Excerpt - Mania for Murder

By Dixon Rice

Arthur Whitelaw woke to the swift sense of terror in his heart. The room was in darkness and his eyes, wide open, tried to pierce the gloom.  In that brief instant he was conscious that he was not alone. Somewhere in this room with him was an intruder. Whitelaw held his breath, listening, and from the other side of the room he fancied he heard the faint rhythm of breathing. He listen without moving, conscious of the growth of terror in his heart. He had to move, to do something, but the truth was that he was afraid to move. Normally he was not a man who was easily frightened; but this fear of the unknown was something new, something different. The swiftness of it had dug deeply into this emotion of fear. he lay there without moving, and suddenly he was conscious of the diminution of fear. courage was flooding back into his soul. He listened. On the other side of the room the intruder had not moved.