Airship by McAlan Peter

Author:McAlan, Peter [McAlan, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2017-02-11T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The telephone woke Danny Macmillan from a deep sleep. He lay for fully half a minute listening to its buzz, lying in a semistupor and wondering first where he was and then what the time was. He groaned and finally reached out for the offending instrument, glancing at the luminous dial of the bedside clock. It was twenty minutes after two o’clock in the morning.

‘Danny? Danny Macmillan? This is Mike, Mike Pullen.’

The voice sounded worried.

Mike Pullen was the flight engineer in Art Stein’s back-up crew. Macmillan did not know him that well. They had shared a few drinks over the last week or so and talked about their common professional interest. Nothing else.

‘It’s late, Mike. What is it?’

‘I know. I know. But I just didn’t know who else to ring. I’m speaking from Claire’s apartment … Claire Ashton.’ Macmillan blinked in surprise.

‘What is it?’ he repeated.

‘Danny … she locked herself in the bathroom and threw back a bottle of pills on me! Jeeze! I got her out but she’s so goddam sleepy. I don’t know what to do.’

Macmillan was wide awake now.

‘Have you rung the hospital?’

‘Christ, Danny, I can’t do that. You know I’m married … I can’t let Diane know. What about my kids?’

‘You should have thought of that before,’ sneered Macmillan. ‘Aw come on, you know the score, Danny.’

Macmillan bit his lip. It was no time for a moral lecture. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Keep her walking up and down, try to keep her awake. I’ll be round there in five minutes.’

He was already throwing on his clothes as he slammed down the telephone. It did not take him long to make the five blocks from his apartment to Bay View where Claire Ashton lived. Mike Pullen, a florid-faced man, met him at the apartment door looking anxious.

‘Christ, Danny, nothing like this has ever happened to me before. How did I know that the stupid bitch was leading up to an overdose?’

Macmillan brushed him aside and looked round the apartment. Claire was lying on the couch in her silk robe. The way she was sprawled over the couch allowed the robe to fall so that she looked indecent.

‘Did you try to keep her awake?’

‘Yeah; but she keeps falling asleep.’

‘Where’s the bottle she took the pills from?’

Pullen gestured towards the bathroom.

Macmillan swept past the girl’s sprawled form. In the sink was a small empty bottle. He picked it up and glanced at the table. Scorbital. The name meant nothing to him but the instructions seemed to imply they were sleeping pills. He carried the bottle outside and showed it to Pullen.

‘Is this it?’

Pullen nodded.

‘Look, Danny, what the hell am I going to do?’

‘You can tell me what happened.’

‘We … Claire and I … we’ve been screwing a couple of days. You know what an easy lay she was. Christ! She almost raped one guy. We all knew the score. Well, tonight we had a meal, bought a couple of bottles of bourbon and came back to her apartment. Apparently it was her birthday, ‘cos there was this card from her parents lying in the box.

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.