|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Then a sharp cry of pain that ended the shocked silence. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He shook his head and gazed toward the front. The foyer and doorsand whatever might be happeningwere out of sight beyond a corner of the dining area. Waitresses and a few guests started rushing that way. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'I'd better . . .' he muttered, shoving back his chair. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'No, stay here. Don't involve yourself in . . . John!' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He hurried along with the others, passed the corner and saw a waitress tugging at the arm of a wildman who sat astride the overturned hostess station and bounced on it, pounding the heavy wooden lectern against the chest of the young woman pinned beneath it. Her scarlet face was twisted with pain. Her breasts had popped out of her bodice, and they shook as she strained to shove away the punishing weight. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The man, sodden and black (it's the parking attendant who gave me the dirty look, John realized), flung the clinging waitress off his arm. As she stumbled backward, a guy in a sport coat shot his foot out, ramming the lunatic's shoulder and knocking him off the lectern. That man and two others threw themselves onto him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
John tumbled the lectern off the hostess. He knelt beside her. Wheezing for breath, she drew up her knees and hugged her ribcage. Her teeth were bared and she whipped her head from side to side. John took off his |
|
|
|
|
|