Knock, Knock! Who's There?

by James Hadley Chase

  “My lucky charm.” He grinned. “St. Christopher. My mother gave it to me. Know what she said just before she died? She said ‘As long as you have that nothing really bad can happen to you’”.

  “You’re an Italian, aren’t you?”

  “That’s right, but I was born in Florida.”

  “Well, don’t lose it,” and she carried the basket into the kitchen.

  Taking the rod and tackle, he got in the motorboat and started the engine. It was good to be in a boat again, and an hour later when he had landed a four- pound bass, he decided he hadn’t spent a nicer morning since he was a kid.

  He felt absurdly proud of himself when he carried the bass into the kitchen and saw Freda’s look of surprise.

  “You’re quite a fisherman!” she said. “Put it down there. I’ll attend to it.”

  “I’ve gutted it… used to fish a lot when I was a kid: hadn’t much else to eat. That smells good.”

  “Ed gets a free meal in Richville. I thought I’d spend some of your money.” She looked at him. “Beef casserole. Like to give me some rent? I’ve spent all I bad.”

  “Why, sure.” He went into his bedroom, unlocked the suitcase and took out two ten dollar bills. Then returning, he handed them to her.

  “Thanks.” She put the money in a shabby little purse. “We can eat.”

  While they were eating, she asked, “What do you plan to do? Just sit around here?”

  “If I’m not in the way. I’m taking a vacation and this suits me fine.”

  “You’re easy to please.” The bitter note in her voice made him glance at her.

  “Yeah, I can guess it gets monotonous after a time. Ed was telling me about this shrimp contract.”

  “He’s crazy!” She forked beef into her mouth. “The moment I can lay my hands on some money, I’m off! God! I’m sick of this way of life, but we’re stuck for money.”

  “It’s tough. He seems to work like a slave. I’m sorry.”

  “He works all right, but does he kid himself! He’ll never be anything. There are finks who slave themselves to death and never amount to anything… he’s one of them.” The bright blue eyes met his. “What do you do for a living?”

  “Rent collecting. I got fed up with it, sold everything and when my money runs out, I’m going to get a job on a boat. I’m crazy about boats.”

  “Boats?” She grimaced. “What sort of living can you make out of boats? Fishing? Is that a living?”

  “A living doesn’t worry me. I just want to get on a boat.”

  She laid down her knife and fork.

  “Some ambition.”

  “And you? If you had enough money to get away from here, what would you do?”

  “Live! I’m twenty-six. I know men go for me.” She stared directly at him. “You go for me, don’t you?”

  “So what’s that to do with it?”

  “If I could get to Miami, I’d find a man and I’d squeeze every dollar out of him for services rendered. You know something? I thought this was the golden land of opportunity when I landed here three years ago. Was I green? I spent two months in New York in a Travel Agency, routing old jerks to Sweden. God! Was that a bore! Then I got a transfer down to Jacksonville: the same old bore. Then one day… my unlucky day… when I was fed up to my back teeth, I had to run into Ed, full of plans of starting up in the haulage business, owning his own truck, in a year owning two trucks, in four years a fleet of trucks… really in the money! So I married him! Okay, I asked for it and got it! We came here. ‘Give me a year,’ he said, ‘and you’ll see. Let’s rough it for a year, then I’ll get another truck.’ That’s two years ago! And what a man! What a man to live with!” She looked directly at Johnny. “Are you on to him?”

  “What does that mean?”

  “He’s kinky. High heels and whips. So we sleep apart. He gets his fun in Richville and I get my fun fishing!”

  Johnny lifted his hands and let them fall heavily on his knees.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” She got to her feet. “Come on, lodger. You want me and I need a man. This time it’s for free. Next time, it’ll cost you. I’ve got to save money and get out of here or I’ll damn well drown myself.”

  Johnny remained seated.

  “I want you, Freda, but not on those terms,” he said, quietly. “I’ve never paid for it and I never will.”

  She stared at him, then she smiled.

  “I think I’m going to like you, Johnny,” she said. “I think you’re all man. No conditions… let’s see how good you really are.”

  He got up and putting his arm around her waist, cupping her heavy breast, he went with her into his tiny bedroom.

  “What’s the time?”

  Her voice sounded lazy and sleepy.

  Johnny lifted his wrist. It was a few minutes after 15.00. She lay naked, her body on his, her blonde head half on his shoulder and half on the pillow.

  “Just after three.”

  “Oh, damn! I must go to the village.” She swung off him and on

  to her feet, standing, looking down at him.

  He looked up, feasting his eyes on her suntanned body. He reached up to touch her, but she moved out of his reach.

  “Do you want to come with me?”

  He very nearly said he would, then he remembered it would be safer to keep out of sight, to keep away from the village.

  “I guess I’ll stay: What have you got to go for?”

  “The mail if any and the newspaper. Ed likes the newspaper.”

  “Anything I can do while you’re away?”

  “You’ve done enough.” She smiled down at him. “You’re not much to look at but you know how to satisfy a woman.”

  “Good?”

  “Hmmm.”

  She went away and reaching for a cigarette Johnny lit up, then relaxed on the bed.

  She had been good too, he thought: starving for it. He lay there, thinking about her for the next half hour, then getting off the bed, he took a swim.

  He was dressed and sitting on the deck when she returned in the motorboat. The time now was 16.30. He helped her scramble up on deck, then tied up the boat.

  “Want to see the paper?” She offered it to him. “I’ll stuff the bass,” and she left him.

  Newspapers seldom interested Johnny except to read the Sport’s news. He glanced at the headlines, found nothing to hold his attention, turned to page two, paused to read an account of a girl who had been found raped and murdered, grimaced, then flicked through the rest of the pages until he came to the funnies. He read “Peanuts” and grinned, then as he was turning to the Sports’ page a headline caught his eyes.

  HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?

  $10,000 Reward

  Then with a sudden cold sick feeling he saw his own photograph.

  With shaking hands he read the letterpress.

  Dyson & Dyson! Carlo Tanza’s attorneys!

  Had Freda seen this? He decided by the way the newspaper was folded when she handed it to him she hadn’t opened it.

  With sweat beads on his face, he studied the photograph. It had been taken some twenty years ago: a prison shot and yet there was a likeness. His hand went to his beard. No! No one could recognize him from this photograph!

  Known to favour a St. Christopher medal.

  The cunning bastards!

  She had seen the medal!

  He looked furtively over his shoulder, his heart thumping. She wanted money! Ten thousand dollars would be more than tempting! All she had to do was to get over to the village and call Dyson & Dyson. They would be in his lap within twenty-four hours and that would be his end!

  What to do?

  His first reaction was to destroy the newspaper, but that wouldn’t help. He knew enough of Tanza’s thoroughness to be sure the ad would run a week… even longer. Sooner or later, either Scott or Freda would see

  Get out fast?

  He was miles from any place. If he left it would have to be in the dar
k. It must be a good ten miles down to the freeway and in the dark, he could get hopelessly lost.

  Could he trust her? Could he trust anyone?

  “Who’s offering ten thousand dollars?”

  She had come up silently behind him and was leaning over his shoulder. He sat rigid, wanting to crumple the newspaper and throw it in the lake, but fear paralysed him. He watched her hand take the paper from his grasp.

  “Ten thousand dollars! Could I use money like that!” She came around and sat by his side.

  He watched her read the letterpress and he knew at once when she came to the fatal line: Known to favour a St. Christopher medal. He saw her stiffen, stare at the photograph, then look at him.

  “Is this you?” she asked and tapped the photograph.

  Johnny hesitated, then he said huskily, “Yes.”

  “Have you lost your memory?”

  He shook his head.

  “Who are these people… Dyson & Dyson?”

  His tongue touched his dry lips.

  “Mafia people,” he said, watching her.

  Her eyes widened.

  “Mafia?”

  “That’s right.”

  She put down the paper.

  “I don’t understand,” and he could see she was shaken, but not so shaken that it curtailed her curiosity.

  “You don’t want to understand.”

  “Are you a mafioso?”

  “No.”

  “Then why are they offering all this money?”

  “They want to find me and kill me,” Johnny said quietly.

  She flinched.

  “Kill you? Why?”

  “I did something bad to them.”

  She stared at him for several moments, then she tore the page containing the advert from the paper and offered it to him.

  “You’d better burn this, hadn’t you? Ten thousand is a lot of

  money. If Ed sees it he could be tempted: it only means a telephone call, doesn’t it?”

  “You mean you wouldn’t be tempted?”

  “Do you think I would?”

  He shrugged helplessly.

  “As you said, it’s a lot of money. You want money. I don’t know.”

  She got to her feet.

  “I’m going for a swim.”

  “Wait… I want you to understand. I…”

  She had piffled off her shirt, struggled out of her stretch pants and pantees and dived into the lake.

  Johnny set fire to the sheet of newspaper, then tossed it still burning into the water. He found he was shaking. He sat there, staring at her bobbing head, watching her swim further and further away. Could he trust her? In the night, might she not start thinking of what that money could mean to her? It only means a telephone call, doesn’t it? She would go across the lake to the village tomorrow. He wouldn’t know if she had telephoned or not until Toni, Ernie and the rest of the mob arrived. He wiped the sweat off his face. He had better get out: pack now and clear out. Yet he didn’t move. It dawned on him that this woman meant more to him than any woman he had ever met.

  Suppose he decided to trust her? Suppose he stayed on? What about Scott? Sooner or later he would see the advert, but he knew nothing about the medal. It was the medal that alerted Freda. He was sure of that. It was the medal that had given him away. Why should Scott connect him with the advert? The photo was taken twenty years ago.

  With shaking fingers he undid the chain around his neck and stared at the medal, lying in his palm.

  As long as you wear this, nothing really bad can happen to you.

  He thought of his mother: a poor, ignorant, superstitious peasant! Goddamn it! Twice the medal bad-landed him in real trouble! If it hadn’t been for the medal he wouldn’t now be in hiding. If it hadn’t been for the medal Freda wouldn’t have guessed who he was.

  He stood up.

  Away in the distance he could see Freda swimming. The sun was beginning to sink behind the pines.

  Lifting his hand, he threw the medal and chain with all his strength into the gathering dusk.

  He watched the tiny splash as the medal hit the water.

  It was done! It couldn’t betray him again!

  He was sitting on the deck when she came out of the lake, water streaming off her golden body. She picked up her clothes and walked past him into the living-room.

  The sun made a red rim around the pines. In another hour, Scott would be back.

  During the time she had been swimming, Johnny had thought about her. He had come to the conclusion that this was his woman. He had never had this feeling before. He told himself he was crazy. What did he know about her except there was something in those blue eyes that told him he could trust her.

  You mean you wouldn’t be tempted? Did you think I would?

  And that look, surprise, then the hurt showed and she had thrown off her clothes and had swum away from him.

  That wasn’t the action of treachery. Surely, if she planned to betray him, she wouldn’t have behaved like that.

  Then she was beside him, dressed and sitting down. She looked seriously at him.

  “I think we’d better talk, Johnny,” she said. “Do you think, by staying here, Ed and I will be in danger?”

  He hesitated, then nodded.

  “Yes.” He paused, then went on. “I’ll get Ed to drive me to

  Richville tomorrow and forget about me. It’s the best way.”

  “I don’t want to forget you. I’m in love with you,” and she put her hand on his.

  He felt a surge of emotion go through him. Many women had told him they loved him. Melanie had, often enough, but none of them had said it the way this woman said it.

  “That makes two of us, but I’d better go.”

  “Could we talk about it?” The slim fingers fondled his wrist. “Could you explain?”

  The caressing fingers lulled his caution.

  Speaking quietly, staring across the dark waters of the lake, he told her the story of his life. He told her of his yearning to own a boat, about Massino, how Masssino had cheated him. He told her about the Big Take, but he didn’t tell her how much money was involved.

  “I have the money stashed away in East City. If it wasn’t for the medal there would have been no problem. I could have stayed there. Massino wouldn’t have suspected me. Then later, I would have taken the money and ducked out.”

  “Is there much money?” she asked.

  He looked at her. Her face was expressionless and she wasn’t looking at him.

  “Enough.”

  “If you got the money would you take me away from here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Would you choose between me and your boat? Would you give up your boat to keep me?”

  He didn’t hesitate.

  “No. You either go with the boat or I’ll stake you and we part. I’m risking my life for the boat: it’s that important to me.”

  She nodded.

  “I’m glad. I said it before and I’ll say it again: you’re all man. I’ll come with you and I’ll help on the boat.”

  “If they find me here, they could kill you.”

  “If I’m going to share this money with you, Johnny, I must share the risk… that’s fair, isn’t it?”

  “Think about it. Let’s talk about it tomorrow. I’ve still got to get the money.”

  “Where have you hidden it?”

  He smiled at her.

  “Where they won’t think of looking for it.”

  “Isn’t it dangerous to go back for it?”

  “Yes… it’s a hell of a risk.”

  “But I could get it, couldn’t I? They don’t know me.”

  A tiny red light of warning lit up in Johnny’s mind. Suppose he told her where the money was? Suppose he gave her the locker key? She could hire a car and drive to East City, take the two bags, load them into the car and that would be the last time he would ever see her. How can anyone trust anyone when there was so much money involved? She said she loved him: she had s
aid it in such a way that he believed her, but when she dragged those two heavy bags out of the locker might she not be tempted to betray him?

  He remembered what she had said: You’re not much to look at. He wasn’t. He was fourteen years older than she. With all that money, with her looks, she could make a wonderful life for herself without having a short, heavily-built man of forty-two in her hair.

  The sound of the approaching truck saved him from answering.

  “Here’s Ed. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

  “Yes.

  She got up and went hastily into the kitchen.

  Scott had his swim, admired the bass Johnny had caught, then came out on deck, joining Johnny while Freda cooked the dinner.

  “Had a good day?” Scott asked, lighting a cigarette. He looked slyly at Johnny.

  “Fine. And you?”

  “The usual.” Scott flicked ash into the lake. “Did she give out?”

  Johnny stiffened.

  “Come again?”

  “Did you lay her?”

  “Look, Ed, cut that talk out! I don’t like it. She’s your wife! Haven’t you any respect for her?”

  Scott gave a sneering laugh.

  “I told you I couldn’t care less. I was just curious to know if you made it.”

  “Like I said… cut it out!”

  Scott eyed him.

  “Maybe you like it fancy. I do. If ever you want something fancy come to Richville with me. I know a couple of chicks…”

  “I’m a lot older than you, Ed. You look after your sex life and I’ll look after mine. Okay?”

  Scott studied him, then shrugged.

  “Yeah. I guess when I get as old as you, it won’t be a problem.” He gave a sly grin. “I bet Freda’s disappointed. I get the idea she’s itching for it.”

  “Then why don’t you give it to her?” Johnny tried to soften his voice, but his anger showed.

  “She’s not my style.”

  Johnny suddenly hated this man as he had seldom hated any man. He got to his feet as Freda came on to the deck.

  “You can eat,” she said.

  It was while they were finishing the bass that Scott said, “You got a younger brother, Johnny?”

  Johnny became instantly alert. He paused to finish the last morsel of fish on his plate, then shook his head.

  “I’ve no relations.”

  “Just an idea.” Scott pushed aside his plate. “There’s an odd ad. in the Richville Times. I have it here.” He shoved back his chair and crossing to where he had left his jacket, he took out a folded newspaper.