Read Online Midnight's Lair by Richard Laymon - Free Book Online Page A

long as Paula stays quiet.
        He would need to keep her quiet.
        Kyle patted the pocket of his jeans and felt the knife inside. Moving his hand over a bit more, he gave his erection a gentle squeeze through the heavy denim, felt a surge of pleasure, and imagined sliding it into her. Then imagined the lights coming on suddenly.
         Forget it, he warned himself.
        Even if he had all the time in the world and could somehow find his way around the entire cavern, there was no place to get rid of the body. There'd be a search as soon as they got out of here, and she'd be found.
        Only one way to have Paula - she has to go along with it.
        
***
        
        'Just for the fun of it,' Darcy said. 'The pay's not good, but this is pretty interesting for a summer job.'
        'What's your major?' Greg asked.
        'You tell me. You probably have a theory.'
        Greg laughed softly. 'Majoring in tour guidance?'
        'Yeah, sure.'
        'The obvious, of course, is geology.'
        'Wrong again.'
        'That was an observation, not a guess.'
        'So, what's your guess?'
        'Psychology.'
        'Oh, come on. Only fruitcakes go into psychology. You think I'm a fruitcake?'
        'No, your head seems pretty well screwed on. How about phys-ed?'
        'Now I'm a jock. Thanks.'
        'Jocks are air-heads, right?'
        'You got it.'
        'But they're also physically fit and graceful, so you shouldn't consider my guess to be an out-and-out insult.'
        'Okay, I won't.'
        'How about a clue?'
        ' "It is an ancient Mariner, and he stoppeth one of three." '
        'Seamanship.'
        Darcy elbowed him.
        'Archery?'
        She looked at him with surprise. There was nothing to see. 'You do know your literature.'
        'I wonder if someone down here recently murdered an albatross.'
        'Not me,' Darcy said.
        'We could ask around. All this might be punishment for some kind of transgression.'
        'Right.'
        'As a matter of fact, I'm serious.'
        'You don't sound serious.'
        'I find it intriguing. You take life, a lot of nasty business goes on.'
        'I'll buy that.'
        'It all comes down to one of three things,' Greg said. 'About fifty per cent is crap that just happens, nobody's fault, just God or Mother Nature or Fate or Chance dropping on you like a ton of bricks. The other half of the bad stuff is caused either by human evil or ignorance. Evil and stupidity are about equal.'
        'Nifty theory.'
        'I think so. Now, you take our present situation, I figure the odds are fifty-fifty that we're victims right now of somebody doing what he shouldn't.'
        'Twenty-five per cent that somebody shot an albatross.'
        'Right.'
        'So where does that leave us?' she asked.
        'Right where we were before I started my lecture.'
        'Except I'm wiser, now.'
        Greg laughed softly.
        'And we're a few minutes closer to getting out of here.'
        'I sure hope so.'
        Darcy didn't like the sound of that.
        'Have you thought about…?' He stopped.
        'What?'
        'You said, yourself, we don't know what happened up there. We've been assuming that, whatever the problem is, it'll be fixed before long. But what if it's not? I think we have to… consider the possibility.'
        'Great. Thanks. I've been trying like hell not to consider that.'
        She felt Greg let go of her hand. He stirred beside her. Then his arm went across her shoulders, and she leaned against him.
        'I figured to give it a couple of hours,' she whispered. 'Then what?'
        'Then, we get our asses out of here.'
        'That's what I like, a woman of action.' She thought she could hear a smile in his voice. 'But how do you plan to accomplish this feat?'
        'With great difficulty.'
        
***
        
        When Paula