Read Online Feelings of Fear by Graham Masterton - Free Book Online Page B

glittered in the darkness. He went inside, but before he could shut the door I called out, “
S’il vous plaît, monsieur! J’ai oublié mon clef
!”
    He held the door open for me and I followed him into the vestibule. There was a small table with a vase of dried flowers on it, and a reproduction of Rubens’
Toilet of Venus
– a big fleshy Venus with her back turned, watching me knowingly in a mirror held up by Cupid. The man opened the sliding door to a tiny elevator and we both crowded into it, shoulder to shoulder.
    â€œQuel étage?
” he asked me. He smelled of cigar tobacco and faded lavender cologne.
    â€œDeuxième.”
    We both got out at the second floor. He went straight across the corridor and opened up the door to Apartment 7. I gave him a jerky little wave goodnight, and then I walked further along to Apartment 5. I was only halfway there when the timing-switch clicked and I was plunged into darkness. There was a window at the end of the corridor but it was covered by heavy velvet drapes. Fortunately, there was a thin chink of light shining under the door of Number 5, so I was able to grope the rest of the way.
    I stood outside, holding my breath. I could hear the television news in English and the sound of water-pipes rattling. Maybe Maria wastaking a shower. Always a fatal thing to do when a murderer’s after you, I thought wryly. Look at
Psycho,
and dozens of other stabbings-in-the-shower. I waited until I heard the chimes ring out eleven thirty. Then I thought: I’ve come so far, I might as well make myself known to her, even if my reason for being here
is
totally crazy.
    I had my fist poised to knock when I heard the elevator whining. I stepped back, concealing myself behind the thick velvet drapes. They were choking, and they smelled of decades of dust, but I managed to hold my breath.
    The corridor light clicked on and I saw a tall man step out of the elevator and walk immediately toward me. He was wearing a black coat and a wide-brimmed hat that concealed his face in shadow. He approached me with complete determination, almost as if he already knew that I was here. I slid my razor out of my copy of
Time
and opened the blade. If he tried to attack me, then he was going to be marked for the rest of his life.
    He had almost reached the drapes when he stopped at the door of Number 5 and knocked. He waited for a while with his head bowed, and then he knocked again. After a moment the door was opened on a security chain, and I heard a woman’s voice say,
“Qu’est-ce qu’il y a?”
    Without hesitation the man took hold of the door frame and kicked the door as hard as he could. The security chain was torn away and the door juddered wide open. I heard the woman gasp and then I heard a table toppled over and the sound of a lamp smashing.
    I dragged myself out of the drapes and rushed into the apartment. The man had pushed the girl back on to a gold-upholstered sofa and he was trying to wrench away the bath towel around her waist. She wasn’t screaming, but wrestling with him and letting out a concentrated whimper, as if she were mortally afraid of what he was going to do to her.
    â€œHoete!”
I shouted at him, and slashed at his sleeve with my razor. But he twisted himself around and gripped my wrist so tightly that I couldn’t break free, and then he pulled me sideways and got an armlock around my neck. I never knew a man so strong, and I used to be high-school boxing champion. He had me totally paralyzed,half-throttling me with his left arm and gripping my right hand so hard that I couldn’t even drop the razor.
    He shoved me forward, toward the sofa, and forced my right hand from side to side in wide sweeping motions, so that Maria couldn’t get up without being slashed.
    â€œHoete!” I choked. “Hoete, let go of me!”
    But Hoete said nothing. He made me lunge my hand forward so that the razor drew a thin line