"killerinthehouse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blackmon Robert C)

I shuddered, then went stiff all over as another startling thought popped into my mind.

We had a murder in the house and the killer was probably still running around loose in
the Sea View Hotel--with the knife! Maybe he was right there on the seventh floor with me,
and I didn't have anything to fight with but my fists!

My first impulse was to grab the telephone handset from the bed and get somebody else
upon the seventh floor with me. Then I realized that losing my head might wreck the whole
season for the Sea View Hotel--and my job. We had murder in the house, and if I started
broadcasting it, people would check out by the dozens. Then we'd have an empty hotel on our
hands, right at the very start of the season.

I stood there, wondering what was the best thing to do. The cops should know about it
right away, but the nearest town was in Pleasantville, about eighteen miles-away. Even then,
we'd have a sheriff, and he'd be sure to bungle the thing so Sea View would get a black eye.

The telephone started jingling, and I knew it was Myrtle, trying to raise me. I started
to let it go, then knew she'd probably send one of the bellhops up if I didn't answer.
Gingerly, I took the handset from the bed.

"All right, Myrtle. This is your big heart throb, Don Pack." I tried to put a grin in
my voice, bat it didn't sound so good.

"Mr. Pack--Don!" Myrtle was badly frightened, but she didn't have a thing on me. "Is Mr.
Hammond all right? What--"

"Nothing's happened that can't be fixed, my dove," I told her that with sweat standing
out like acorns on my face. It was a cinch that Hammond couldn't be fixed, except by a morti-
cian. "Give me the line-up on the seventh floor, quick. I'll wait."

The receiver popped a few times; then she was back.

"Don"--her voice was shaking-"there's a young couple in 716 They've gone to the dance.
A Mr. Neal Carter in 706, a Mr. Alfred Marsh in 708, and a Mr. James Ollis in 710. The rest
of the rooms on the seventh are empty so far, except for 712, Mr. Hammond's." Myrtle caught
a shuddery breath. "Bill says the boys had to help Mr. Carter, Mr. Marsh and Mr. Ollis to
their rooms this evening, and none of them has come down since. They had been drinking. Does
that--"

"That's just fine." I raked some of the cold sweat off my face. Myrtle would scream,
sure as shooting, if I said anything about murder in the house. Bill, the desk clerk, would
do about as bad. "Just stand by the board for--"

"But what happened, Mr. Pack--Don?" Myrtle broke in shrilly. "Bill asked me--"

"I'll issue a communique after a while," I told her. "In the meantime, you stick by the
board. Tell Bill if he leaves the desk or opens his mouth, I'll dunk him in the ocean. You
two just sit tight and keep quiet. I'll handle everything."