Dangerous Women

by Otto Penzler (ed)

  “Aren’t you hungry?” she inquired solicitously as Susannah poked one thing with her fork, and then another without eating. “I’d have thought the walk along the beach would have given you an appetite. It has me.” And she proceeded to eat with relish.

  Kate had no idea. Susannah knew that as she saw her begin to eat hungrily as well. She might be aware of Tonia’s knowledge of her love affair with Ralph, even how far it had gone, but she was not afraid. Was she blind? Did she really not understand Tonia at all, for all the years they had known each other, growing up, and after?

  “Aren’t you feeling well?” Tonia asked with concern, looking at Susannah still probing at the food rather than eating it. “Shall I get you something else?”

  The moment froze. Incredibly, Kate was not looking at her, but Tonia was, mockery in her eyes. She knew Susannah was afraid, and she was enjoying it.

  “No… no thank you.” Susannah made the decision from reflex, not judgment. “This is fine. I was just thinking.” She took a deliberate mouthful.

  “Something interesting?” Tonia inquired.

  Susannah made up a quick lie. She wished she could have thought of something useful, something defensive, or at the very least, warning. “Only about what we might do tomorrow, if the weather is fine, of course.”

  “Ah, the future!” Tonia rolled the words around her tongue. “I was quite wrong. You see I imagined you were thinking of the past. It’s wonderful to be here, free as the wind, with tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, in which to do whatever we please-isn’t it, Susannah!”

  “To choose among options, anyway,” Susannah replied.

  Tonia looked surprised. “You feel limited? What is there you would like to do, and can’t? Is there something you want? Something you can’t have?” She turned slightly. “And what about you, Kate? Is there anything you want, and can’t have?”

  Kate looked up, puzzled. “Not more than anyone else. Why?” She glanced at Susannah. “What do you want to do?”

  Leave, but she could not say that, and she could not do it without Tonia. She had the car, and the keys to it. And anyway, if she did run, it would seem like the confession of a guilty conscience. She had nothing to be guilty about. Ralph was a thief, planning to buy his way to state office with corruption. The fact that he was her brother-in-law excused nothing.

  “I really don’t care,” she replied awkwardly.

  “We could climb round the point,” Tonia suggested. “When the tide’s out, the rock pools are full of all sorts of things-sea anemones, urchins, razor shells, starfish.” She smiled. “It’s beautiful.”

  And dangerous, Susannah thought with an inward clenching of her stomach. One slip and you could break a leg, cut your arm open on one of the razor shells, even, at the right tide, fall off an edge high enough, deep enough, and drown. Out on the farthest edge, even get taken off by a wave.

  “I’d rather walk along the beach,” she replied. “Or up in the woods for a change.”

  Tonia smiled. “Whatever,” she said with quiet satisfaction. “Would you like coffee? Or tea, perhaps? That would be better in the evening. Or how about hot chocolate? Shall I make hot chocolate for all of us?” She half-rose as if it had already been accepted.

  Kate said “yes,” and Susannah “no” at the same moment. Tonia chose to hear the “yes.” Susannah said “no” again, and Tonia ignored her. “It’ll be good for you,” she said over her shoulder. “Help you sleep.”

  “What’s the matter with you?” Kate asked. “Anyone would think she was going to poison you!”

  The evening passed so slowly it assumed the proportions of a nightmare. They sat around the fire facing each other, sipping chocolate after the dishes were washed. The air had chilled considerably, and the wind had risen.

  “I think there could be a storm,” Kate remarked, a smile on her lips.

  “Oh yes,” Tonia agreed. “I’m quite sure there will be.”

  There were several moments of silence except for a low moan outside and the rattling in the eaves where a tile was loose.

  “Ralph used to like storms,” Tonia went on.

  “No he didn’t!” Kate said instantly, then almost bit her tongue. “Did he?” she added, too late.

  Tonia looked wide-eyed. “My dear, are you asking me?”

  Kate flushed pink. “Perhaps I misunderstood,” she said lamely.

  “Who? Me, or Ralph?” Tonia inquired.

  “I really don’t remember. It hardly matters!” Kate snapped.

  But Tonia would not let it go. “Did you have a particular storm in mind?”

  “I told you!” Kate was angry now, and guilty. Susannah could see the shame in her eyes, and she was absolutely certain Tonia could. “I don’t remember! It was a misunderstanding.”

  “About likes and dislikes?” Tonia went on. “Or love and hate? How can you mistake one for the other… do you suppose?” She looked as if she were intensely interested, without emotion, until one saw the clenched fist by her side, and the rigid line of her back.

  “Maybe the difference between fear and excitement,” Kate responded, staring at her, meeting the challenge at last.

  “Oh yes!” Tonia agreed with satisfaction. “Excitement, the fear of danger, the roar of thunder and the chance of being struck by lightning. You mistook the fear for love?”

  Kate’s face was scarlet.

  Susannah sat, her muscles locked as if any moment the explosion would come. She dreaded it, but she knew now that it was inevitable. It would happen some time, tonight, tomorrow, the day after, but before they went home, that was certain.

  “Or the love for fear?” Kate met the challenge squarely.

  Tonia shook her head. “Oh no,” she said with a tight little smile. “One knows love, believe me, dear. If you ever meet it, you’ll understand.” And she stood up, smiled at each of them in turn, and wished them goodnight. She went to the door and added, “Sleep soundly,” and went out.

  Kate turned to Susannah. She seemed about to ask her something, then realized she could not afford to raise the subject with her. She had no idea how much she knew, or where her loyalties would lie. She let out her breath again with a sigh, and they spent another miserable half-hour, then went to bed also.

  Susannah took a long time to go to sleep, in spite of the comfortable sounds of wind and rain outside. She woke with a violent start, crying out in fear.

  Tonia was sitting on the end of her bed, one of the pillows in her hands. For a freezing instant pure tension gripped Susannah and she scrambled to sit upright, throwing the entangling bedclothes off her legs so she could fight freely.

  Tonia looked amazed. “That must have been some nightmare!” she said with a shadow of amusement in her face.

  “N… nightmare?” Susannah stammered.

  “Yes. You were crying out in your sleep. That’s why I came.”

  Susannah realized it was still dark, the bedroom light was on, but beyond the curtains it was black. She could not take her eyes off Tonia to look at the clock on the bedside table. She had not been dreaming, she was absolutely certain of that. She always remembered her dreams. “What’s the pillow for?” she demanded, her voice dry and a little wobbly. Had she only just avoided being suffocated in her sleep?

  “You knocked it onto the floor,” Tonia replied.

  She hadn’t. It was extra. She already had two on the bed. Her heart was beating wildly, pounding in her chest, her pulse racing. Should she challenge Tonia now, tear it out into the open and face it? Dare she? That would make it irrevocable. Then what? What was left of their relationship after that?

  “No, I didn’t,” she said breathlessly. “I’ve still got two!”

  Tonia smiled, as if that were exactly what she had wanted her to say. “You had three, dear. One to prop you up if you wished to read.” She gave a very slight laugh, dry and brittle. “Did you think I brought it in here to suffocate you with? Why on earth would I do that? Have you done something dread
ful that I don’t know about? Is that why you don’t eat well, and wake up screaming in the night?” She stood up, still holding the extra pillow in her arms.

  “No, of course it isn’t!” Susannah snapped. Then she looked straight at Tonia. “You already know all there is to be known!”

  “Yes,” Tonia agreed softly. “Yes… I do!” And still carrying the pillow, she went out and closed the door silently, as totally silently as she had come.

  Breakfast was miserable. Susannah had a nagging headache, Kate looked tense and also seemed unable to eat. Only Tonia was relentlessly cheerful and apparently full of energy. She cooked and served, asking both the others solicitously if they had slept, if they were well, if she could do anything more for them.

  “You look hungover,” she said briskly to Susannah. “A good walk around the point would make you feel far better. And you too, Kate. We should go now. The weather’s cleared and the tide’s just right. And I’d enjoy it as well. Get your coats and come.” She did not wait for them but grasped her own coat off the peg by the door and, putting one arm through the sleeve, went outside into the windy sunshine.

  Kate was undecided.

  “Come on!” Tonia called. “It’s a wonderful morning! Crisp and sweet, and I can hear a blackbird singing. The wind’s coming in off the sea, and it smells like heaven.”

  Susannah suddenly made up her mind. She would face it, even provoke it if necessary, but she was not going to spend the rest of the week, let alone the rest of her life, being afraid of Tonia and letting her manipulate her into guilt and wild idiotic imaginings every time she felt like it. It was not her fault Ralph had had an affair with Kate, or that he’d tried to use her. It was not her fault he was corrupt, or that the court had found him guilty and sent him to jail. He was guilty! And it was not her fault one of the other prisoners had killed him. That last might not have been deserved, it might have been as tragic and unjust as Tonia believed, but Susannah was not going to take the blame for it.

  But she would rather not face it alone. “Come on, Kate!” she added with decision. “A big clean wind blowing through everything will do us a lot of good!”

  Kate obeyed, reluctantly, and the three of them walked abreast up to the rise at the edge of the grass, over the heavy stones and at last onto the thin rim of hard sand at the edge of the tide. All of them were watching for the odd big waves, and ran very smartly up the stones when they came, always just avoiding getting wet.

  They went toward the rocky point where the tidal pools were full of treasures. They reached the beginning of the outcrop and started to climb carefully, watching every foothold, Tonia first, then Kate, Susannah last. They went as far out as there was a decent place to stand, Susannah the lowest and closest to where the deep water rushed past, white spume hurling in over the teeth of the rocks, and sucking back, dragging the sand and stones and shells. Farther out, beyond the very edge of the point, five ranks of waves, one beyond the other, roared in, heads bent, foam and spray flying, boiling over to cover the whole face of the sea with white.

  It was a time when no words were necessary, but Tonia spoke.

  “Magnificent, isn’t it? Elemental, like the great passions of life.”

  Kate looked away. “I suppose so.” She was staring along the shore at the curve of the beach and the miles of coast with rocks and spurs and jagged standing outcrops as far as the eye could see.

  “Oh, yes,” Tonia went on. “I can understand passion, even the lust that’s so strong it overtakes all morality, and you want something so badly you just take it, even if it belongs to someone else. Can’t you, Kate?”

  Kate swung around, the wind blowing her hair across her face. She pushed it back impatiently. She was close to Tonia, but about three feet lower. “For God’s sake shut up about it!” she shouted. “You knew Ralph and I were in love! I’m sorry! He was your husband, and he loved me. I loved him too! We couldn’t both have him. You lost.”

  “Both?” Tonia laughed, and control of it escaped her, her voice rising high and wild. “He’s dead, Kate! He died in a toilet in the state prison! He was stabbed in the belly, and bled to death there on the floor! Nobody near him! Not you, not me, not even dear Susannah!”

  Kate swayed as if she would lose her balance. “What do you mean, Susannah? He wasn’t in love with her! He didn’t even like her!”

  “Of course he didn’t like her!” Tonia shouted back, her eyes narrowed, her lips drawn tight over her teeth. “But he knew she was clever! He tried to use her, at the bank. But our dear little Susannah didn’t want to be used. She wanted to have him, and if she couldn’t, she’d rather destroy him. She doesn’t take rejection well, our little sister! When he asked for her help, and she wished him to become her lover as the price, and he brushed her off, she took her revenge. And perfect it was! She betrayed him to the police-got together all the evidence, created any that was lacking, and set him up! There was no way he could escape it. Poor Ralph! He had no idea what jealousy and rejection would do to her. She might just as well have stuck the knife into him herself!”

  Kate wheeled around, almost overbalancing, her face white, eyes blazing with a passion of rage. She started down toward Susannah, covering the few yards between them, jumping, scrambling, incredibly not slipping.

  “I didn’t!” Susannah yelled, stepping backward, toward the edge of the rocks and the racing sea. “I didn’t make up anything! Everything I gave the police was exactly what he was doing!”

  “You gave him up!” Kate said with incredulous fury. “It was you who betrayed Ralph!” But it was not a question. She had heard the knowledge in Tonia’s voice, and the guilt in Susannah’s. She launched herself at Susannah and flung both of them backward onto the rocks. The next wave roared past them, knocking the breath out of their bodies, ice cold, and leaving them struggling on the shelf of the rock to the edge where it fell straight down.

  “I didn’t betray him!” Susannah gasped, trying to throw Kate off her and scramble back up again. “He was going to steal money to finance his run for the Senate! I stopped him. Damn it, get off me! Ralph was playing you both for fools! He was corrupt as hell!”

  Kate hit her, hard, across the side of the face, hurling her off balance backward to the rock shelf again.

  “You killed him!” she cried in a howl of anguish. “He loved me! I could have prevented him from doing that! If you’d come to me, I’d have saved him!” She was sobbing as memory, broken dreams and unbearable loneliness swept over her. “I loved him! I could have…”

  “I know you loved him!” Susannah put her hand up to her burning face and crawled sideways to where the shelf was wider. “But he didn’t love anyone, not you, not Tonia, not anyone at all! Kate! The man you loved never existed!”

  “Yes he did! He could have…”

  “He could have… but he didn’t! He chose not to!”

  “No he didn’t!” Tonia shouted, coming down toward them. “It’s not true, Kate. She took the chance from him! She killed him! Go on!”

  Kate hesitated. She could push Susannah back off the edge, hard down into the water.

  “Go on!” Tonia screamed. “She killed Ralph! She betrayed him, sent him to that filthy place to be murdered! On the toilet floor! Ralph… beautiful, happy, magical Ralph! Susannah destroyed him!” She was just behind Kate now, only feet away.

  Susannah could hear the waves crash in behind her, then crunch on the stones, draw in and suck back. How many had there been while she was crouched here? Three, four, five?

  Kate turned from Tonia to Susannah, and back.

  “Do it!” Tonia cried again. “If you loved Ralph, do it! She took him from you! He didn’t want her, so she smashed everything.”

  “He didn’t want any of us!” Susannah shouted desperately. “He only wanted the Senate-the power and the money!”

  Kate swiveled back to Susannah and took another step toward her, her skin whipped by the wind, eyes wide.

  Susannah saw Tonia just beyond her, t
he hatred naked in her face. “Haven’t you the guts to do it yourself?” she shouted. “No wonder Ralph wanted Kate! At least she has her own passions, not someone else’s! You coward!” She was crouching now, balanced.

  Tonia’s lips pulled back in a snarl of anger and she lunged forward, knocking aside Kate, who slipped and fell, grasping onto the weed to save herself.

  Susannah moved sideways, twisting her leg and falling as Tonia landed. Now they were side by side, only feet apart. Susannah started to crawl back up the slope again, her leg stabbing with pain.

  “That’s right!” Tonia called with searing derision. “Crawl away! D’you think I can’t catch you?” She started forward, slowly, spinning it out.

  Susannah heard the wave before she saw it, taller, heavier than the others, the sneaker wave with all the hungry power of the ocean within.

  “The wave!” she called out. She did not want to warn Tonia, but the words were out before she thought. “Look out!”

  Tonia was laughing. She did not believe her.

  “Look out!” Susannah screamed.

  The wave broke, high and white, pouring over rocks with an obliterating roar. It was only up to Tonia’s knees, but the strength of it tore away her feet from the ground and pulled her into its cauldron.

  Kate was soaked, but she clung onto the weed and was left gasping.

  Susannah was blinded for a moment, her clothes drenched with the spray, but she pushed the wet hair out of her eyes to see Tonia struggle, arms and legs flailing for a moment, then swallowed up, no more than a dark mass in the heart of the wave as it sucked back into the ocean and folded into itself back again into deep water.

  Kate was sobbing, trying to stand up, her face ashen.

  “You can’t do anything,” Susannah said quietly. “We’d better climb higher, there’ll be another one, there always is.”