Читать книгу Payment Deferred. Psychological Thriller онлайн

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The sudden noise brought her husband to a sitting-up position in an instant. He was still grasping the sheets, and his erect hair made him look so like a frightened baby that Mrs Marble laughed. He glared and blinked at her uncomprehendingly for a while.

‘W—what is it?’ he demanded.

To Mrs Marble, mentally constituted as she was, no strange mood came amiss, or seemed strange to her.

‘It’s just the clock, dear,’ she said, ‘half-past seven.’

‘The clock?’ said Mr Marble. ‘I thought—I was dreaming. Just the clock?’

He still muttered to himself as he snuggled down into the bed again, with his face hidden by the pillows. Annie had never known him mutter to himself before, but he was still muttering and mumbling to himself as she began to dress. Then suddenly he stopped muttering, and sat upright again in the bed.

‘By God!’ he said. ‘I wasn’t dreaming.’

He threw off the bedclothes and climbed stiffly out of the bed. He looked like a pathetic little boy in his striped blue and white pyjamas as he hobbled across the room, to where his clothes were piled untidily on a chair. He tumbled some of these on the floor as he seized his coat, and he plunged his hand into the breast-pocket. Annie could not see what he found there, but apparently it confirmed his suspicions. He stared vacantly across the room for several seconds, the coat dangling from his hands.