Read Too Sweet to Die for Free Online

watch crystal with his hand. “That’s all the time I can give you.”
    “I was hoping you’d have a moment to inscribe my copy of Scream Yourself Sane. ”
    “Good night, Easy.” Dr. Ingraham went to the open doorway. “As a matter of fact, I wish you well in your quest for Jill. With all her faults, she’s a rather lovely girl. Rather lovely.” He spun around and walked out.
    Dr. Newborn didn’t return to guide him and after a moment Easy left the library. Outside the fog was rolling and spinning. The howl group was breaking up, trudging across the wet grass to retrieve their clothes from a lighted wing of the private hospital. The fondling man was on his feet again, making a few final efforts as the group scattered.
    Easy took a short running start, got himself boosted, to the top of the six-foot wall. He hesitated an instant, then dropped over on the road side.
    The valley side of the road was silent and no cars were moving on it. Easy walked toward his Volkswagen, which he’d left off the road and under three dark oaks.
    The driver’s door opened before he touched it, the overhead light went on. One of Cullen Montez’s large sidekicks was sitting behind the wheel. He had a long-barreled .38 revolver pointed at Easy. “My,” he said, “you don’t keep your promises very well, do you?”
    “No, I’d better give you the money back.” Easy started to reach inside his coat.
    “Whimsical, very whimsical.”
    The other large man grabbed Easy from behind, with an elbow around his throat.
    His partner came out of the car, jabbing a fist into Easy’s groin.
    Easy doubled, trying to throw the one large man over into the other one. It didn’t work.

CHAPTER 7
    E ASY SAT UP, SHATTERING the fog that had settled down on him. Fuzzy pain circled his head. His eyes felt like they were trying to pucker up. Inhaling through his dry-tasting mouth, he said, “I didn’t catch your last question.”
    Bending over him was the pretty brunet Dr. Newborn, wearing a tan carcoat now. “Are you all right?”
    Across Easy’s lap, like, a collapsed bird, lay his open wallet. The five hundred dollars was gone. “I suppose that’s only fair,” he said.
    “What happened to you, Mr. Easy?” She put one hand on his shoulder, felt at his shaggy head with the other.
    “Are you always this concerned over people you set up?”
    The girl located the place where he’d been hit with the pistol grip. “Not too serious. How’s your vision?”
    “Fine. I saw both of Cullen Montez’s buddies perfectly while they worked me over.” He got hold of her arm, pulling himself up from the ground. “I know they didn’t follow me here. So someone had to phone in.”
    “It’s difficult for you to accept help, isn’t it? There’s a wall of hostility built around you.”
    “It’s a side effect of getting whacked on the head and dumped by the roadside,” Easy told her as he moved toward his car. The black VW was frosted with dew. Easy checked his watch. “Almost midnight, huh.”
    “I noticed you as I was leaving,” said the pretty Dr. Newborn. Her three-year-old Triumph was parked across the road among scrub, its headlight beams nearly swallowed by the heavy fog. “Have you been sprawled out here all this time?”
    “To the best of my knowledge.” Easy grabbed hold of his door handle. “At the risk of being hostile, did you phone the Nordlin estate?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Did Dr. Ingraham?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Easy felt an odd swirling in his stomach and his right leg seemed to shrink for a moment, “Um,” he said, getting his balance.
    “Stay right here a moment, Mr. Easy.” The girl left him and ran through the swirling mist to her car. She turned it around and parked near the gates of Ingraham’s sanitarium. After turning off the motor and lights she returned to Easy’s side. “Go around to the passenger side of your car and get in.”
    “Is this to test my motor reflexes?”
    “It’s to get you off your