Know Thy Neighbor, Page 3

for her.

  She kept her head down, not looking at his face, and they walked, Indianfile, across the lobby to the elevator. He opened the elevator doors,too, and she stepped in ahead of him.

  * * * * *

  When the doors clanged shut, she had a feeling of panic. Alone with him... cut off from help. He didn't pretend not to know her floor, butsilently pressed the proper button. While the car moved slowly upward,her heart was beating wildly.

  I'm not convinced, she thought, I'm not convinced. I saw it so plainly... I felt it, cold in my hands.

  The elevator stopped. The man held the door open and for a moment shethought he was going to say something. His free hand made a swift,involuntary movement as though he were going to catch her arm. Sheshrank away, but he stepped back and let her through.

  Ellen almost ran down the hall. Behind her, she heard his footstepsgoing in the opposite direction toward his apartment. She was pantingwhen she reached her door. She fumbled for the right key--front door,office--and then she froze. There was a scratching sound in theapartment.

  She put her ear close to the door, listened. There was a rasping noise,like somebody dragging a rake ... or like claws, great heavy claws,moving over the hardwood floors!

  Ellen backed away from the door. It was true, then. She retreated, inchby inch, silently. Get away, leave before it catches you! She turned,ready to make a dash for the elevator ... and faced the man from 410.

  Down at the end of the hall, in front of his apartment, he was watchingher. The way he lingered outside the restaurant, the way he looked ather. One of _them_ ... maybe underneath that homely, ordinary face, hisskin was green and clammy. Maybe there were long, sharp claws on hisfeet.

  She was breathing unevenly now. Trapped! The thing in the apartment, theman in the hall. Her eyes darted to the elevator, then back, down thehall, past the door marked 404 ... the door marked 404! She covered thefew yards in a mad dash, flung herself at the door, pounding wildly.

  "Please, please!" she sobbed. "Mrs. Moffatt, open, please!"

  The door opened at once. Mrs. Moffatt's round, wrinkled face beamed ather.

  "Come in, my dear, come in."

  She almost fell over the landing. The door closed behind her.

  She stumbled to the davenport, sank down, gasping. Two cats rubbedagainst her legs, purring. Two cats?

  She heard herself say stupidly, "Mrs. Moffatt, where's the other cat?"and wondered why she said it.

  Then she understood.

  The old lady's face quivered, altered, melted into something ...something green.

  * * * * *

  Outside in the hall, the man from 410 slowly returned to his apartment.Pushing open the door, he thought, I'll never get the nerve to ask herout.

  Well, probably wasn't a chance, anyhow. What would a girl like her haveto do with a lousy cop like me?