Beginner's Luck Read Free

He kidnapped me!" Scowling, the bank guard drew his revolver and ran toward the van.
    Joyce followed, staying some distance behind him.
    She watched the guard shove his weapon into the driver's window. Then, stepping back, he pulled open the door. Stevens fell to the sidewalk and didn't move.

"Y ou're quite a young woman," said Lt. Harold Cameron at police headquarters. "The FBI has been trying to nail Morgan for months. That's his real name, Jack Morgan. He's wanted for a whole string of kidnappings. He just picked his victims at random. Then he'd hold them  prisoner in his van until he got his hands on the ransom money."
    "That doesn't seem to be any way to make a haul," Joyce said. "You want to pick wealthy victims, and...."
    "He thought he was being very smart. He figured he would bring down too much heat if he tried for a huge take. So instead he settled for a lot of small ones. And the method worked just fine until you came along."
    "I'm glad I could help," Joyce said. "I knew he wasn't up to any good. I mean, some guy pretending to be a police officer...."
    "You said that you had your doubts about him before you got into his van. Why on earth did you go along with him?"
    "I didn't think my chances would be  very good if I tried to make a run for it inside the parking lot. Remember, I'd seen his gun. I didn't want to get shot. I figured that I'd have a better chance if I could make him crash somewhere along a busy street. I didn't buckle my seat belt when I got in the van. I thought that would make it easier for me to jump clear if we crashed. Then, when I saw that we were going past a bank...."
    "You took a terrible risk," Lieutenant Cameron said.
    Joyce shrugged, as if it were nothing. "I can take care of myself," she said.
    "Those were probably the famous last words of a thousand victims, Miss Walther."
    Her smile slipped just a bit. "Well," she said, "it turned out all right."
    "This time."
    "Don't worry," she said. "After this, I won't trust anyone---not even anyone wearing a uniform and sitting behind a desk at a police headquarters. By the way, do you have some identification?"
    Lieutenant Cameron laughed. "Now you're talking," he said, reaching for his wallet.

RICHARD LAYMON'S speciality is writing horror tales. He is the author of the best-selling book The Cellar and several other horror and suspense novels.