Free Always Leave ’Em Dying by Richard S. Prather Page A

shut, opened them slowly, then started to shade them with my right hand. My left hand moved, tugged by the other one. I stared at metal handcuffs on my wrists, then looked around the room.
    I was still in Wolfe's office, seated in a leather-covered chair—but now I saw two uniformed policemen, who must have come out from nearby Raleigh. One of them, a fat, flabby-faced sergeant with a big red-veined nose, squatted on the floor near me; I could smell whisky on his breath. The other, a patrolman, leaned against the wall near the door, a short cigar clamped between his teeth.
    "He'll be all right for a while, Sergeant Meadows."
    It was a woman speaking on my left, and I glanced around to see, still in her white uniform, the lovely Lyn. She turned from the sergeant squatting before me and stared at my face. I looked over my shoulder, but Dr. Wolfe's body had already been taken out. Stains on the carpet, though, showed where he had been.
    "Yeah," the sergeant said, his voice twanging nasally, "he's gone. Only he didn't walk out." He glanced questioningly up at Lyn and asked, "This goofball know what I'm talking about?"
    "I imagine he does." A note of annoyance was in her voice.
    "Wait a minute," I said to her. "Of course I know . . . Oh, Lord." I had just realized she'd hardly be thinking of me as a highly stable personality. Her first glimpse of me had been when I was playing catch with that eight ball, then with the fake Dr. Nichols, and next in a strait jacket. And a little while ago she must have spotted the escaped nut lying alongside Wolfe's body. I said, "You may find this a bit difficult to grasp at first, but I'm not crazy."
    The sergeant spoke to me as if I were a small, retarded child. The whisky on his breath sickened me. He sickened me.
    "You want to tell us what happened?" he asked.
    "I'd like to. There's quite a bit to explain."
    He smirked and glanced over his shoulder at the patrolman, who shrugged and shifted the cigar to the other side of his wide mouth. Sergeant Meadows turned to me and asked softly, "You know who you are?"
    "Oh, for God's sake. Of course I know who I am. I'm Shell Scott—and I'm quite sane, Sergeant. So you can forget the baby talk."
    "Sure," he said soothingly. "Sure. Suppose you tell me the whole thing, Scott."
    I started with my arrival at Greenhaven, but after the second sentence I knew he was only half listening. So I spoke directly to Lyn, hoping I could at least convince her. She kept on looking sweet, lovely, attentive, and unconvinced. A few times she did frown, and press white teeth into her lower lip, but that was all.
    After a couple of minutes the patrolman leaning against the wall said around his cigar, "This one's really gone, ain't he? If this ain't the craziest story I ever heard, then I'm balmy muhself." He laughed, and Meadows laughed. Lyn didn't. I didn't.
    The two slobs traded a few sentences that they must have thought funny, judging by their hilarity; then Meadows looked at me, still highly amused.
    "That's exactly how it happened, huh? Self-defense? You were fighting off an attack from a needle?" He chuckled.
    I said as levelly as I could, "That's exactly it. As well as I can remember. Some of it's a little hazy because I . . ." The two cops were exchanging knowing glances. I said to Lyn, "Miss, they aren't listening, but you are. Don't I sound lucid, normal?" I stopped. "Incidentally, how come I'm OK now?" I glanced at my watch; it wasn't even one o'clock and it was still night outside.
    She frowned slightly and said, "I gave you an intravenal injection, Mr. Scott. A stimulant. We couldn't awaken you, and the officers wanted to talk to you. The sergeant insisted. When it wears off, you'll feel worse than if I hadn't given it to you."
    "You mean I can feel worse? Before I get out of here I'll be some kind of addict."
    Meadows took Lyn outside and after a bit I heard him say, "Skeezo what? Frantic?" They talked another minute, Meadows asking stupid questions, then