Guilt by Association

by Gilbert, Morris

  “Well, he come up from behind,” Betty admitted. “Kept his hand over my mouth so I couldn’t scream, and he hit me right here—” She touched her temple and winced at the pain. “Almost knocked me out, so I couldn’t see much—but it was him.”

  “Karl?” Dani asked, giving him a straight look. “When I came in you were at her side—no one else was in the room.”

  He looked around the room, his eyes wide. “I—I heard something, and when I came to see what it was, I saw her hanging by the rope, so I ran over and held her up. She was still alive, but I couldn’t hold her and get the rope off. You saw it, Dani!”

  “All I saw was that you were here with her alone and that she was dying,” Dani remarked tersely. “Ben, you were right with me as I came in—did you see anybody else?”

  “No. Karl was alone.”

  “Can I have a drink of water?” Betty sat there fingering the red mark on her thin neck, and when Karen brought her a glass, she drank it, saying, “It hurts!” Then she looked at Dani and said, “You remember I asked you to meet me here in the kitchen after everyone went to sleep?”

  “Yes, Betty?”

  “Well, I found something, but I was afraid to tell it, because you’d think I was lying.”

  “What did you find?” Dani asked.

  Betty rubbed her neck, then nodded. “Yesterday I was sitting with Vince, and he was wringing wet with fever. I looked for a handkerchief to mop his brow, but he didn’t have any. So I went to one of the other men’s bunks and tried to find one.” She paused and said, “I want two of you to go to his bunk—” She pointed at Karl and finished, “Get the little leather case on the shelf by his bed.”

  Karl stared at her incredulously, but Dani ordered instantly, “Ben, you and Karen go get it.”

  They left at once as Karl began to protest, “I don’t know what this crazy woman is trying to do, but you all know she’s never liked me.”

  Dani shook her head. “Let’s wait and see, Karl.” When the pair returned, Karen handed Dani a small, brown leather case. “That’s an old shaving bag,” Karl said instantly. “I haven’t used it for weeks!”

  “Look inside!” Betty cried out. “Look under the bottom.”

  Dani zipped the case open and, looking inside, saw that it was empty. The bottom seemed loose, so she reached inside and pulled back a piece of stiff cardboard. Something bright caught her eye, and she slowly pulled out an object and held it up for all of them to see.

  “It’s the weapon that killed Candi,” she said slowly. The others crowded in close to see that she had a pair of hypodermic needles. “They’re wired together—see? Even the plungers are wired so that they work in tandem.”

  “Clever!” Karen nodded. “It’d be easy to make a double mark, like a snake’s fangs, and it’d put twice the amount of poison into the system.” She looked at the device carefully, then shook her head. “Not the same kind as those in the medical kit. And none of mine have been missing anyway.”

  Dani said reluctantly, “Karl, we’re going to have to think of you as the killer. We may be wrong, but the evidence against you is heavy.”

  “Anyone could have put that thing in my kit!” he objected angrily. “And if I were the killer, do you think I’d be stupid enough to keep the murder weapon around?”

  “You might want to use it again,” Dani explained, and she pulled a small plastic bottle from the bottom of the kit. Holding it up to the light, she said, “I don’t want to test it on anyone, but it’s pretty certain that this is the same poison that killed Candi.” Putting the case down, she stood there with her eyes fixed on Karl and began to speak.

  “You could have killed Alex easily. I never thought for a second that the eggs had the poison in them. That’s too haphazard for our man—doesn’t fit his method. Karen fixed the eggs, but you were standing right by her side, weren’t you? She left the stove to come over and get the milk out of the icebox, and while she was gone, you were standing right beside those eggs. It would have been easy for you to poison them, Karl.”

  “But I didn’t!”

  “As for Rosie, you have no alibi. You’re strong enough to have done it, and you had the opportunity.”

  “But, Dani,” Karl protested, “you know I could never have climbed up that rope to get rid of the knife—I’m no acrobat!”

  “I agree.” Dani nodded, and an expression of distaste covered her face, for she had admired Holtz, and it went against her nature to pile up the evidence. “But there’s another way that knife could have gotten under the window.”

  “How?” Holtz demanded.

  “Through the slot, where we put the orders for our supplies.”

  Ben’s face revealed the shock that ran through him at her words. “Sure!” he nodded. “It would fit through easy enough.”

  “But how would it get from there to under the window?” Lonnie asked, puzzled.

  “The killer has been in contact with Stone all the time, or so I think.” Dani shrugged. “I believe there’s some way to get things in from the outside, if we could find it, but all he’d have to do is include a note telling Stone to put the knife under the window. Thaf d put the suspicion on Ben and take it off him.”

  She paused, then said, “That leaves Candi and Betty. As for Candi, you lied when you said you never left the rec room, didn’t you?”

  “I—I forgot. But that bathroom door was locked!”

  “There’s no way to prove that. But you were the first one in this place. If you are Stone’s hired assassin, you could easily have had that lock fixed so that you could open it from the men’s side. We’ll take another look at it, but it wasn’t locked when she was murdered or shortly after, because Ben checked it, and so did Betty.”

  “She’s probably the killer herself!” Karl cried. “She’s trying to pin it on me because she’s guilty.”

  “Did she hang herself and try to frame you for that?” Rachel demanded, and his face fell. “He’s guilty!” she spat out. “Just another Nazi!”

  “I wouldn’t take your word for it, Rachel,” Dani said quickly. “You’re too filled up with prejudice. But you and Karen and I were together when Betty was attacked. I was dozing off and on, and when I heard her cry out, I didn’t take time to look for you. Did you two notice any of the others being gone?”

  “Rachel was right in front of me when we jumped up and came out,” Karen said. “And since Ben bumped into you going through the door, that leaves Vince, Bix, and Lonnie.”

  “And they all came out after we got there,” Ben said. “The killer would have to have overcome Betty, put her on the rope, and gone back to bed. Then Karl would have to have gotten up, come into this room, and tried to get her down.” He shook his head. “Karl, I like you a lot—but it would take of lot of faith to accept that.”

  “The evidence is strong against you, Karl,” Dani said. “It’s all circumstantial and would never convict you in a court of law. But we’re in our own cosmos now. So you can speak for yourself.”

  Karl stood, his face sagging and his shoulders drooping. Looking around he said, “You have made up your minds. Any one of you could be accused on evidence no stronger than this, but you have decided. You are wrong, however, and that is my only plea.”

  Dani stared at him, bit her lip, then shaking her head, stated firmly, “Is that all, Karl? Well, it’s not enough.”

  A strange look crossed Holtz’s face, a trace of a smile. He looked at Rachel and spoke quietly, “Well, my dear, you are about to have your dearest hope come to pass. You are going to have the opportunity to execute a Nazi.”

  “Oh, don’t be ridiculous!” Dani said. “No one will touch you—except to keep you tied up.”

  “That’ll settle the thing!” Ben commented caustically. “If Karl is the killer, we’ll all be safe. Probably die of old age in this place.”

  Dani did not give Maxwell Stone much of a chance when the supplies came down and the red light blinked on. It was late afternoon, and they all gathered at
once, this time with some sort of heady excitement, although Ben said wryly to Karen, “Can’t see it makes much difference. Either Stone will admit it’s Karl, or he won’t. Either way we’ll still be in here.”

  “You have—”

  “Just a minute, Stone!” Dani called out loudly. She motioned to where Karl was standing between Ben and Lonnie. “We’ve captured your paid assassin.”

  Silence ran on for several seconds and then: “Indeed? I congratulate you. Are you quite sure Herr Holtz is the man?”

  “We feel he is.”

  “I see. And what do you propose?”

  “That you let us out of here in exchange for his life.”

  Stone suddenly laughed and questioned, “And if I do not, will you kill him?”

  Dani’s resolute expression faded. She tried to think of some way to pressure Stone, but there was nothing.

  “You will not?” Stone asked again. “No, certainly not. That is your weakness. Have you learned nothing from all that I’ve said?”

  “I know what you would do!” Dani exclaimed angrily. “You’d kill him out of hand, if it would benefit you in any way!”

  “‘There are more things in heaven and earth,’ Miss Ross, ‘than are dreamt of in your philosophy,’” Stone stated. “One of them is that the individual is not as important as the state.”

  “You are wrong there, Stone!” Dani said firmly, looking up into the camera. “Every state, every nation, every civilization passes away—but the soul of every human being is immortal, therefore the individual is of infinitely more worth than the state.”

  “Very clever! ‘A Daniel come to judgement!’” Stone exclaimed. “If you were only able to see the light, my dear, I could predict that you’d do great things. I could use you in my organization. You have beauty and brains, which is a rare combination, indeed! However, you have not learned to live with the world of reality. As I have pointed out more than once, we do not live in ordinary times; therefore we cannot use ordinary means. How does the bard put it? Oh, yes! ‘Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are relieved, Or not at all.’ That’s what you and your friends can never seem to see, Miss Ross. Our world does not have a simple headache. It is dying of a terminal sickness, and only radical surgery will save it. ‘There’s a divinity that shapes our ends. . . .’”

  “Move over in front of me,” Bix whispered to Rachel, and she looked at him in surprise. He put his finger on his lips, saying, “Be quiet, but when the box goes up, try to get the old buzzard’s attention.”

  Rachel stared at him, but he ducked and pulled some sort of device out of a bag at his feet. It seemed to be a rope with some hooks, and she watched while he carefully moved to the supply box, attached them to the sides, then stood back. Sid was watching, and he gave Bix a warning shake of his head and mouthed the words, Don’t do it, Bix! But the boy merely gave him a stubborn look and stood there, waiting.

  Stone said finally, “I am out of patience with all of you! Your fate is on your own heads. Do you want me to send the box down for my hired assassin, as you call Herr Holtz?”

  The winch started to whine, and at once Rachel moved forward, to the center of the group. She lifted her head and cried out, “If I had my way, Stone we’d pull his fingernails out, one at a time! But you’d never let us go, even if we gave him to you, would you? You dirty butcher—Holtz is bad enough, but you’re worse . . . !”

  As Rachel continued her tirade, they all watched her with interest. Then Dani heard Ben whisper urgently: “Kid! Don’t try it!” She turned her head to see Bix dangling from the bottom of the box! It was already fifteen feet in the air, and she wanted to scream for him to let go, but even as she watched, the box cleared the canopy, and Bix’s dangling feet disappeared.

  Rachel continued her outraged speech, but suddenly the whining of the winch motor stopped. The silence seemed to cut off her words.

  Stone said, “Our young friend has gotten himself in considerable trouble, has he not?”

  Dani ran to look up through the gap in the canopy, and the others joined her. It was very dark, but they could see by the dim light that filtered upward that Bix was kicking his feet wildly and struggling to clamber up into the box.

  “He’ll be killed if he falls from there!” Dani cried. Running to the camera, she pleaded. “Please, let him down!”

  “Oh, he’ll come down,” Stone said. “Everything that goes up must come down. So I bid you good night. ‘Sweets to the sweet: farewell!’”

  “He’s gonna fall!” Lonnie groaned. “Look out!”

  When Bix’s hands let go of the ropes, and he plunged toward the hard concrete, Sid, Lonnie, Karen, and Dani jumped backward out of pure reflex action. But without thought Ben Savage jumped under Bix’s body. After a sickening sound of flesh on flesh, Ben was driven to the floor, where he lay sprawling with Bix on top of him, still screaming.

  16

  A Nice, Warm Bath

  * * *

  Dani leaped forward with a cry: “Ben! Ben!” At the same time Karen called out, “Be careful, don’t jerk them around!” Dani stood back, and Betty put an arm around her as they watched Karen examine the two men.

  Bix spoke up in a high-pitched, cracked voice, “I—I thought I was a goner!”

  “You were!” Karen snapped. “Now shut your mouth and raise this arm. Now this one.” After a moment she opined, “You’ve got the luck of the Irish! Not a single broken bone.” Then she turned to Ben, who was beginning to stir, saying quietly, “Don’t move, Ben.”

  Dani discovered her legs were trembling so violently that she could hardly stand up, but she forced herself to stay, ashamed that she had jumped back with the rest, leaving Ben to take the full impact. Many times she had almost hated him, but she knew she’d never be able to forget that sight!

  Then his eyelids fluttered, and he began to move. He mumbled something, the eyes opened, and he blinked rapidly before asking, “How’s Bix?”

  “Better than you!” Karen said. “You’ve got a bump the size of a baseball on your head! Now be still and let me check you over.”

  In the final analysis, Karen could find nothing more than a terribly bruised left shoulder and a bump on the head, for Ben, and a tender knee joint and a twisted wrist, for Bix. She stood up and helped Ben to his feet. “By rights you ought to have at least a concussion! Come sit down!”

  Shakily Ben walked to one of the chairs and sat down gingerly. Bix came and stood in front of him, his face working. He tried to speak but could only swallow. Ben looked up at him and said with a grin, “Bix, you and I have got to stop meeting like this!”

  Bix made a pitiful attempt at returning the grin. He took a deep breath. “I was dead meat, Ben! All I could think of was getting all busted up and dying by inches in this place.” He bit his lip, then suddenly turned and walked away.

  Karen pulled back Ben’s shirt, shook her head and directed, “Go get in the tub and soak for an hour. Make the water as hot as you can stand it.” She shooed them all away, and Ben marched off slowly but obediently.

  “I’d better go check on Vince,” Karen announced.

  Lonnie got up at once. “I’ll tell him about what the kid tried to pull off.” The two left, and Betty went to the kitchen, leaving Sid, Rachel, and Dani sitting, with Karl standing stiffly back away from them.

  He looked very lonely, and Sid said, “Aw, come on and sit down, Holtz. You ain’t likely to knock anybody off in a crowd.”

  Dani said, “We’re all pretty washed out, Karl. Come and join us.” She watched as he held himself stiffly at attention; then slowly his shoulders bowed, and he came and wordlessly sat down. Rachel stared at him bitterly, but Sid, who was sitting close to him, suddenly slapped his shoulder, saying, “That was sure something—the way Savage stepped under the kid!”

  Karl nodded. “Yes. It took a very brave man to do that.” Then he faced Dani and asked quietly, “I assume you want to tie me to my bed tonight?”

  “Karl—” Dani said. />
  But he interrupted her, “I am not complaining. In your place I should do the same.”

  “Or worse!” Rachel snapped.

  Karl got up slowly. “Is it all right if I go lie down? I’m not feeling too good.”

  “Of course, Karl.” Dani watched him leave the room and turned to Rachel. “Don’t you have any pity at all for him?”

  “No!” Rachel got up and looked down at Dani, pausing, “You just don’t know what it’s like, being a Jew. If you did, you’d hate the ones who killed your people, just as I do.”

  Dani thought for a moment, then said softly, “Jesus was a Jew. But as He died, He prayed for the ones who were killing Him. He had what your people called rachmones.” She paused to look upward into Rachel’s face, but saw no sign of pity there. “That means ‘pity,’” she explained to Sid, who was taking it all in.

  Rachel shook her head, and her lips thinned. “Dani,” she said slowly, “I’m not going to change. You’ll never make a convert out of me.”

  She walked away, and Sid put his hand on Dani’s arm. “Don’t feel bad,” he comforted her. “I doubt if an angel could convert that one.”

  Dani turned to him and put her hand over his. It was the first time she’d ever touched Sid, and she saw his eyes fly open in surprise. He tried to pull his hand back, but she tightened her grip, looking into his face. The silo had planed him down, as it had everyone else. The sleek, black hair had become lusterless and shaggy, and the usually sharp black eyes had dulled. He was wearing a black jacket that was far too large for him, and it made him look like a beggar.

  “What about you, Sid?” Dani asked suddenly. “What would it take to convert you?”

  “Me!” he asked, astounded. “You mean me?”

  “What’s so surprising about that?” She smiled. “Jesus loves you as much as He loves anyone else.”

  Sid stared at her, gave a rough laugh, and pulled his hand back. But there was something in his face that had not been there before, and for half an hour Dani quoted Bible verses to him—those that spoke of the love of God.