he probably will.”
    “If he does and you answer, don't say anything to him.”
    “Why not? I'd like to tell him some things.”
    “We talked about this before. Talking back will only provoke him. Promise me you'll just hang up.”
    Amy scowled. But then she said, “All right. It's no big deal anyway. He'll go away eventually. Chris Ullman's mother had an obscene caller last year and he said all kinds of crazy things to her. And he went away after a few weeks. This one will, too.”
    Will he? Cecca thought as she returned to the kitchen. Yes, probably. Except that he's not a random caller. He knows my name, he knows Amy's name, he knows where we live.
    What if he's more than just a telephone freak?
    What if he's some kind of psycho?
    They went to the new Tom Cruise movie. Kimberley wanted to see it, she was a big Tom Cruise fan, and there wasn't anything else playing that excited Amy much. It was all right. Funny in parts; once Amy even laughed out loud. Lots of sex. But every other word was “fuck” or “shit,” like a lot of movies you went to, and it got to be pretty monotonous and silly. People didn't really talk like that, and if they did, who wanted to listen to them? It just wasn't very

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