“What is it, Terry?” she asked breathlessly. “What has happened?”
“This is going to be a shock, Gilda . . .” Her hands went to her breasts and her eyes turned dark with fear.
“Something’s happened to Jack?”
“He’s had an accident, Gilda.” I put my hand over hers. “He’s dead.”
She shut her eyes and her face went white. She remained like that for a second or so, then opening her eyes, she said unsteadily, “Accident? What do you mean? How — how did he i die?”
“He electrocuted himself. Sheriff Jefferson and Doc Mallard i are up there now.”
“Electrocuted himself?” Her face showed bewilderment. “I don’t understand.”
The distant sound of an approaching siren made both of us stiffen. We looked down the road. The Glyn Camp ambulance went storming past us.
I walked around the Buick, opened the off-side door and got in beside her.
“It was the TV set, A wire connecting the sound control came adrift,” I said. “He wanted to see the Dempsey fight film.
“When he found he couldn’t get the commentary, he must have tried to fix it himself. He touched something and got the full shock through him. In his metal chair, he didn’t stand a chance.”
She suddenly began to cry, hiding her face.
I sat away from her and waited.
After a few minutes she recovered herself.
“I still don’t understand,” she said, her voice shaking. “How do you know all this? You weren’t there when it happened?”
“No, of course not. I was at Mr Hamish’s place. On my way down I had to pass your cabin. I went in to see if the set was working all right and I found him.”
She touched her eyes with her handkerchief as she stared at me.
“You went there when you knew I had left him and I was waiting for you?”
I had trouble in meeting her direct stare.
“I was passing,” I said rather feebly. “After all I had sold him the set, Gilda, and he hadn’t paid for it. It cost me a lot of money . . .”
“You walked in and found him?”
“Yes. Now listen, Gilda, they mustn’t know you planned to leave him. That’s why I told you to go into Glyn Camp and do your shopping as usual. You did go?”
“Yes, but, Terry, I don’t understand this. Are you quite sure he was electrocuted? Did Doctor Mallard say so?”
“Yes. There’s no doubt about it.”
“Then why shouldn’t they know I left him?”
“There’ll be an inquest. The Coroner will ask questions. If he found out you had left him, there would be gossip. This could be tricky, Gilda. You don’t know what a snake-pit of gossip this place is. They might even begin to think he killed himself. If it was known you were at my place, waiting for me, they’d link us together, and you can imagine what they would say.”
“But you said it was an accident.”
“It was an accident, but they might think he had committed suicide.”
“I think he killed himself,” she said. “Last night we had a horrible scene, and again this morning. I told him I was going to leave him. This could be my fault. I may have driven him to it. If you had seen his face . . .”
“Get that idea out of your mind!” I said sharply. “It was an accident! No one would think of killing himself by fooling with a TV set.”
“But what exactly did he do?”
“He tried to get the set working again. He must have touched something and got the full shock through him. He was using a steel screwdriver and he was in that steel chair . . .”
“Oh, no! I’m sure it couldn’t have happened like that!” She was so emphatic she began to frighten me. “He would have to take the back off the set to touch anything dangerous, wouldn’t he?”
“Yes, and that’s what he did. He had taken the back off. There was this screwdriver by his hand.”
She frowned at me.
“I just can’t understand it. He wasn’t clever with his hands. He never has been. He never touched anything that needed repairing. He would never have thought for one moment of trying to repair the set.”
This was something I hadn’t bargained for. If she came out with this information at the inquest, the Coroner might get suspicious.
“He wanted to see this film, Gilda. He was mad keen to see it.”
“How do you know he wanted to see the film?” she asked sharply.
For a moment my mind floundered, then I said, “A couple of days ago, he called me. He wanted to know how to adjust the set. I told him about the film. He said he wouldn’t miss seeing it for anything. You know how fanatical he was about a fight. I’m sure when he found he couldn’t get the commentary, he took the back off the set and, in trying to fix the lead, he killed himself.”
There was a look of complete unbelief in her eyes as she shrugged her shoulders wearily and asked, “Did you say there was a screwdriver by his side?”
I began to sweat. I remembered with a real stab of fear that the toolbox had been on the top shelf in the storeroom, and this shelf had been a good seven feet from the ground. I had had to stretch up to get it. I realized now that Delaney, unable to move from his chair, could never have got near it. This was a slip, and a bad one.
“That’s right,” I said.
“But he didn’t know where the toolbox was kept. He never used tools.”
By now I had managed to get my second wind and I had fought down my rising panic.
“Gilda, don’t try to make a mystery of this! The set broke down. He wanted to repair it. He hunted for the toolbox and he found it. He even hooked the box down with a stick. I found the box on the floor. You’re trying to make this thing complicated. It happens every month. You have only to read the papers to see that people kill themselves because they are stupid enough to fool with the works of a radio or TV set. Anyone without knowledge of how a set works can kill himself . . .” My voice trailed off when I saw she wasn’t listening, and then I really began to get scared. What was she thinking? Did she suspect I had killed him?
“But it’s not as easy as that,” she said, her voice shaking. “We had this horrible, sordid quarrel. I told him I was leaving him. He never thought I would do such a thing. He was desperate and upset. He begged me to stay, but I couldn’t; not after what he had tried to do to me. I am sure he wouldn’t have wanted to see this fight film, not immediately after I had walked out on him. I feel sure he deliberately killed himself.”
“You’re wrong! No one could kill himself like that,” I said.
This was getting dangerous. If I couldn’t convince her and she told the Coroner she suspected Delaney had committed suicide, and it got into the papers, the Los Angeles police were certain to investigate. Suicide by electrocuting oneself by a TV set was more than suspicious. “He had been drinking. I found whisky and a glass by him. Okay, he was desperate and upset as you say. He turned the set on to take his mind off you. Finding it didn’t work, he got into a rage and got hold of this screwdriver and shoved it into the works. It’s just the sort of thing an unhappy, drunken man might do.”
She lifted her shoulders helplessly.
“I can’t believe he would do such a thing.”
“It’s got to be an accident, Gilda!” I said, my voice rising. “If you tell the Coroner you think he killed himself, the newspapers will get it, and then you and I will be in the middle of a scandal, and that could ruin our lives.”
“Well, all right, Terry.” She suddenly seemed to relax as if the whole thing was now too much for her. “It makes no sense to me, but I don’t suppose it matters. It’s so hard to believe he really is dead and at last I am free.”
I began to breathe more easily.
“We haven’t much time, Gilda,” I said. “We have to be careful. What I am going to say to you now may sound a little crazy, but it’s really sound common sense. There could be an investigation. It’s absolutely essential that no one knows that you and I have been lovers.
If ever that gets out, we’ll be in bad trouble. If they don’t think he died accidentally, the Los Angeles police might poke their noses in, and they might want to know where you were when he died. You can see it would be fatal to tell them you were at my place. You must tell them you left him at the usual time to go to Glyn Camp at nine o’clock. You drove down to Glyn Camp by the lake road. On the way down you had a blow-out. It took you a long time to change the tyre. You had never done it before, and on that lonely road there was no one to help you. You didn’t reach Glyn Camp until just after half-past eleven.”
I saw her stiffen and she stared uneasily at me.
“But I can’t say that — it’s not true!”
“You don’t have to tell them anything unless they ask you, Gilda,” I said, trying to keep my voice under control. “But if they do ask you, that’s the story you have got to tell them, and I mean that! If you don’t, both of us could be in serious trouble. I’m going to fix your spare tyre so if they check they’ll see you did have a flat.”
“Terry!” She turned and gripped my arm, staring at me, her eyes a little wild. “You’re frightening me! You make it sound as if I’ve done something wrong!”
“Not only you, but me as well! We have done something wrong! We have been lovers, Gilda! Don’t you realize people have sympathy for a cripple? If it ever got out that we were lovers before he died, do you think they would have any sympathy for us? We would get smeared across the front pages of all the local papers. I’m trying to protect you, Gilda! You must do what I say!”
She lifted her shoulders.
“Well, all right,” she said. “I can’t think properly now, but I’ll do what you say, Terry.”
I got out of the Buick, went around to the trunk, opened it and checked the spare tyre. It had been used and the tread was worn.
I went to my truck, got a nail from my tool kit and a hammer and returning to the Buick I drove the nail deep into the spare tyre. The air began to hiss out and I shut the trunk, tossed the hammer back in my toolbox and then came over to Gilda.
“You’d better get back now,” I said. “You understand what you have to say if they ask you?”
“Yes, of course, Terry, but I don’t like it. It frightens me. Are you sure I must lie about this thing?”
“Gilda, please! I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t sure you had to do it. Now one more thing: from now on until the inquest, we must be careful to keep away from each other. After the inquest, you had better go to Los Angeles. Get a room there. I’ll be able to see you there. Then in a couple of months or so, we’ll get married. We’ll leave this district. You’ll have his money, and we can have our shop.” I put my hand on hers. “You’re free now. In a little while we’ll be together.”
“Yes.”
We heard a car coming down the road, and a moment later, the ambulance went past, heading towards Glyn Camp.
We looked at each other. Gilda had turned white. I felt bad myself. We both knew what was in the ambulance.
“Go on up there, Gilda,” I said. “Jefferson is waiting for you. Don’t worry. Once the inquest is over we’ll be together for always.”
At that moment I really believed that, but always is a long time.
CHAPTER V
I
I DIDN’T get back to my cabin until late in the afternoon.
I sat on the verandah, a glass of whisky in my hand, and thought about what had happened since I had left the cabin at eight-thirty this morning.
I had killed a man. Although I could tell myself that I had dreamed up a foolproof plan and I was going to get away with it, at the back of my mind, I knew I would be wondering, during the years ahead of me, if I had made a slip that would eventually give me away.
The sound of an approaching car interrupted my thoughts.
I went to the door, my heart thumping.
Sheriff Jefferson drove in through the open gateway and, getting out of his car, he came over to me.
“I guess you could use a drink,” I said.
“Yep: I could. This has been a pretty hard day,” he said, and together we crossed the garden to my cabin. “I’ve been fixing the inquest. Joe is starting his vacation the day after tomorrow, so we’ve had to hurry it up. We’re holding it tomorrow. You’ll have to give evidence, son.”
“That’s okay. It’s all straightforward, isn’t it?” I asked as I waved him to an armchair.
“I guess so.” He sat down. He looked tired and worried.
I made two whiskies and gave him one.
He asked, “Did you find Mrs Delaney in Glyn Camp?”
“I met her on her way back.”
Jefferson frowned, pulling at his moustache. I had a sudden uneasy feeling that he had something on his mind.
“I want to get the facts straight,” he said. “Doc is satisfied it was an accident. What do you think?”
A cold prickle of fear began to creep up my spine.
“It couldn’t be anything else,” I said, and to avoid meeting his eyes, I opened my desk drawer and took out a pack of cigarettes.
“It’s a bad thing to jump to conclusions,” Jefferson said. “The book says when a man dies you’ve got to consider four things: if he died from natural causes, an accident, suicide or murder.”
“It was obviously an accident,” I said.
“Yep: it certainly looks that way, but it could have been suicide.”
“You don’t imagine a man would kill himself by poking a screwdriver into the works of a TV set, do you?”
“It’s unlikely, son, but when a fellow’s mind is upset, you don’t know what he might do,” Jefferson said slowly. “I’m getting old. I don’t want to make a mistake now. I’ve been in office close on fifty years. I reckon to give up next year. The L.A. police have their knife into me. They think I’m too old to handle my job. I have only to make one mistake, and there’ll be a yell of “I told you so”. I want to avoid that if I can.”
“I don’t see what’s worrying you.”
“I thought it was an accident until . . .” He paused, frowning, then pulled out his pipe and began to load it.
I watched him, feeling suddenly short of breath.
“Until what?” I asked in a hard, tight voice.
“Mrs Delaney was planning to leave him.”
I don’t know how I kept my face expressionless, but I did.
“Leaving him? How do you know?”
“I’m a meddlesome old cuss. While I was waiting for the ambulance I took a look around the cabin. Mrs Delaney had taken all her clothes. I reckon when she left this morning, she planned not to come back.”
This was completely unexpected, and for a long moment I sat staring at him.
“Look, Sheriff,” I said, “does it matter whether he killed himself or whether he died accidentally? Why complicate things? If he did kill himself, and I am quite sure he didn’t, it’ll make things bad for Mrs Delaney. You can imagine how people will talk. Why make it hard for her?”
Jefferson continued to puff at his pipe, his expression uneasy.
“I know all that, son, but it’s my duty to keep the record straight. How did she get that bruised face? It looks to me as if someone gave her a pretty hard slap and that someone could only have been her husband. That tells me they didn’t get on together. That’s something that should be checked. Boos would check it fast enough.”
“To hell with him!” I said. “You’re in charge up here. I think you’re making too much of this. Do you really imagine any man would kill himself by poking a screwdriver into the works of a TV set? I am as sure as Doc is: it was an accident.”
Jefferson shrugged.
“You could be right, son.”
“Is Doc holding a post mortem?”
“No. Between you and me, he’s got beyond holding a p.m. But that doesn’t matter. Anyone can see how the poor fellow died. It’s why he died that bothers me.”
“Forget it,” I said. “It certainly doesn’t bother me.”
; He thought for a moment, then nodded.
“I guess you’re right I like the girl. As you say, there’s no point in making it hard for her. If she did leave him, she changed her mind. That’s in her favour. She was coming back, wasn’t she?”
“I met her at the cross roads. She was certainly coming back.”
“Well, then . . .” He looked relieved. “He couldn’t have been easy to live with. Maybe she got nerves. Women get j nerves pretty easily.”
He finished his drink and sat for a moment staring at the floor, then he got to his feet. “I guess I’ll be moving.” He looked tired and very old. “You’ll be down for the inquest, son? It’s at eleven o’clock.”
Til be there.”
We walked out into the evening sunlight and we paused by his old Ford.
“What’s going to happen to her, do you know?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Did he leave her much?”
“I don’t know that either, Sheriff.”
I thought of the hundred and fifty thousand she told me he I had. She was fixed all right, and so was I, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“Well, I’ll get along.”
I watched him drive away, then I walked back to my cabin.
I had an urge to call Gilda, but I knew it would be unsafe. I wondered what she was doing and thinking. She had the night before her alone, and so had I.
The thought of the coming night bothered me.
When fear is nibbling at you, the coming of the night with its darkness, its silence and its loneliness can be a frightening thing.
And because I had Delaney’s death on my conscience, I was frightened.
II
The inquest was held in the Glyn Camp recreation hall. There were only a dozen or so people sitting on the public benches, and they had drifted in because they had nothing better to do. Delaney hadn’t been known in Glyn Camp and there was no interest in his death.
I walked into the hall at five minutes to eleven. A minute later, Gilda came in. With her was a well-dressed, youngish man I had never seen before.
She came over to me and introduced the man to me. He was George Macklin, Delaney’s attorney, who had come up from Los Angeles.
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