The Glory Bus by Richard Laymon

Author:Richard Laymon [Laymon, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780755391813
Publisher: Hachette Littlehampton
Published: 2012-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-six

The moment the woman began advancing across the grass everyone stopped talking.

Stared.

Bubble burst.

Party pooped.

Norman had been starstruck in the company of these still-glamorous actors and actresses. Now—

BINGO!

What was I doing, agreeing to invest money in a motel?

The guy who played Doctor Pearman gave a charming smile. ‘Dee-Dee.’

‘Don’t Dee-Dee me.’

Jesus. This nurse – was she a real nurse? – was formidable.

Norman thought: I’m in love.

His stare swept over the nurse’s figure in the tight-fitting uniform. How old was she? Twenty-three? Twenty-five?

Her short-cut hair was immaculate.

Dark.

Glossy.

Uh, not like Boots. Not bleached. Not spiky.

This was beautiful hair.

The nurse strode up, her gaze scanning the food and drink on the tables.

‘Dee-Dee, honey,’ Doctor Pearman purred. ‘Sit down; have a glass of wine.’

‘Oh, Dad, you promised you wouldn’t do this,’ the woman called Dee-Dee groaned.

Darren tried a disarming smile.

It looked on the thin side.

‘We’re only entertaining one of our guests,’ Darren said.

‘Of course,’ Doctor Pearman agreed. ‘We thought a little barbecue. A pleasant interlude.’

‘Interlude, my eye,’ Dee-Dee stormed. When she spoke it was directed at everyone on the lawn. ‘You’ve all decided to put on one of your shows again, so you can fleece the first no-brained sap that comes your way.’

‘Hey,’ Norman said, stung by her insult.

She turned to Doctor Pearman again. ‘Dad. We can’t save all this by defrauding our guests.’

Norman stared at the woman in the nurse’s uniform.

She stared back.

‘You oughta go,’ she told him.

‘You were in the show?’ Norman asked, puzzled. ‘I don’t remember –’

‘No, I wasn’t in Intensive Care.’ The woman sounded as if she’d explained this so many times that it bored her to repeat it again. ‘I’m too young for that pile of crap. Besides, I’m no actor. I’m the only one here with medical qualifications. I’m a nurse at St. Jude’s Hospital downtown. A real nurse.’

She looked real enough.

Look good through and through.

Norman noticed that the zipper on the uniform that was all glacial whiteness in the light of the setting sun ran from her throat all the way down to the pit of her stomach.

Now that’s a zipper worth unzipping, he thought as he watched the angry rise and fall of her breasts.

‘Sir,’ she said in a softer voice. ‘You won’t report this to the police, will you?’

‘Uh, no, of course not, but—’

‘But you’re wondering what’s going on?’

Norman nodded.

Dee-Dee walked round the assembled cast of ex-actors and former actresses. They had that glassy-eyed expression of people who know that they’re in the wrong. As she walked she explained.

‘They’ve probably told you . . . uhm?’

‘Norman.’

‘They’ll have explained, Norman, how after the show was canceled because they’d all demanded huge hikes in salary they bought the motel?’

Norman made with the nod again, concealing his previous ignorance of the real reason for the cancellation of Intensive Care.

‘They didn’t explain that they were so inept, and so lacking in business acumen, that they bought a motel that wasn’t on a major highway?’

‘No, they said it was thriving.’

‘Thriving, huh? We’re lucky to have a dozen paying guests a week. Isn’t that right, Dad?’

Doctor Pearman nodded.

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