Death Sentence Read Online Free Page A

off.”
    â€œThat’s the way I like it.”
    â€œI’ve heard that about you. I think you’re going to fit in just fine, Paul—and what’s more important to you, I think we’re going to fit in just fine with you.”
    Spalter was a bit of a bullshit artist but Paul rather liked him. He made a gesture with his drink.
    â€œChristmas coming up fast,” Spalter said. “We won’t really be getting back into gear until after the first of the year. Childress and I both think it might be a good idea if you spent your first couple of weeks just relaxing, getting to know Chicago a bit before you plunge into the office routine. After the holidays there’ll be a pile-up of income-tax work and you may not have too much time for familiarization. Anyhow, take the holidays off, find yourself a house, get settled in, get to know our town a bit. There’ll probably be several Christmas and New Year’s parties—I’ll keep you posted. You can report in to work on Monday the sixth. How’s that sound?”
    It gave him more than two weeks; he agreed to it with suitable gratitude.
    Spalter sat forward, elbows on knees. “Stop me if I’m out of line. But naturally we’ve heard a little about why you decided to move here. Do you mind talking about it?”
    â€œNot any more. But why go into it?”
    â€œThe place is full of rumors. I think you can understand that. It’d be a good idea if we could put a lid on the gossip before people start looking at you as if you’ve got two heads.”
    â€œWhat gossip?”
    â€œFor instance they’re saying you went to pieces.”
    Paul managed to smile.
    â€œYou don’t look to me like a man who’s gone to pieces.”
    â€œIt’s a dreary story. All too commonplace.”
    â€œYour wife was mugged, I gather.”
    â€œMy wife and my daughter. They were attacked in our apartment. My wife died in the hospital. My daughter died two months later.”
    â€œAs a result of the attack?”
    â€œIndirectly.” He didn’t elaborate. Carol had been institutionalized: catatonic withdrawal. In her mind she had fled from recollections too horrible to face. She’d become a vegetable. He’d watched her retreat: the steady terrible escape from reality until she’d collapsed into the final trance, unable to talk or see or hear or feed herself. Death had been, perhaps, an accident: she had choked on her own tongue and had been dead nearly half an hour before the nurse discovered it.
    â€œDid they apprehend the muggers?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œChrist.”
    Paul drained his glass and set it down gently. “Esther and Carol didn’t have any money with them, you see. Three or four dollars, that was all. The muggers got mad at them because they didn’t have money.”
    â€œJesus.”
    Paul met his eyes. “They gave them terrible beatings.”
    Spalter looked away. “I’m—”
    â€œNo. Maybe I’m the one who should apologize. I told it to you that way for a reason.”
    â€œTo prove that you can face it—that you haven’t gone around the bend.”
    â€œThat’s right. There are things you have no control over. To me it’s as if they were both killed by an earthquake or an unexpected cancer. It’s in the past. I’ve got my grief but we’ve all got sorrows to live with. Either we carry on or we throw in the towel. I’m not the suicide type. Do you go to the movies?”
    â€œNow and then,” Spalter said indifferently.
    â€œI’m a Western nut. The rituals are relaxing, I find. In every other Western there’s a line—’You play the cards you’re dealt.’”
    â€œAnd that’s what you’re doing.”
    â€œThere’s really not much choice,” Paul lied.
    Spalter brooded into his empty glass. The waiter brought fresh drinks and Spalter signed the