Outside, the bird was still laughing at her from the telephone wire.
18
A car passed on the road, not speeding as cars usually did on Mountain Drive at night, but groping along, as if the driver was searching for a certain house, a certain person. The car paused, reversed gear, and braked to a stop outside her house.
She ran out of the garage and pulled down the door just as Easter stepped through the wooden gate into the yard. He didn’t speak for a minute. His eyes traveled from her face to the Buick with the headlights still on, to the closed door of the garage.
“I’ll open the garage for you,” he said.
“No.” She made a convulsive movement of protest that stiffened her whole body, like an electric shock. “No, thanks.”
“All right, do it yourself.” He added something under his breath that sounded like “damn emancipated females.”
“I... I’d prefer to leave the car out.” Her voice was unnatural, high and tight, as if hands were squeezing her larynx. “I never know when I’ll have to make a call.”
“Blake’s taking your calls.”
“Stop arguing with me. I’m — tired. If you don’t mind, I wish you’d go away.”
“You’re always wishing I’d go away. It’s painful to me. Easter, Easter, go away, don’t come again some other...”
“Please. I really am tired.”
“I know. I won’t keep you. I came to see whether you got home all right.”
“Well, I did. I did, You can see that.”
“I can see a lot of things,” he said slowly. “You’re nervous as hell. What’s up?”
“Nothing. You... you didn’t really come here to see if I arrived safely. You’re spying on me.”
“Why should I?”
“Because you think that I’m mixed up in all these terrible things.”
“They’re not so terrible — a suicide, a natural death — no murder.” He repeated, “No murder,” in an insinuating tone as if he expected her to contradict him. She said nothing.
He walked over to her car, turned off the headlights and removed the key ring from the ignition. He tossed it to her. It fell in the grass at her feet and she watched it dully, as if her mind were too dazed to understand the concept of catching something that was thrown at her.
“Your keys,” Easter said.
“Keys? Oh. Yes, of course.”
They knelt, simultaneously, to pick up the key ring and their arms touched. She drew back as if he’d aimed a blow at her.
He picked up the key ring first. “I’m poison to you, eh?”
“No. Not poison.” A jackknife, a gun, foam.
“You won’t be making any calls tonight. I’ll put your car away for you and bring your luggage into the house.”
“No! I won’t let...”
“What’s the matter? Is there something in the house you don’t want me to see?”
“No.”
“Ballard, perhaps?”
“There’s nothing in the house,” she said contemptuously. “Come in and see. Snoop all you want to.”
“Since you put it so charmingly, I will.”
He got her week-end bag out of the car while she unlocked the front door.
She turned on all the lights in the sitting room: “There. See anything?”
“No.”
“No guns or b — bodies?”
He looked at her quizzically. “I hardly expected to find any guns or bodies. Just Ballard.”
“Why do you want to see Lewis?”
“For one thing, his wife reported him missing this morning.”
“Missing? Lewis?”
“But that’s just one thing. There are other things... Where is he?”
“I don’t know. And if Lewis wants to go away, it’s not my business, and it’s certainly not yours, Mr. Easter.”
“You might be surprised.”
“You have nothing against Lewis except that I love him.”
“The way I feel, that’s plenty to have against a man. Even if it were all.”
His intensity disturbed her. She didn’t know what to say or do. She stood near the door, her hat and gloves still on, her handbag under her arm. She said finally, “Sit down and I’ll find something to drink.”
“I’ll stand, thanks. I feel more like a policeman when I’m standing and less like a guy calling on the woman he loves. I’m both. But right now I’m standing. Where’s Ballard?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since the night before last at dinner-time. I told him I was going to drive up to Oregon.”
“Did you tell him why?”
“Yes.
“And he didn’t want you to go?”
“He didn’t care.”
“You’re lying.”
“He didn’t care much.”
“Plenty.”
“Stop beating around the bush like this,” she said passionately. “If he cared at all, it was because the trip meant that I wouldn’t see him for a couple of days. What other reason would he have for caring whether I went to Ashley or not?”
“I can think of several.”
“You. You can think of anything against Lewis. He told me that’s what you were — a troublemaker.”
“That’s what I am.” He lit a cigarette. There was no draft in the room. The smoke moved directly, purposefully, to the ceiling. “By the way, I have news for you about Voss and Eddie.”
She felt the blood draining out of her face. She turned and began taking off her gloves and her hat, fussing with her purse — any kind of quick movement to distract his eye from her pallor.
“They’ve disappeared. Sunk without a trace. I’m a little disappointed about losing them. I was hoping to ask Eddie a few questions about where he got the money to buy his new car.”
You can still ask him. But he won’t answer.
The telephone began to ring. She looked towards it, dazedly, as if she’d never heard a phone ring and was surprised that the curious black object could make such a noise.
“Answer it,” Easter said. “Or I will, if you like.”
“No. No, I will.” She crossed the room and picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Dr. Keating, it’s me, Gwen Ballard. I’ve been trying to get you all day. Miss Schiller kept telling me to phone Dr. Blake. But I wouldn’t. I said, no, Dr. Keating’s my doctor, I won’t see anyone else.”
Charlotte glanced over her shoulder at Easter. He hadn’t moved, but his body was tense as if every nerve cell was straining to help him hear what was being said at the other end of the line. She put her hand over the receiver and said, “This is a private call from one of my patients. You wouldn’t be interested.”
He didn’t speak, just looked at her, unblinking.
She took her hand away from the receiver. “Is there anything the matter?”
“I’ve had another attack.” Gwen’s breathing was labored, her voice faint and tremulous. “I’m alone. I’m afraid.”
“There’s nothing to worry about Take it easy and...”
“I must see you. Please come, Dr. Keating — Charlotte — I must talk to someone, a friend.”
A friend. Gwen, alone and in terror, calling to her, of all the people in the city, as a friend. Charlotte felt a nausea rising from her stomach, souring her throat “Has anything happened?”
“He tried to kill me. Yes! He tried to kill me! He said he hated me, he’d always hated me!”
The pitch and volume of Gwen’s voice had risen. Charlotte saw that Easter had heard, not the words perhaps, but the notes of hysteria. She had to quiet Gwen before Easter got suspicious. She said, “I’ll be right over. Ten minutes.”
“Oh, thank you, Dr. Keating, thank you.”
Charlotte replaced the phone. “I have to make a call.”
“So I heard.”
“If you’ll excuse me now...” She looked pointedly towards the door.