The Lime Pit Read Online Free Page A

No kind of man I'd like to
know."
    "Why'd you ask, if you already knew the answer?"
    Lance took a breath and, I swear, I could hear the
elastic threading of his T-shirt pop.
    "Go back inside, honey," Laurie said
quickly. "I'll handle this."
    Ol' Lance gave me one helluva angry look and plunged
a finger the size of a dollar cigar at my chest. "Be seeing
you," he said sharply. He managed to pack enough real menace
into those three words to make me think twice before I ever wised off
to him again. He patted Laurie on the rear and rumbled back into the
living room.
    Laurie watched him retreat and then turned to me.
"Mister," she said in that little girl voice. "You
don't know how close you came."
    "I think, maybe, I have an idea."
    "No, you don't," she said. She gave me an
appreciative look, a cold professional sizing-up, and smiled
favorlessly. "He'd squash you like a bug."
    I hadn't realized it before--the clothes, the little
girl good looks, and the timid breathy voice had disguised it--but
this Laurie was a hunk herself. Big-boned, big-breasted, with long
handsome legs and a firm round rear that showed seamlessly beneath
her tailored slacks, she made a good match for ol' Lance. I couldn't
help thinking she made a good match, period. She caught that look in
my eye--girls that are built like she was never miss it--and shook
her head, no.
    "Don't even think about it," she said with
a cautionary grin.
    "Can't kill a man for dreaming."
    "You don't know Lance." She glanced quickly
into the living room. "Another place, another life, maybe it'd
be different."
    "I'll take that as a compliment," I said.
    "What is it that Cratz expects you to find out?"
Laurie Jellicoe said, leaning back against the door. "Where we
stashed Cindy Ann?"
    I nodded. "That's it."
    She didn't say anything for a second. Just stared at
me with a mild worry in her stone-blue eyes. "Look, Mr.-"
    "Stoner. Call me Harry."
    "Look, Harry," she said. "In the last
couple of days we've had the police here two times. Cratz has called
us every hour on the hour since Monday. And we're just a little sick
and tired of the whole thing. I wish to God at this point that I'd
never met the girl."
    "You two were friends?"
    Laurie Jellicoe shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. We
did laundry together down on Ludlow and we'd go shopping at Keller's
together. To tell you the truth, I think she had a crush on Lance."
Laurie passed a tan hand through her golden hair. "I felt sorry
for her. Coming from a broken home. Having to live the way she did.
She was one of those runaway kids who you just know are going to end
up in trouble. She had that victim look about her. You know? So
washed-out that her eyes were the only color in her face. And skinny.
And just as awkward and naive as hell. In a way she was lucky, tying
up with Cratz. At least he didn't abuse her physically. Not that he
wouldn't have if he'd been able to." Laurie Jellicoe grimaced.
"He's such an awful old man. Dirty and repulsive. It was no
wonder she couldn't take it anymore--living over there. Especially
after his stroke. Cleaning up his messes. Practically feeding him by
hand. It gives me the fantods to think about it," she said with
a shudder.
    "Fantods?"
    "Just a word that my grandma used to use."
Laurie smiled half-heartedly. "You know I've told this to the
police. Do you really want me to go through it again?"
    "Please."
    "All right. Last Sunday Cindy Ann came over here
to talk. She told me that she'd found a guy--I don't know who. Some
biker in Norwood who worked days at the General Motors assembly
plant. She'd met him at a V.F.W. dance that Cratz had sent her off to
and she'd just gone crazy over him. And, now, she didn't know what to
do about the old man. I never did understand why she cared for him.
But there must have been something decent about Cratz, because she
didn't want to leave him in the lurch. She came to me to talk it out.
Girl to girl, you know? She was such a pathetic little thing, and she
always looked up to