I nestled her against me. “Reba, don’t leave me again.”
I twisted her shoulders until I could look into her eyes, lazy now and half-open. “You hear me?”
“I hear you, Joe.”
“When am I going to see you?”
“I — don’t — know.” She straightened slowly.
“Let’s make it soon.”
She flicked her cigarette through the open window and her voice was bitter. “You don’t know what it’s been like, Joe, being married to him. All bent over, the way he is. Why sometimes I have to help him or he couldn’t get around at all. He’s never without his cane anymore.
“And nag — he’s always nagging me! ‘Where have you been, Reba? What did you spend that for, Reba? Why don’t you stay with me, Reba. I can’t stand you being away from me, Reba. No, Reba, I can’t afford to give you anymore money — I’m an old man — I can’t tell when I’ll need my money.’ And he’s got plenty, Joe! Plenty!
“He still owns half that business. He’s got a stack of bonds a mile high and a bankful of cash. Yet he treats me as though he hadn’t a dime. He won’t even move out of that business-woman’s-club section where we live. The old fool! I wish he was dead!”
“And what if he was dead?” I asked softly.
She flung herself against me. “Oh, Joe, if he was, I’d have everything, I’ve always wanted. I’d—” She gazed up at me. “Then there’d be just you and me, Joe. Nobody else in the whole wide world, but you — and me.”
I’m not sure how long she’d been thinking about murder or how long she’d been looking for a sucker; but that night when I walked back into her life, I was it!...
The next morning I was awakened by the ringing telephone.
“Hello,” I said.
“Joe? George Preston. You said something about looking for a good spot.”
I had, but not the way he put it. I’d hit George for a job.
“That’s right,” I said.
“Well, I think I know just the spot for you. I can take care of it — if you’ll give me the name and phone number of the gal you walked out of The Click with last night.”
“Hey, wait a minute, that’s blackmail.”
“Well?”
“Sorry, George, I’ve known this one a long, long time.”
“So it’s that way?” He laughed. “Okay, Joe, you stop over at the office today sometime and we’ll talk about that job.”
I hung up the phone and crawled out of bed. By the time I’d finished dressing the phone rang again. This time it was Reba.
“I don’t think I can make it tonight?”
I swallowed my disappointment. “Try, baby.”
“I will, but it doesn’t look like it. He’d raise the roof if I took the car out again tonight. How about tomorrow night?”
“I might not be around that long.”
“Not running out on your hotel bill are you?”
“No, that’s paid.”
“Not running out on me, are you?”
“Nothing like that. George Preston, a fellow I know, might have a job for me. If he doesn’t, I can’t afford to hang around.”
“Oh.” She paused so long I thought she’d hung up. “Maybe I can make it tonight, Joe. Where will it be?”
“How about here?”
“Why not? About eight?”
“Suits me,” I answered.
“Did you get the job?” she asked, when she arrived.
“I did, and a company car to go with it.”
“That’s swell, Joe. Now you can stick around.”
I laughed ruefully. “I don’t know. What I mean is — I won’t be in town very much.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. You see, the new job is sales representative for Preston Trucking Company. I cover the whole state, contacting clients, routing trucks and things like that. So I’ll only be here Wednesdays and over the week-end.”
“Well, at least, you’ll be here?”
“That’s right.”
“And we can get together once in awhile.”
“Every day I’m here, baby, if you can make it.”
She rose. “Which reminds me, I’d better be getting back.”
“So soon?”
“Sorry, darling. Next time we’ll plan to spend the entire evening together.”
I drove Reba out to a neat, white house on Sherman Drive. I watched her start up the steps and I drove away. When I reentered my hotel room, the phone was ringing.
“Hello.”
“Joe?” It was Reba and her voice was low, viberating with urgency.
“Yeah.”
“Joe! Listen to me! Something’s happened.”
“What... what’s wrong?”
“It’s Charles. He fell down the stairs while I was out. He — he’s dead! If anyone should happen to ask you, I wasn’t with you this evening.”
“No?”
“It might not look so good.”
“Why should anyone ask me?”
“Because I want you to come out here right away. I’m going to call the doctor now. But the way I’ll tell it — I called the doctor first, then you. You’re an old friend of mine.”
“But—”
“It’s natural that I’d call someone!”
“How about the neighbors?”
“I don’t know any of them well enough. I’d call a friend — I called you!”
The receiver clicked sharply in my ear. I turned slowly, my mind a jumble of confusion. I didn’t like it, but Reba wanted me right away! Hurriedly I descended the two flights of stairs and strode out to the parking lot.
It took me ten minutes to return to the white house on Sherman drive. The windows were blazing with lights now. Reba opened the door and I paused on the threshold. Charles Jaxon’s twisted body lay face down at the foot of the stairs.
“Are you sure he’s dead?”
“I’m sure.”
I stared at her. “You found him just like that when you came in?”
“Just like that.”
“Didn’t you touch him?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know he’s dead?”
Her gaze moved from mine to the body of her husband and bade again. “He looks dead!”
“Turn him over.”
She stood woodenly.
“Turn him over! Regardless of how you might feel, it would look damned funny if you just walked in here, saw him like that, and called a doctor.”
“But I didn’t walk in here. I haven’t been out of the house.”
“All the more reason. You hear him fall, run in here, try to help him, turn him over, then call for help.”
Quickly she moved forward to drop on her knees. She lifted the dead man’s thin shoulders and rolled him face up. She glanced at me and I nodded. As she rose she dug a finger nail into her stocking. A beautiful run spread over her knee.
“His cane!” I exclaimed.
“What?”
“You told me he was never without his cane anymore. Where’s his cane?”
The eyebrow twitched and her eyes bored into mine. “Oh, that’s right,” she said slowly, deliberately. “He should have his cane.”
And now I knew! Of course, I should have known before, but this time she didn’t even pretend. I heard her rapid steps mounting the stairs and crossing the hall. I heard the cane hit the top step and clatter down to rest against Charles Jaxon’s legs. I heard a car door slam out in the street.
Reba opened the door for the doctor. I helped him carry the body to the living room sofa.
He made a brief, thorough examination, then I called a prominent undertaking firm. By 11 o’clock we were alone in the, hallway.
“Joe.” Her eyes were wide and pleading.
“Yes?”
“I... I— Are you going?”
“I can’t stay here.”
“No.” She hesitated. “You’ll see me through this, won’t you?”
“Sure.” A choking nausea hung in my throat.
“It was an accident. You know that don’t you?”