“Did he … kill Althea too?”
“Of course he killed Althea!” swore Francis.
“I couldn’t tell Gahagen this alone, but now—”
“Oh, yes, we will now take our nice neat proof to the police,” said Francis. “What proof?”
“The time, the radio, the record—all of it.… Fran, what’s the matter?”
“I can swear Althea told me what she heard on the radio and when she heard it. But you realize … Althea isn’t here any more.”
“You mean we can’t—oh, Fran—can’t prove it?”
“If I had another witness—”
“Lie then,” said Jane fiercely. “I’ll say I heard her tell you.”
“When?”
“Any time you say.”
“You were in the house with them.”
“Then you’ll have to say she told you some other time.”
“When?”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
“Not you, Jane. Not you, anyhow. It’s too dangerous. Maybe you fooled them. All the more reason to keep you out of it now.”
“But I’m not out. Why is it any more dangerous?”
“For God’s sake, anything’s dangerous, anything near him! It’s dangerous for us to stand here and talk. It’s dangerous to look sidewise at him. I stuck my neck out this morning. Maybe he’ll chop my head off before dawn.”
“Fran!”
“Why not? He must be on the track of why I’m hanging around here. He must know by now. He’s too smart not to see my motive sticking out like a sore thumb. Oh, he’s caught on. I hope he hasn’t caught on to you. He’s quick too. No sooner did he realize that the police knew a fuse had blown … Althea’s snuffed out. Quick. Neat. No fuss, no bother. Althea was quietly assisted to her grave, all right. And no nasty little loose ends this time, either.”
“But you think—you’re sure he did it?”
“He did it.” Francis dropped his hands. His voice was sick. “But I can’t prove it. There’s no proof at all. And if he knows now what I’m after, I expect he’ll arrange to deal with me.”
“You’re different,” said Jane sharply. “You’re no girl.”
“True,” said Francis. “True. Just the same, if anything does go wrong—”
“Oh, Fran!” Jane shivered.
“Remember Grandy’s back-door caller?”
“Do you mean Press, the garbage man?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because,” said Francis thoughtfully, “he comes to the back door. And I’m young and strong.”
“I’ll remember,” said Jane. “But what are you going to do?”
“See here. No matter what happens, don’t let anything make you admit you’re … on my side. Mind that, Jane. Promise. Never mind, I’ve got a better idea. You go home. Resign. Nobody would blame you.”
“But what are you going to do?”
“I’ll try a bluff.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll insist I’ve got a witness to what Althea told me. I’ll spread out the whole case against him. Pretend it’s complete. Maybe I can bluff him. I’ve got to try. If I could only catch him off guard. Let him make one slip of that tongue! Don’t you see, Jane, it could add just enough— You be in there and we—” He broke off.
“I’m not going home,” said Jane. “You see, you need me.”
“But how am I going to protect you? How can I protect Mathilda?”
“Mathilda?”
He was impatient. Couldn’t she see Mathilda was in the most dreadful danger? Couldn’t she realize, as he did so clearly, that some one of these days that proud head, those long lovely legs, the exciting green eyes, the whole lovely, bewildered girl, could die? If the old man took a notion—
“Yes, damn it, of course!” he cried. “Look, he’s got to get rid of her someday. How am I going to be sure she’s safe? She thinks the world of him. She’d do anything he asked, any time. Won’t stop to think, because she’s clinging to him now. Because she’s got to believe in something! And, dear God, how can she believe in me? It’s driving me”—he calmed down—“a bit wild,” he confessed.
“But he wouldn’t dare!”
“Jane, he’s more dangerous than you know. He’s what Rosaleen said. Perfectly selfish. There’s nothing to make him hesitate.”
“Can’t we go to the police now?”
“Yes, try it. Maybe Gahagen will listen. I wish we had the cold proof. Jane, Grandy’ll talk himself out of what we’ve got. My word’s going to be less than enough, after the lies I’ve told. I don’t see how Gahagen can listen.”
Jane looked at his face and nearly wept.
“Unless— After all, he’s guilty,” said Francis. “And he’s got guilt in his mind and a mixture of lies and truth to remember. He could slip. It’s the only thing I can see to try. Attack. With all I’ve got. Bluff him down. So,” he said rather softly, “I’ll try … one more legal way.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe you’ll have to go outside the law to get the devil.”
“Fran!”
“Sh-h.”
Grandy was coming up the stairs. They slipped Jane’s door tightly shut and stood without breathing.
If he was coming in here— If he were to find them whispering together—
Luther Grandison was near a violent death just then, as he walked placidly past the door where it was waiting and went into Mathilda’s room instead.
19
Nor did he know that Francis went like a cat out Jane’s window to the kitchen-porch roof and that he clung, tooth and nail, in the angle the house made there outside Mathilda’s window or that he watched, one foot on the sill, cheek on the house wall, fingers wound in a vine. Grandy didn’t know. Francis couldn’t hear. Through the glass he tried to read across the dim room those thin, mobile lips through which the voice was pouring.
“Resting, darling?”
“I’m awake.”
“Poor Tyl. Poor sweet Tyl.”
“Oh, Grandy.”
“Hush, don’t cry.” Grandy sat down, heavy and sad. “You’re all right, Tyl?”
His anxiety pricked her like the tip of a knife he was trying out. “Of course,” she said.
“Because it frightens me. I’m afraid.”
“Don’t be afraid, Grandy. I’m all right.” She sat up. “You’re thinking of what Francis said this morning?”
“I can’t help thinking. There’s that old, old, ancient rule of three. It frightens me.”
Tyl’s pulse began to pound in her throat.
“Make me a promise, sweetheart,” Grandy said.
“Of course.”
“Promise you’ll come straight to me if you feel—if you have any feelings at all that you can’t cope with or bear. Promise, Tyl?”
“Yes, Grandy.”
“There’s a pressure in my house. You can’t see it, of course. You can’t hear it. Five senses don’t betray it to you, but you feel it all the same. I was afraid of it before. It’s death, I think. Not our familiar death that comes on schedule for the old or the sick. This is Death, the fascinator. The Death that’s like a dark lover. Don’t you see, duck? If it got Althea, it was because it got her unaware. She didn’t know. She hadn’t been warned. There’s an attraction, a dreadful pull. Have you never stood on the edge of a steep drop, Tyl, and felt the urge to go over?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Grandy.”
“It’s similar, similar. Pressure. Pull. What difference? Something wants you to go over and be done with everything. Francis was so right, duckling, to be afraid.”
Tyl tightened her hands on the coverlet. She had been lying on top of the bed, still dressed. Now she sat up, tense, not resting her back against the headboard. The light was dim. Grandy’s face was in darkness. His voice was vibrant. She could feel the vibrations in her breast.
“You mustn’t worry about me,” she said as stoutly as she could. “Please, Gra
ndy. I do love you so. And I’m all right”
“Bless you.”
“Grandy,” she whispered, “if you’re frightened, it scares me more than anything. Don’t talk any more. Not about that.”
She reached across. She thought he glanced at her, although she couldn’t be sure, since his head didn’t move in the dusk. Her fingers found the chain and she pulled on her light near the bed. “Let’s talk about something else.” She sent her voice high and gay. “Please, Grandy. Darling, I brought you a present and you haven’t even seen it. I nearly forgot.”
It took all the strength she had to be so gay. It took all the courage she could find to try to change the mood for him, as he had so often done for her.
“A present?” he said. His effort was obvious. But he understood and he would play. He would try to be cheerful. “A present for me!”
She slid off the bed and ran to her dresser. The bag of Dutch chocolates was in the drawer. Grandy took it in his hands. He bowed his head. For a dreadful moment she thought he was going to weep. But he did not. He opened the bag gleefully. He took a handful out and tossed them gaily on the bed. For her, he said. Their secret. Their childish secret hoard of goodies. He made a show of it. It should have been such fun.
But all the time she could hear the tears unshed behind his laughter, and when, at last, he kissed her gently on the cheek, and when he went away, clutching the bag of chocolates to his heart, Tyl threw herself on the bed and burst into tearing sobs.
Dear, dearest Grandy, he’d tried so hard, but it was enough to break your heart to see how hard he had to try.
20
Her ears muffled by the sounds of her own weeping, it was a while before she heard the staccato tapping on the glass. Mathilda sat up, face wet, eyes red, hair tousled, frozen in the very image of distress, all rumpled by it. She saw him clinging there outside her window.
She knew who it was, and in a curious mood of suspended emotion she got off the bed and went calmly to open the window. Francis scrambled in. He gave her a quick look, enigmatic, and went immediately to lock the door to the hall. Tyl opened her mouth to protest He hushed her.
“What was Grandy saying?”
She looked dumbly at him, the tears drying on her cheeks. For the moment, she couldn’t remember what it was Grandy had been saying. Francis’ face was serious, but his eyes hadn’t that dark, reproachful, tortured look. On the contrary, they looked down at her with a warm light behind them, something simpler and more friendly than love.
He said, “I do wish you could trust me, Mathilda. I wish you could trust me a little bit, anyhow. I don’t know what I’m going to do about you.”
“You needn’t do anything about me, thank you!” she said fiercely.
His hand on her arm invited her to sit down on the bed. He pulled the dressing-table bench over. They sat there, knee to knee. It seemed absurd, yet Mathilda had a feeling, half memory, that she owed him some courtesy. She sat where he had put her, and prepared to listen.
“You haven’t believed very much of what I’ve told you,” he asked her gently, “have you, Mathilda?”
“No.”
“There’s one thing maybe you could believe, if you’d try. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“Why does everybody think something bad might h-hap-pen?” Her voice shook. “I’m all right.”
He took her hands suddenly and eagerly. “What did he say? He was talking to you about something happening, was he?” She didn’t answer. Francis released her hands, although she hadn’t tried to pull away. “I wish you could believe me. This is the damnedest mess. I know. You’ve got good reasons not to trust me an inch. And yet—Mathilda, listen. I never did think there was any danger that you’d kill yourself. Can you believe that? I was only trying to fix it so nothing would happen to you.”
She shook her head, couldn’t understand.
He went on desperately, “Now I’m going to do one thing more … might help. I want to ask you— I want to beg you to make it a little easier.”
“What do you think might happen to me?” she insisted. Her green eyes challenged.
His dark eyes wavered. Then they came back boldly. “You might as well know that much. I don’t want you to be murdered.”
“To be what?”
“Murdered, as Rosaleen was. Althea too.” His voice was very low. Mathilda drew away, leaned back, away from him, watching his face. He was watching hers. It was a strange duel between them.
“Why do you think they were murdered?” she said at last. “Are you a detective or what?” She was thinking, This explains— And yet nothing was quite clear.
“I’m no detective,” Francis said. “I’m just a blundering ass, tangled up in a mess here. And one girl died who might have lived if I’d stayed out of it. I don’t want you to be another.”
“You have been lying,” said Mathilda. She sat up straighter. “You admit it now, don’t you? All of that stuff in New York, all those people—you lied. You fixed it.”
He didn’t answer. He kept watching her face.
“If you admit that,” she said, “then I just might believe what you say now.”
Evading, he said, “Did you tell Grandy about it?”
“Certainly.”
“About my lies?”
“Certainly.”
“Did he believe you?”
“Of course he did!” She would have risen in her rage and gone away, but he caught at her hand.
“Don’t be angry. I asked a question. I just wanted the answer.”
“Grandy knows I wouldn’t— He knows it couldn’t be true that I— He knows—” she sputtered.
“Then why can’t you tell me so, without getting so mad about it?”
“You won’t admit you’re lying!” she cried. “And I know you’re lying. Why won’t you?”
“Is Grandy quite sure I was lying?”
Mathilda covered her face with both hands. “Please, go away. Get out of my room. What do you want, anyway?”
He said grimly, “I want to fix it so you’ll live, baby. I’ve got here a will you made.”
“A will?”
“Will. Last will and testament. I expect it’s one of those things you’ve forgotten. It was made in the three lost days.” Francis’ voice and manner had changed. He was casual, glib. “Oh, it’s legal, all right. The whole thing is in your handwriting. Perfectly good last will and testament. At least plenty good enough to raise an awful stink if you should die.”
“If I should—”
“My object is … that you don’t die. I believe that if I show this little paper in certain places, it will tend to lengthen your life.” He looked at her insolently. No, not insolently, but with a reckless look, a gambling look.
She said, “Oh. Now I understand.”
“You do?”
“It was the money.” She laughed in his face. It pleased her to see his face sobering, losing some of that wild light. “Why I should have been confused by the lie you told about your wealth— What’s one more lie to you? You thought I was dead. You thought I’d never come back! You worked out this whole scheme to chisel in.”
“Muscle,” he corrected. “Muscle in.”
“You saw a chance to get your hands on the Frazier fortune! You’re so good at forgeries. You really do lie very well.”
Francis looked down at her white angry face. “I really don’t know whether I can keep you from being murdered,” he said with a curious, detached effect. “I’ll try.”
Mathilda sprang up. “I’m just beginning to wonder,” she blazed, “if your scheme doesn’t include my murder!” They were eye to eye now in anger.
“In about a minute,” said Francis, “I’m going to spank. I tell you you’re in danger of your life. I know it. It makes no least difference to me what kind of liar you choose to call me. I’m some kinds of liar, but this kind I’m not. For some strange reason, I don’t want you to die.”
“Because you love me,”
sneered Mathilda.
“Unh-uh.” It was a negative. It slipped out. It was an admission. She ought to seize upon it triumphantly. But she didn’t. “Let’s not worry about who loves whom,” he went on gently, and he was smiling. “Let’s forget that and go back and start over. Do you think you could listen to an idea?”
“What idea?”
“Sh-h, sh-h.”
“What idea?” she repeated more quietly.
“I’ll show this will to—show this around. Nobody then is going to murder you for your money except me. Right?”
“Right,” she said.
“Now we’ll protect you from me. Make another will, Mathilda, and hide it. Hide it from me, but tell a stranger where you hide it. The only thing is—promise don’t tell—”
“Don’t tell whom?”
“Don’t tell anyone you know.”
Mathilda drew her breath as slowly as she could. She shook herself down to calmness. “You are trying to make me afraid that someone wants to kill me. Why don’t you tell me straight out who that person is?”
“Because,” said Francis, “there are two Mathildas. One of them could not ever believe me. The other one knows already.”
The silence closed in. Suddenly she found herself in Francis’ arms. Her impulse was to let go, give up to the warmth there, put her face against him and let the tears through. But she struggled.
“Sorry,” he said. He set her back on her own equilibrium. “I know what you’re going through. Something about the way you take it breaks my heart.” He spoke lightly. His eyes had that warm light. His eyebrows flew up with his smile. He half turned, as if to let her pull herself together. “Lookit! Chocolates!”
She watched him pick up a brightly wrapped candy, peel off the wrapper. She made herself remember that he was a liar. She said, “Your forgeries are so very clever, perhaps I’d better make a genuine will.”
She went to her little gray desk, pulled out paper and pen. “To all whom it may concern,” she wrote angrily, decisively. She put down the date in big firm figures and underlined it. “This is my will and it supersedes all others, including the one forged by a man who calls himself my husband. I am twenty-two years old, unmarried, perfectly sane. I don’t know legal language, but I intend to make my meaning so clear—”
Unsuspected Page 11
