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Are You Afraid Of The Dark :: Sheldon Sidney
Страница: 24 из 173"
* * *
A LIMOUSINE BROUGHT Kelly back to her apartment. The salon manager had wanted to send someone to be with her, but Kelly had refused. She wanted to be alone. Now, as she walked in through the entrance, Kelly saw the concierge, Philippe Cendre, and a man in overalls, surrounded by a group of tenants.
One of the tenants said, "Poor Madame Lapointe. What a terrible accident." The man in overalls held up two jagged ends of a heavy cable. "It was no accident, madame. Someone cut the elevator's safety brakes."
CHAPTER 7
AT FOUR O'CLOCK in the morning, Kelly was seated in a chair, staring out the window in a daze, her mind racing. Police Judiciaire… we need to talk… Tour Eiffel.. suicide note… Mark is dead… Mark is dead… Mark is dead. The words became a dirge pulsing through Kelly's brain.
She could see Mark's body tumbling down, down, down… She put her arms out to catch him just before he smashed against the sidewalk. Did you die because of me? Was it something I did?
Something I didn't do? Something I said? Something I didn't say? I was asleep when you left, darling, and I didn't have a chance to say good-bye, to kiss you and tell you how much I love you.
I need you. I can't stand it without you, Kelly thought. Help me, Mark. Help me-the way you always helped me… She slumped back, remembering how it had been before Mark, in the awful early days.
* * *
KELLY HAD BEEN born in Philadelphia, the illegitimate daughter of Ethel Hackworth, a black maid who worked for one of the town's most prominent white families. The father of the family was a judge. Ethel was seventeen and beautiful, and Pete, the handsome, blond, twenty-year-old son of the Turner family, had been attracted to her. He had seduced her, and a month later Ethel learned she was pregnant.
When she told Pete, he said, "That's-that's wonderful." And he rushed into his father's den to tell him the bad news.
Judge Turner called Ethel into his den the next morning and said, "I won't have a whore working in this house. You're fired." With no money and no education or skills, Ethel had taken a job as a cleaning lady in an industrial building, working long hours to support her newborn daughter. In five years, Ethel had saved enough money to buy a run-down clapboard house that she turned into a boardinghouse for men. Ethel converted the rooms into a living room, a dining room, four small bedrooms, and a narrow little utility room that Kelly slept in.
From that time on, a series of men constantly arrived and left.
* * *
A LIMOUSINE BROUGHT Kelly back to her apartment. The salon manager had wanted to send someone to be with her, but Kelly had refused. She wanted to be alone. Now, as she walked in through the entrance, Kelly saw the concierge, Philippe Cendre, and a man in overalls, surrounded by a group of tenants.
One of the tenants said, "Poor Madame Lapointe. What a terrible accident." The man in overalls held up two jagged ends of a heavy cable. "It was no accident, madame. Someone cut the elevator's safety brakes."
CHAPTER 7
AT FOUR O'CLOCK in the morning, Kelly was seated in a chair, staring out the window in a daze, her mind racing. Police Judiciaire… we need to talk… Tour Eiffel.. suicide note… Mark is dead… Mark is dead… Mark is dead. The words became a dirge pulsing through Kelly's brain.
She could see Mark's body tumbling down, down, down… She put her arms out to catch him just before he smashed against the sidewalk. Did you die because of me? Was it something I did?
Something I didn't do? Something I said? Something I didn't say? I was asleep when you left, darling, and I didn't have a chance to say good-bye, to kiss you and tell you how much I love you.
I need you. I can't stand it without you, Kelly thought. Help me, Mark. Help me-the way you always helped me… She slumped back, remembering how it had been before Mark, in the awful early days.
* * *
KELLY HAD BEEN born in Philadelphia, the illegitimate daughter of Ethel Hackworth, a black maid who worked for one of the town's most prominent white families. The father of the family was a judge. Ethel was seventeen and beautiful, and Pete, the handsome, blond, twenty-year-old son of the Turner family, had been attracted to her. He had seduced her, and a month later Ethel learned she was pregnant.
When she told Pete, he said, "That's-that's wonderful." And he rushed into his father's den to tell him the bad news.
Judge Turner called Ethel into his den the next morning and said, "I won't have a whore working in this house. You're fired." With no money and no education or skills, Ethel had taken a job as a cleaning lady in an industrial building, working long hours to support her newborn daughter. In five years, Ethel had saved enough money to buy a run-down clapboard house that she turned into a boardinghouse for men. Ethel converted the rooms into a living room, a dining room, four small bedrooms, and a narrow little utility room that Kelly slept in.
From that time on, a series of men constantly arrived and left.