Horror Show by Kihn Greg;

Author:Kihn, Greg;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

14

Thora Beaumond panicked when she found the front door open and her father gone.

She called Dr. Segwick at home, her fingers clumsy and numb on the heavy rotary dialer. It took several tries before she successfully made the connection. He suggested she call the police.

She contacted the night desk sergeant on duty at the North Hollywood Police Station, who transferred her over to Lt. Garth Prease in the department of missing persons.

After listening to her story, Prease explained that an adult couldn’t be declared legally missing until he’d been gone for forty-eight hours. Lieutenant Prease promised to keep an unofficial eye out for her father, should anyone report a man wandering around, but there was really nothing he could do for the time being. She pleaded, insisting that her father was ill and feverish and quite likely to be disoriented. Prease took down a detailed description.

Thora found her father’s address book and called everyone she thought might be helpful, each conversation more rushed and desperate than the last. In return, she received a carload of advice. Everyone did agree on one thing; Thora should not, under any circumstances, go out looking for Albert alone.

She put the address book in her pocket. What was everybody so damned afraid of?

She drove to Devila’s apartment.

She knocked on the door and, after a few minutes of silence, pounded on it.

“There’s no one home, dearie,” a rough female voice croaked behind her. The sound made her jump.

“You scared me!” Thora said, clutching her chest.

“Sorry, my voice does that sometimes,” the old lady barked hoarsely. Her gin-soaked, cigarette-rough vocal cords put out a strange combination of sounds that seemed to be indigenous to sixty-year-old Hollywood matrons. It was a smoky, sensual sound that only time and tobacco could create. Her hair in curlers and her housecoat buttoned high, she looked like a dried apple doll that Thora had made in summer camp once many years ago.

“I’m looking for Miss Devila. Have you seen her?”

“She hasn’t been home since yesterday,” the voice answered. “I’m Myrna; I live across the hall.” She lit a cigarette and blew smoke at the ceiling. “Are you a friend of Devila’s?”

“Yes. Well, actually, my father is,” Thora answered. “I’m looking for him.”

Myrna squinted at Thora’s face, saw the lines of consternation there, and smiled. “What’s the problem, sweetie?”

Thora’s forehead wrinkled, and her eyes cast down. The panic of the night’s searching had now turned to resigned worry and sadness.

“It’s nothing,” she said.

“You’ve been crying. What’s wrong, hon?”

Thora could feel the tears welling up again, her voice got that little hitch in it that meant she was going to cry any second. “I … I … my father is missing, and I thought—”

Myrna opened the door to her apartment wider and Thora could see the blue glow of a black-and-white TV screen showing an old movie and a room crowded with bric-a-brac and memorabilia. The smell of coffee drifted out.

“How about a cup of java?” Myrna asked.

Their eyes met. Thora could do little to disguise the pain she was going through, and Myrna couldn’t help but feel concerned.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.