Read Online The Whenabouts of Burr by Michael Kurland - Free Book Online Page B

the kindergarten lesson of the plain-clothesmen and spies. He had not looked for other exits.
    He stuck an empty pop bottle before the front door, walked around the corner quickly, and located the alley that ran to the back of VENUS-ADONIS. There was a loading platform that clearly hadn’t been used in many years, with a large roll-up door which was padlocked on the outside. The small door to the side of the platform opened from the inside, but there were two garbage cans in front of it. From the position of the detritus surrounding the cans it was clear that no one had moved them recently.
    Thus reassured, Nate ran back around the corner to catch Alex: if he should have started to leave while Nate was inspecting the garbage. There was no sign of him, and the pop bottle was still in place; meaning he was either still inside, or subtle beyond all expectation.
    By now Swift was beginning to worry. Unless Alex: was indulging in some of the more exotic pleasures, or had fallen asleep in the steam bath, he should have reappeared by now; it had been over an hour. Some people spent the better part of a day in that sort of establishment, but Alex: was too busy and too purposeful to be sidetracked for long by material indulgence.
    Nate pushed through the swinging doors and entered the white-tiled lobby. He approached the white-coated attendant behind the white-tiled counter in one corner. “Morning,” he said.
    â€œSci-fi buffs,” the man muttered, scratching his nose with the tip of his pencil.
    â€œHow’s that?” Swift asked.
    The man looked up. “Oh, I didn’t see you. I was just looking for a three-letter word meaning ‘sci-fi buffs’.”
    â€œGood luck,” Nate said. “The man who came in here about an hour ago; do you know where he went? Very neatly dressed...”
    â€œThe cat with the homburg?” The attendant pointed his pencil. “Down the corridor and to the left. Steam room. You a friend of his?”
    â€œI know him,” Nate said cautiously, “why?”
    â€œHe went into the steam room, you know?”
    â€œYou told me,” Nate said.
    â€œYeah. Well, he went into the steam room. I told him he’d have to wait a minute while I got the steam turned on, ‘cause he was the first customer of the day. He said he didn’t want the steam turned on. I asked him if he wanted to use the locker room and hang his clothes up, and he said no to that too; which, I suppose figures if he didn’t want the steam turned on. You know? He’s been in there ever since, fully dressed, with no steam.”
    â€œHe didn’t come out?” Swift asked.
    â€œHe didn’t come past me,” the attendant told him, “and there’s no rear door to the steam room. He could have got into the locker room, but that opens out onto this corridor also, you know?”
    â€œI wonder what he’s doing in there,” Swift mused. The attendant shrugged. If it wasn’t a seven-letter word meaning “dealing with in an aggressive, unjust, or spiteful manner”, he wasn’t interested. He went back to his puzzle. “He’s been an awfully long time,” Swift said.
    â€œFeel free to go back and make sure he’s all right,” the attendant said.
    â€œI wouldn’t want him to think I was being nosy,” Nate said.
    â€œPeek in,” the attendant suggested. “There’s a glass panel in the door. When the steam’s on you can’t see anything, but since your buddy didn’t want the steam on…”
    Nate walked back to the steam room door and peered through the glass. At first he couldn’t see anything in the all-white room; it was like being snow blind. Then details emerged: the whitewashed wooden bench, the pattern of tiles on the wall, the drains, the pipes, the door to the locker room, and the fact that there wasn’t a soul inside.
    He pushed the door open and went in. There was