April Evil

by John D. MacDonald

  That had been good and the change in the other two had been good also, the way they looked at him. The uneasiness. The aroma of fascination. The way people speak in lower voices when they stand outside the cage of the tiger.

  He opened his eyes and stepped quickly out of the bed, with no morning slowness, completely alert and coordinated. As he showered he grinned at the perfection of his own judgment of Mullin’s reaction. Mullin would not try it alone. Mullin needed him. So Mullin could take no action against him. The odds had changed a great deal. Just Mullin and the woman were left.

  Today was the day. He felt a fresh rising excitement. Between now and when he slept again, a great deal would happen. It would be a full day. Things could not be planned ahead. This one would have to be planned from moment to moment.

  When Sally Leon awoke she heard someone humming in the kitchen and realized it was Ronnie. She heard Harry running water in the bathroom. There was a sharp odor in the room. She sat up and looked at the boy. His eyes were wide and miserable. He lay on the floor as she had left him. He had wet himself and the blanket under him.

  “You couldn’t help it, kid,” she said softly. His expression did not change. “Don’t be scared, kid. They’re going to leave you here. People will find you quick.”

  But she saw a different image. They might not look in this house. They might not add the obvious two and two. It might be several days. And that would be too late for the kid. Poor kid, he is probably awfully thirsty by now. Maybe Harry would let me get him something. Kids get thirsty and hungry.

  She put on a robe and went to the kitchen. Ronnie winked at her. “Good morning, glorious!”

  It made her feel cold and funny to look into his eyes. “Good morning,” she said weakly.

  When she opened the refrigerator he came up behind her and put his arms around her, slipping one hand inside the robe to cup her breast.

  “Cut it out!”

  “I can’t. I’m overcome. You’re so lovely in the morning.”

  She twisted away from him and pulled the belt tighter. He laughed at her. She poured a glass of milk and took it into the bedroom. She knelt beside the kid.

  “Kid, they wouldn’t want me to take that off your mouth. But you ought to have something to drink. Here’s milk. Promise you won’t yell and get me in trouble and I’ll give it to you. Promise?”

  The wide eyes were on her and the boy nodded. She got the edge of the tape and stripped it off his mouth. It pulled the fine blonde hair from around his mouth and he winced with pain but did not cry out. She supported him with an arm around his back and held the glass to his lips. He drank the milk eagerly. When it was gone she lowered him again.

  “What are they going to do to me?” he whispered.

  “Nothing,” she said. She put the tape back, pressed it down firmly and moved away from him as Mullin came out of the bathroom. He saw the glass before she could hide it behind her.

  “What the hell have you been doing?”

  “I … I gave him some milk.”

  He looked at the kid and then looked at her. “I guess it’s okay. He didn’t try to yell?”

  “No.”

  “He’s a smart kid. You are a smart kid, aren’t you? Only this morning you don’t smell so good. Sal, you want to try anything like that, you check with me first. You do that again and I’ll rough you up a little. Check?”

  “Okay, Harry.”

  “Why is Ronnie doing that damn singing? He feel good?”

  “I guess so.”

  The sun climbed higher into the deep blue of the sky. Its color faded to yellow and then to a blinding white. The white sand beaches were glaring. Tourist flesh baked in the sun. A thousand bottles of lotion were uncapped. The young couple who had run hand in hand into the water at dawn were back out on the beach after breakfast, the private beach near their motel. She lay face down on a green blanket. He poured sun-hot lotion into the palm of his hand and greased the long smooth muscles of her young back, and the round calves and the backs of her knees and the backs of the firm thighs. His hand caressed her. They talked in low voices. The girl laughed. They got up and walked back to the room, laughing together, hips bumping together awkwardly as they walked over the loose sand, his arm around her in the first sequence of possession.

  The bride felt better. The days were not so bad. In the daytime she could look at him on the beach and not feel badly at all. She wanted the sun to stay high. She wanted it to be daytime forever. Then life would be good. But, as it always had, the night would come, and she thought about it and felt chilled, even in the sun heat.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The bright day moved slowly along, like a carnival float going down a gay holiday street.

  In the Mather house the three of them, Ronnie, Mullin and the woman, wore white canvas work gloves. They went from room to room rubbing their hands over everything that had been touched. Mullin kept them taut. He wanted no mistakes.

  “And from now on you keep the gloves on until you’re out of the house. Get it?”

  “That’s the fourth time you’ve said so,” Ronnie said.

  “I’ll say it four hundred times. They’ll identify the Ace. They don’t have to be able to identify us. It’ll give us more time. Sal, did you do the medicine cabinet?”

  “Yes,” she said wearily.

  “Ronnie, go get the car gassed and have them check the tires and under the hood.”

  After Ronnie left, Mullin put Sal back to work in the kitchen. Keeping the gloves on, he turned on the radio. After five minutes of music the eleven o’clock news came on.

  “A city-wide search continues for Toby Piersall, eleven-year-old son of Benjamin Piersall, prominent local attorney. The boy left his home on Huntington Drive some time last evening. It is feared that the boy has been kidnapped.”

  He listened to the description and the rest of the report. There was no mention of road blocks. He cursed his bad luck in having the boy recognize him. He wondered why Ronnie was taking so long. He wondered if he’d been picked up. The whole thing was getting fouled up. It had looked easy. Maybe he had planned this one too close. Maybe it would have been better to move right in on it as soon as they hit town. Or at least as soon as the Ace had arrived.

  His stomach was knotted up and his hands shook. He knew this was the worst time. It would be better when they began to roll. Then there would be an outlet for tension. Waiting was bad. Waiting was the worst.

  He heard Ronnie drive in. He went to the front windows, gun in his hand. Ronnie was alone. He put the gun away. The tension made him yawn.

  When the phone rang again in the Piersall house, Ben grabbed it quickly. “Yes?”

  “Ben, this is Lennie.”

  “Oh.”

  “Have you heard anything yet about Toby?”

  “No. Nothing at all.”

  “I’m terrible sorry, Ben. I hope everything will be … all right.”

  “Thanks, Lennie.”

  “About last night. That was pretty messy. I know it must have been horrid.”

  “It seems like longer ago than last night.”

  “I guess it would. I know how worried you are. I don’t want to bother you, Ben. But I’ve got a crazy thing I want to do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Call it self-punishment or something. I don’t know. But I want to go see Uncle Paul and tell him the whole thing.”

  “That won’t help any.”

  “I know it won’t. It’s like burning a last bridge. I know he won’t forget it or forgive it. He isn’t that type. But I want to burn our last bridge. Then we’ll know we’ve only got our own feet to stand on. We’ll know there’s no pot of gold in our future. I don’t think it has done us any good, planning on that money. So I want to put it out of reach for keeps.”

  “This doesn’t sound like you.”

  “I know it. I want to know what you think.”

  “As a lawyer?”

  “As a person. I don’t know how to
explain it. We’re going to try to … start fresh. But it’s going to be hard for both of us.”

  “If you think it would help, then go tell Doctor Tomlin. He suspects anyway. It might even give him a little respect for you.”

  “I want Dil to come with me.”

  “Does he want to?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t told him yet. But I think he’ll understand. We’re trying, but it’s … so hard, Ben.”

  “It will be.”

  “Don’t you think it’s time I grew up, though?”

  “If you can manage it. If you don’t get bored.”

  “That’s a low blow.”

  “I meant it to be. Would you mind if we cut this short? I want to keep the phone clear.”

  “Of course. Goodbye. And thanks.”

  “Good luck, Lennie.”

  Joan put her hand on Ben’s shoulder. “What did she want?”

  “She wants to confess. To Doctor Tomlin. For the good of her soul or something. She’s trying hard to turn over a new leaf.”

  “Somehow I can’t get very interested in whether she does or doesn’t. Somehow I can’t get the least bit interested in her problems. They seem rather small to me today.”

  “We ought to hear soon.”

  Joan shuddered. “They’re searching the beaches. That makes me feel sick. Searching the beaches.”

  “Not only the beaches. Empty houses, fields, everywhere. Dan says even little kids sometimes get legitimate amnesia. They’ve broadcast his description all over the place, honey.”

  She spun violently away from him, shoulders hunched. She stumbled in the doorway as she left the room. He felt a weary helpless exasperation. What could you do? What could you say? Everything sounded wrong. There had to be an end to this. Some sort of ending. It couldn’t go on this way.

  Joe Preston got up at eleven thirty. He had slept beyond his hangover. He felt dulled and tired and very very hungry. He guessed that he would be doghoused for a time. But what the hell. That was a nice couple. And the girl had gone for him. She’d made that pretty clear. You had to have some friends. You couldn’t stay locked up forever in this stone barn. Even in jail you could have friends.

  As he reached the landing he saw Laurie coming up the stairs toward him. She walked through a slant of sunlight and she looked very good to him.

  “Hey!” he said and she started in surprise.

  “Oh, you’re up.”

  “You look lush, angel.” He caught her wrist and pulled her close to kiss her.

  He expected reluctance. He expected her to look hurt and weepy. He did not expect the reaction he received. She yanked her hand away so violently that he nearly toppled down the stairs. She backed away from him, circling him on the landing. “Don’t touch me!” she said in a quiet deadly voice. “Don’t ever touch me!”

  “Honey,” he complained, “just what in the world is …”

  “Be quiet. Don’t whine at me. Just leave me alone.”

  He watched her go up the rest of the stairs, sturdy hips pumping under the cotton skirt, head high, not looking back. He scrubbed his head with his knuckles. He felt abused. What made her so mad? He’d just tied a package on. Not too bad a one, considering. What got into her all of a sudden?

  He began to feel less abused and more angry. She was getting a lot of big ideas lately. Maybe she’d have to be knocked around a little. He’d never had to try that. But he’d thought about it. It was a weapon in reserve. It was a marital privilege.

  He went on down into the kitchen. Arnold silently fixed him some breakfast. He sat at the table in the kitchen and ate hungrily as he read the sports page of the morning paper. In the back of his mind he wondered if he should go out and hunt up that pair again. Maybe it was a little too soon. Tomorrow would be Saturday. Maybe he and the girl could give that Ronnie the brush. Today would be a good day to stay in. Work Laurie back into a friendly mood. Maybe do a little work around the yard. That would make a good impression on Laurie and on the old man too.

  At four o’clock in the afternoon, Dil Parks knew he had to call Lennie back. He had thought over her proposal until his head ached. She had some crazy idea about atonement. He knew how Uncle Paul would take it. It would be murderous. In a vague way he could see the sense of her idea. It made poor practical sense and good emotional sense.

  She answered the phone on the third ring.

  “I’ve thought it over. If you want to, it’s okay with me. Maybe the old bastard might even like your doing it, but I doubt it.”

  “I have to do something positive, Dil. Like a seal on my good intentions. I want us to be absolutely without any resource but ourselves.”

  “You’re going to get your wish,” he said gloomily.

  “Humor me. I’m a silly woman. Be strong and humor me.”

  “Sure. I’ll pick you up about five and we’ll go out there. But don’t plan on me doing any of the talking.”

  “I’ll do it all.”

  At five o’clock they were ready, Mullin, Crown and the woman. Contents of the suitcases had been bundled in sheets and piled in the trunk compartment. Empty suitcases were in the back seat. Mullin was satisfied that the house was clean of prints. The car was parked, heading out the drive.

  Mullin looked at his watch. He looked at his hand. His hand and arm were steady. “All right. I’ll drive it. You in the back, Ronnie. Sal, you beside me. We’ll take it through the gate. Got the rock and rope, Ronnie?”

  “Right here.”

  “Once we’re through the gate, you slide under the wheel, Sal, when I get out. Turn it around and head it out and leave the motor running. We’ll come out fast. Slide over when you see us coming. Give one blast on the horn if we get company. Okay, get in the car. I’ll lock up.”

  “Wait a minute,” the woman said. “I want to go back in for just a minute.”

  “No.”

  “Please, Harry.”

  “Well, hurry it up then.”

  She went into the house. He stood by the open door. She went into the bathroom off their bedroom. She flushed the toilet and ran immediately to the boy. She stripped the adhesive harshly from his arms and wrists. She did not look at his face and she said in a low quick voice, “Wait ten minutes before you leave, kid.”

  She paused, as though to seek understanding or reassurance in the terrified eyes of the child. This was an act not carefully planned, but rather the result of slow resolve that had been growing within her since she understood that the child was to be left behind. Left in the empty house, perhaps not to be found.

  Harry worried too much. Having the kid free would make no difference now. The kid looked too scared to tell a straight story, and even were he able to, they would be long gone before his folks could reason it out. It wouldn’t hurt anything to free him now.

  “Understand?” she said. “Ten minutes. You got to wait.”

  The boy nodded.

  “Get on the stick, Sal,” Harry called.

  She trotted awkwardly back out to the front door. Her reflexes were not good and she could not move her soft body quickly. She went by Mullin. He yanked the door shut and tried the latch and followed her out. He got into the car beside her and put the garish ape mask on the seat between them.

  As he swung the big car out of the drive onto Huntington he said, “You wearing a mask, Ronnie?”

  “It’s too warm today,” Ronnie said in a lazy voice.

  “Suit yourself.”

  “I plan to.”

  The dusty car moved through the late afternoon streets of Flamingo. People were coming back from the beaches, heavy women in shorts with red burned legs, brown young men with smooth arched muscular chests, old people carrying folded stools. Mullin drove carefully, precisely. They moved eastward out beyond the agencies and the used car lots, and turned into an area where the houses were farther apart, where some of them were the grotesque pastry structures of the boom of the twenties. The untended palms wore ruffs of dead fronds. They all looked ahead and s
aw the stone house on the left, the first story invisible behind the wall.

  “There it is,” Mullin said. “Make it cream and silk. We’ve got the time. Do it right.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Arnold Addams was walking slowly from the garage toward the rear of the big house when he heard the quick toot of a horn at the gate. He stopped and looked toward the gate. He saw the Buick and recognized it as belonging to the people who had come home with Mister Joe the day before. He wondered what they wanted with Mister Joe. Those people weren’t too popular with Miss Laurie. But it wasn’t his place to tell them to take off. Somebody else would have to do that.

  As he approached the gate he saw that there were three people in the car. He didn’t get a very good look at them. He swung the double gate open and the car came in so fast he had to jump back out of the way. Didn’t seem as though those folks had much manners. He closed the gate and turned and saw the light-headed fellow trot over into the yard and throw a stone over the telephone wires. He couldn’t figure out what in the world was going on. It looked like some kind of a game. The fellow held onto the other end of the line. When the stone came down he got that part of the line and gave a big yank and the phone lines came loose from the house and came down.

  “Hey there!” Arnold said weakly, but with indignation. You couldn’t have people going around messing up the phone. He turned as the other man came toward him. The other man had a face like an ape-monster. Arnold felt his heart try to stop as he backed away. He heard himself make a funny bleating sound. The ape-monster had a black gun in his hand. The gun swung up and Arnold tried to dodge back as it came down. The side of his head blew off like a rocket and he was down on his hands and knees, knees in the gravel, hands on the soft grass.

  Mullin looked down dispassionately at the man on his hands and knees. The eyeholes of the mask limited side vision. The rubber was hot and his face had begun to sweat. He pivoted for leverage and struck the colored man again with the side of the gun, struck the skull just behind the right ear. The man collapsed onto his face. Ronnie came over. They each took a wrist and dragged him away from the gate, over behind the shelter of the wall.