Read Online Psycho by Robert Bloch - Free Book Online Page A

went into the store, hurrying down the dim aisle. The blind had been pulled down on the front door, but he could hear the agitated rattling very plainly now--in fact, some of the pots and pans on the traffic-item counter were jiggling.
    This must be an emergency, all right; probably the customer needed a new bulb for his kid's Mickey Mouse flashlight.
    Sam fumbled in his pocket, pulling out his key ring. "All right," he called. "I'm opening up." And did so, deftly, swinging the door back without withdrawing the key.
    She stood there in the doorway, silhouetted against the street lamp's glow from the curbing outside. For a moment the shock of recognition held him immobile; then he stepped forward and his arms closed around her.
    "Mary!" he murmured. His mouth found hers, gratefully, greedily; and then she was stiffening, she was pulling away, her hands had come up shaping into balled fists that beat against his chest. What was wrong?
    "I'm not Mary!" she gasped. "I'm Lila."
    "Lila?" He stepped back once more. "The kid--I mean, Mary's sister?"
    She nodded. As she did so he caught a glimpse of her face in profile, and the lamplight glinted on her hair. It was brown, much lighter than Mary's. Now he could see the difference in the shape of the snub nose, the higher angle of the broad cheekbones. She was a trifle shorter, too, and her hips and shoulders seemed slimmer.
    "I'm sorry," he murmured. "It's this light."
    "That's all right." Her voice was different, too; softer and lower.
    "Come inside, won't you?"
    "Well--" She hesitated, glancing down at her feet, and then Sam noticed the small suitcase on the sidewalk.
    "Here, let me take this for you." He scooped it up. As he passed her in the doorway he switched on the rear light. "My room is in back," he told her. "Follow me."
    She trailed after him in silence. Not quite silence, because Respighi's tone poem still resounded from the radio. As they entered his makeshift living quarters, Sam went over to switch it off. She lifted her hand.
    "Don't," she told him. "I'm trying to recognize that music." She nodded. "Villa-Lobos?"
    "Respighi. Something called _Brazilian Impressions_. It's on the Urania label, I believe."
    "Oh. We don't stock that." For the first time he remembered that Lila worked in a record shop.
    "You want me to leave it on, or do you want to talk?" he asked.
    "Turn it off. We'd better talk."
    He nodded, bent over the set, then faced her. "Sit down," he invited. "Take off your coat."
    "Thanks. I don't intend to stay long. I've got to find a room." . .
    "You're here on a visit?"
    "Just overnight. I'll probably leave again in the morning. And it isn't exactly a visit. I'm looking for Mary."
    "Looking for --" Sam stared at her. "But what would she be doing here?"
    "I was hoping you could tell me that."
    "But how could I? Mary isn't here."
    "_Was_ she here? Earlier this week, I mean?"
    "Of course not. Why, I haven't seen her since she drove up last summer." Sam sat down on the sofa bed. "What's the matter, Lila? What's this all about?"
    "I wish I knew."
    She avoided his gaze, lowering her lashes and staring at her hands. They twisted in her lap, twisted like serpents. In the bright light, Sam noticed that her hair was almost blond. She didn't resemble Mary at all, now. She was quite another girl. A nervous, unhappy girl.
    "Please," he said. "Tell me."
    Lila looked up suddenly, her wide hazel eyes searching his. "You weren't lying when you said Mary hasn't been here?"
    "No, it's the truth. I haven't even heard from her these last few weeks. I was beginning to get worried. Then you come bursting in here and --" His voice broke off. "Tell me!"
    "All right. I believe you. But there isn't much to tell." She took a deep breath and started to speak again, her hands roaming restlessly across the front of her skirt. "I haven't seen Mary since a week ago last night, at the apartment. That's the night I left for Dallas, to see some wholesale suppliers down there--I do the buying for