Holy Terror by Graham Masterton

time I want to be followed into my bedroom by an adolescent walrus, I’ll call the zoo.’
    â€˜Just making sure you don’t try to abscond,’ said Lieutenant Slyman.
    â€˜From seven floors up?’
    â€˜I don’t know. You might try to commit suicide.’
    â€˜And you’d care about that? You’d push me, if you had the chance.’
    â€˜Just leave the bedroom door open, will you? That’ll do.’
    In the yellow-painted bedroom with its big pine bed, Conor pulled on a fresh pair of shorts, a blue polo shirt and a pair of Calvin Klein jeans. In the comer, out of sight of Slyman and his men, he crammed more clean clothes into a small nylon bag, as well as a toothbrush and a razor from the washbasin.He slung the bag over his shoulder.
    Lacey came in. ‘Michael’s attending a B’nai B’rith dinner. He’s going to meet us at the precinct just as soon as he can.’
    He put his finger to his lips.
    â€˜What?’ she said. Then she saw the bag.
    â€˜You can’t
go
,’ she whispered.
    â€˜I have to. I swear to God they’ll kill me if I don’t.’
    â€˜But how can they?’
    â€˜Are you kidding me? They have a dozen different ways of doing it, once you’re in custody.’
    â€˜But how are you going to get out of here? It’s so high up.’
    â€˜I’ll go over the roof. I’ll go to Sebastian’s place.’
    â€˜But you can’t take heights. You know you can’t.’
    He held her close, and he kissed her. She smelled of Calvin Klein perfume and that warm natural biscuity smell of blondes. ‘I’ll get in touch with you as soon as I can. Don’t say anything to Slyman until Michael shows up. And I mean
anything
. Don’t let these bastards bully you.’
    â€˜But you didn’t do it, did you? You didn’t steal anything out of those boxes?’
    â€˜That doesn’t matter. They’ll kill me, Lacey. If they don’t kill me down at the precinct when they’re questioning me, they’ll make sure that I go to Attica, where they sent the rest of the Forty-Ninth Street Golf Club, and they’ll kill me there for sure.’
    â€˜O’Neil!’ called Slyman, just outside the door.
    â€˜Got your pants on yet? We don’t have all night.’
    â€˜I have to go,’ Conor whispered into Lacey’s ear.
    â€˜I never wanted anything like this to happen to you… but you’ll be brave, won’t you? I won’t let them harm you, whatever happens.’
    â€˜Come on, O’Neil!’
    Lacey gave Conor a smile that he would never forget. Then she positioned herself behind the half-open bedroom door so that her back was reflected in the cheval-mirror in the opposite corner of the room.
    â€˜
Trust me
,’ she whispered. ‘
I love you
.’ Then she reached behind her and tugged down the zipper of her dress, and let it fall open.
    Looking in through the door, Lieutenant Slyman and his two officers must have been able to see her – if only a dim, angled reflection. They were silent, and they didn’t shout out any more.
    She slipped her sleeves off her shoulders and then wriggled her hips so that the dress dropped down to the floor. She stepped out of it, and now she was wearing nothing but a white bra and a white lacy thong.
    Conor rolled quietly over the bed. He went to the window and eased it open. Fortunately their old air-conditioning unit was making such an irregular racket that he could have set off Chinese firecrackers and nobody would have heard. He could see that Lacey was reaching behind her to unfasten her bra but he didn’t want to look, not directly, knowing that Lieutenant Slyman was watching her.
    The window gave onto the narrow triangular airshaft. Conor cautiously put his head out and looked down to the rubbish-strewn area below. A wave of vertigo came over him and he felt as if it were almost physically