Black-Eyed Stranger

by Charlotte Armstrong

  Sam put his head in his hands, “Sorry,” he said quickly, apologetically, fearfully, “Sorry. Excuse me. I didn’t mean—I thought—Sorry, boss.” Kay thought, now he will die just for thinking it’s funny. And she believed this, and the whole room rocked on the edge of that catastrophe.

  Baby’s big hands had released her. Baby was trembling. He waited for the boss to say. She tossed her hair away from her face. She thought, but we fooled him. We can’t spoil it now. No. So she walked deliberately between Sam and Ambielli and stood on the line of tension, the straight line between them. She leaned over the table. She said, “Give me the keys.”

  “Huh?”

  “The keys to your car. I’m getting out of here. I’m leaving, Sam.”

  “Aw, Bonnie, look, just because there’s been a little trouble, don’t—”

  “There’s been too much as far as I’m concerned. Give me the keys. You boys can settle your troubles all alone.”

  “Going to walk out on me,” Sam said bitterly.

  “If there’s going to be any killing,” she managed to sound scornful.

  “Nobody’s going to do any killing.”

  “He looks like the type,” she said, “this friend of yours. I don’t think he’s kidding. Where are the keys? In that drawer?” She began to lean over.

  Sam put his hand on the table drawer. Their cold fingers touched. “I trust it’s okay with you boys if Bonnie runs out on me. I guess the evening’s disenchanted.” He could snatch the drawer open. She was between him and Ambielli.

  Baby growled something. But Ambielli spoke and his voice was soft again. It had been drawn back, the blade to the sheath. “Don’t go, Bonnie. I’d like to talk to you, Sam. It won’t be necessary for the young woman to leave.”

  Why, maybe they had fooled him! Their cold fingers winced and wondered, together. She thought it seemed too easy. Maybe they hadn’t fooled him altogether, but given him doubt. Maybe he wasn’t sure.

  Ambielli said, “There seems to be a lock on that door. Put her in there, Baby. She’s a distraction. No way out, is there?”

  “You’re not going to put me …” She whirled. She would fight and occupy the big one. But she was still on the line between Sam and Ambielli and before she could duck aside, Baby came and lifted her away. Then she saw, as she threshed in his grasp, that now, somehow easily and magically, it was Ambielli who had a gun in his hand.

  “Take it easy, Bonnie.” Sam was sober and stern. “Do what the man says. Good idea if we can clear this up. We can try.” Sam wasn’t laughing any more. His hands were in his pockets. He tilted the chair.

  Chapter 19

  BABY carried her to the bathroom and dumped her on her feet inside. She didn’t protest. He closed the door. He locked it. The room was black dark. She looked up at the strip of glass. There was faint light, out there, from the night sky. There were no faces. In all the vast night she could hear no sound of any car.

  But she could hear Ambielli say, “Who sent Dulain after me, Sam?”

  “That I don’t know.” Sam answered promptly.

  “Why were you there?”

  “Because they found out I ate with you on Wednesday.”

  “They did?”

  “That’s the way I got it.”

  “Why did they care?”

  “I couldn’t say.”

  “You don’t say, Sam, as a rule. Break the rule.”

  “Is that a question?”

  “That’s advice.”

  “I’m talking,” Sam said bitterly. “You listening?”

  “Did you mention a newspaper picture?”

  Sam hesitated. Then he said sharply, “I left that in Nick’s.” There was a beat of silence. “Nick have any two’s to put together and make four, boss?”

  Silence.

  The big man growled.

  “Do you think …?” Sam began.

  “I ask. You talk. What happened?”

  “Where?”

  “Up there.”

  “At Salisbury’s place?” Kay could hear the creaking of the wooden chair. “Dulain asked how well I knew you.”

  “And?”

  “I said, naturally, I knew who you were. Asked me did we have lunch on Wednesday. I said, yes. Asked me had I planned to meet you. I said, no, happened to go into Nick’s. Asked me if I knew where you went afterward. I said you left ahead of me. I didn’t know. Asked me where is Katherine Salisbury. I said, isn’t she here?”

  “That’s all, Sam?”

  “No. Maybe this is something. Listen. They made me print some stuff. It was instructions. Part of a demand for money. You see what I thought?”

  “Aw, we got the money,” Baby said.

  Ambielli hissed at him.

  Sam said, in awe, “You never did!” His voice went on gathering reverence with the surprise. “Somebody else did the dirty work. You got the money. That’s—that’s …” The chair bumped the floor. “Marvelous! It’s sweet. What a twist! Who …?”

  “Ah,” said Ambielli, “how I wonder who.”

  “You care, eh?” Sam conceded this.

  “I would like to know.”

  “I can see that you would. And yet … saved you trouble.” The idea was delicately extended.

  “I don’t mind trouble, Sam. I do mind interference.”

  “Wait a minute. See what you mean. Somebody did more than talk.” Sam spoke with lively interest; “If it was talk, the Salisburys would have locked her up. Nobody could have gotten her. And in that case, they’d never pay off.”

  Ambielli said smoothly. “It may have been that they didn’t expect to pay off. There was an element of surprise, you see, Sam, as it was collected. It occurs to me that they may have had an ambush farther up the line.”

  “Real money?” Sam said quickly.

  There was no answer.

  “At least the numbers would be listed. That money must be hot.”

  “A test has been made,” Ambielli said, dryly.

  “It passed?” Sam sounded startled.

  There was no immediate answer. Then Baby said, “It sure did,” and laughed in a high whinny.

  “You know a little too much for my best comfort, Sam. You can see how that is?”

  “I don’t know much more than I knew last Wednesday.” Sam said tartly. “I remember, you said then, you never worried.”

  “Unless and until, I said, Sam.”

  “Make up your mind.” Sam sounded weary. “Don’t let me influence you. I’ll tell you this much. I wish I’d never gone to Nick’s. The trouble you can get into in fifteen minutes. So your whole damn future takes a zig or else a zag. I wish I’d have settled for tea and toast. You’re not the only one thinks I had something to do with it.”

  “Who else, Sam?”

  “That Dulain.”

  “We know. He put a tail on you.”

  “So he did,” said Sam smoothly. “But I lost them.”

  “Oh, yes, you lost them, Sam. We helped a little. We rather got in the way.”

  “You were there, boss?”

  “Now, come, Sam,” Ambielli chided. “You know we were there.

  “I do?” said Sam. “Well, if you say so.”

  “Could I help wondering, Sam?”

  “No. You couldn’t help wondering. Followed me all the way up here, eh, boss?”

  Then Ambielli must have laughed, although Kay heard no laughter except the afternote in his voice as it went on. “It was unnecessary. Since Wednesday, we had asked around. Heard you had this little place. Naturally, I wondered.” The voice sharpened. “I’d have stopped wondering, if they hadn’t so obviously put a tail on you, Sam. I’d have been quite sure about you. I’d have been convinced that you were the one …”

  “Is that right?” Sam said. “The one who …?”

  “Who took Katherine Salisbury, on Wednesday, and hid her somewhere. Who is working with that Dulain. Who let the father follow instructions. Who kept him in the dark, to make it convincing. He was convincing. Who s
et up an ambush that failed. Who went in, today, for another little conference. To plan how to trick me …”

  Kneeling on the floor in the dark behind the door, Kay saw through the little man’s eyes how she was nothing. She was a checker, a wooden piece, to be moved from square to square in a game he played for blood and money and for a lust to win. And so Ambielli thought she must be to Sam, too. And so Ambielli thought Sam was moving the piece as an enemy, for the other side.

  But she could see that Sam was on no side so much as that of the pawn itself, the little piece, which was not wood, but Katherine.

  Then she heard Sam say, steadily, “Yet they put a tail on me. Doesn’t fit, does it?”

  “I wonder if you were that clever …”

  “That devious,” murmured Sam. “The credit is nice. Don’t give me too much credit. Tell me, why would I do all this, boss? I don’t seem to me to be the type.”

  “I hadn’t thought so, Sam.”

  “I’ve got a reputation, too, you know.”

  “A reputation for not talking. But tonight you are talking. Aren’t you, Sam?”

  “I’m telling what I know,” Sam said slowly. “It’s possible, I could look around. I might turn up Katherine Salisbury for you.”

  “Are you sure she isn’t in that bathroom?” Ambielli said softly. “Because I’m not, Sam. Not sure at all. Clever little girl, if she’s Katherine Salisbury. But her vocabulary was literary, I thought. Didn’t you?”

  Silence.

  “Keep your hands still, Sam. I’d rather you didn’t move at all.”

  Silence.

  “How shall we make sure?” Ambielli purred.

  Then, in the vast night, a sound began. At last, again, there was a car approaching.

  Kay knelt on the floor and listened to that noise. In the outer room, the shack’s door whined on its hinges. She had a vision, painted on the dark that pressed against her eyeballs, of the finger flick that had sent the big man out to see. For she could still hear the car and Ambielli was still there. “Sit still, Sam.”

  She could barely catch Sam’s muttering. “… sake, Bonnie’s going to love this. Probably that damn Dulain.” Then, loudly, “Who is it, Baby?”

  “Looks like Dulain. And the old man.”

  “What?” That was Sam.

  “Alone?” drawled Ambielli.

  “Yeah, boss.”

  “Another conference, Sam?”

  “How do I know what the hell they want now?” Sam exploded. “Boss, if they find you and me, when they already think …”

  “Would you like me to leave, Sam?” Ambielli was amused.

  Sam had no answer.

  Kay’s fingers and her teeth ached. She couldn’t make her mind inquire into the future. Her imagination hit a blank wall.

  “Step outside, Baby. Keep dark.” Ambielli was moving around out there. “What’s this place? Oh, the kitchen. This will do, I think.”

  Now, astonishing her, the key clicked near her ear. She almost fell out into the light.

  Ambielli said, “In here, please.” She got clumsily to her feet. Sam was still in the chair. But everything seemed, blank. Ambielli now swiftly locked the door of the empty bathroom and took the key out of the lock. She couldn’t understand.

  He said, softly, “I am curious to see what they want of you, Sam.” He was smiling. He held the gun in his hand. “I am very curious to see what their reaction is to your little friend who will stay in this room, to be seen. Do you know, I have an idea that their reaction will resolve all my uncertainties about you, Sam. Don’t you think so?”

  He smiled. He went into the kitchen and closed the door.

  Kay looked at Sam. She understood now. She couldn’t hide. She was there to be seen and recognized. Then came another thought. Ambielli must believe that cupboard door led outside. But it did not. There was no way out of that kitchen. She thought, Why, he’s caught. He’s caught in there.

  Then, she thought, And I’m caught in here. I can’t hide. No place to hide. The minute they see me, Ambielli will be made sure.

  Then she thought, it is Sam who is caught. Then, wildly. Everybody’s caught! Somebody’s going to die!

  It was too late for her to run out of doors. There were feet on the wooden porch already. And the big one was out there, anyhow. Keeping dark. There was no way to warn them. Sam said he’d told them so they expected to see her. She couldn’t fool her own father with her streaked hair. Everybody was caught.

  The kitchen door was a plywood slab. No lock, no key, no keyhole. Ambielli could hear, but he could not see. She said shrilly, “Sam, I don’t like it. Feels to me somebody’s going to get hurt. I don’t want to get mixed up …”

  He already had the gun in his hand. He nodded. He said soothingly, “Take it easy. Just take it easy. We’ll see what this bunch wants.” But his eyes had already left her face to fasten not on the door of the shack, but on the kitchen door.

  Somebody was going to die.

  “I’m saying I don’t want to get mixed up,” she shrilled. “You got no business dragging me out here into this kind of mess …”

  Her own father’s voice was crying, on the porch outside, “Katherine? Katherine?” And she could not be glad.

  “Oh, no,” groaned Sam. “Not them, too!”

  “I’ll give you Katherine,” Katherine screeched. “All of you. Everybody. Go ahead. Open the damn door. Let them in.”

  Sam didn’t move. His eyes didn’t swerve. The gun didn’t shake in his hand. It was she who opened the door.

  Chapter 20

  LIGHT fell on her father’s face, and she reached up and touched his opening lips with one finger. She leaned against him and felt the pain of his hands on her shoulders. But his reaction was quick and his control quickly taken. He understood that he must not speak, that something here forbade it. She felt surprised that he was so flexible and understood so soon.

  Alan had pushed past them and was moving toward Sam. Sam did not turn, not even his head, or his hand, or so much as an eyeball. He kept facing the kitchen door and Alan couldn’t see the gun. If only she could keep Alan quiet, too. She flew after him.

  Sam said in a tired, disgusted voice, “All right, Dulain. What is it now?”

  Kay reached up from behind and put her hands on Alan’s mouth. “You get the funniest company, Sam,” she jeered. “Look at him, looking at me. Say, who is this Katherine everybody’s looking for?” Alan tore her hands away. “The woods are full of people looking for Katherine. What’s she got, Sam?”

  “Aw, Bonnie, sit down.” Sam hadn’t moved.

  Her father now stepped near her again, and she had her hands fluttering, trying to tell them, when Alan, leaning on the table, said, “You actually told the truth, Lynch.”

  Sam snarled, “Yeah. Surprise.”

  It couldn’t hold. It wasn’t going to work. Something was going to give. Somebody was going to die.

  “I didn’t believe you,” Alan said. And then, calmly, “Are you all right, Kay darling?”

  She felt as if she could see straight through the plywood door, through the dark in there. She could see Ambielli opening the cupboard. The cans of food would move under his groping hand. She listened for one to fall. And she thought, then what? Then what? When he knows he is caught and he can’t get out, then what?

  She was standing there, dismayed, pulling her cheeks down with the flat of her fingers, when Sam shoved her. Sam had moved. He shoved her father, too. They reeled and wobbled, clutching each other. They fell together against the corner of two walls. Alan made an angry sound, and Sam shoved him, too.

  The plywood door was shivering. Don’t wait! Sam, don’t wait! But she had not yelled it aloud. Alan, scrambling for balance, with one hand on the floor, was doing the yelling. “You in there, look out! He’s got a gun!”

  Kay cried with all her might, “No, Alan! No.”

  Ambielli kicked open the door.

  She had one glimpse of his face before Sam’s gun went off tw
ice. Twice seemed to be enough.

  Sam watched the thing on the floor closely for a moment or two. Then he put the gun on the table, lifted his hand away from it as if it stung, touched it once again, quickly, lifted his hand, walked away, as far. away as he could, back into the far corner. There he set down with his back against the wall.

  Alan, who had lost balance, was sitting on the floor. He began, all over again, in a new way, to get up.

  Salisbury pushed himself off the wall. “Katherine, I’m going to take you out of this. You mustn’t … Don’t look …” He was trembling with the joy of finding her. She pressed her head against his arm.

  Watching Alan, she spoke to Sam. “Sam?” Her voice was all right. “The big one? That Baby?”

  Sam said, “I’m tired. Some other hero can go get Baby Hohenbaum.” He had his eyes closed. She could tell that he was shaking as if he had a chill. “I’m through,” he said. “This ain’t for me. I’m a bystander by trade.”

  Then they heard, outside, rather distantly, the sound of yet another car.

  She thought, that must be the big one, going away. We never heard their car. Heard nothing, only saw the face. But they must have had a car. She was shaking.

  She said, “I’m tired, too.” She was still looking at Alan. She couldn’t see him very well. She said, plaintively, “Alan, why haven’t you come and kissed me?” She stretched her eyes and forced a focus. He was on his feet, standing rather tensely between the table and Sam Lynch. “Alan, don’t be silly …” she began feebly.

  Then there were feet pounding on the porch and in the open door were two men she had never seen.

  Alan said, “Well, what delayed you?” in anger and relief.

  “Lost him. We got rammed. Hey!”

  “Hi ya, boys,” Sam said. “Warner. Reilly.”

  “Was that Ambielli fixed to have us rammed? Hey, Sam?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Alan.

  “Don’t be surprised, Dulain,” Sam closed his eyes again. “It was.”

  The stouter one of the newcomers grunted, having noticed. The thinner one’s voice changed and cried, “That’s Ambielli? There?”