I told her about the confession, talking fast, trying to communicate without taking all day. But I had hardly started when she jumped up. She said: “So! That’s what he’s got on you! So he can ride you to town! Every day, in winter. To the Ladyship, he says, to help out there, and wear that awful white coat. And then in spring—”
“Start all over again.”
“Seems so hateful.”
“I tried to tell you.”
“All I’ve thought about, Duke, is what I was going to do — if he ever found out the truth — and tried to do something to you. I’ve had terrible things in my heart.”
“You got that confession straight?”
“Yes, Duke, at last.”
“Marge says you’re to get it.”
“Oh, if I only could.”
“You figure on it. And in the meantime—”
I reached for the phone again, the extension beside her bed, but once more she grabbed my hand. I said: “That guy out there is not in very good shape.”
“We’ve been here four minutes.”
She pointed to the electric clock beside the phone, and I said: “It takes one second to die. Little less, as a matter of fact.”
But she held me, and I was weak and couldn’t pull clear. For two minutes nothing was said. And then suddenly she jumped up and gasped: “It wasn’t dumb! It wasn’t a mistake at all! Bringing that fool out here, and you knocking him out! It was just right!”
She leaned close, began shaking me, and said: “It fixes everything up! You didn’t hit him for me, but for Val, don’t you get it, Duke? From indignation, that such a thing could even be in the house! And that shuts off any suspicion Val would have of you. He’s known there was somebody, but so far he hasn’t suspicioned you! And if he don’t, if we can just hold him off a little bit — I’ll get that paper, Duke. I’ll get it for you, I see it all, clear. I’m cracking this thing wide open, and I’m doing it now, tonight. And if we work it right, if you follow my lead, we’ll have it all, everything we want. And then — what?”
“One thing at a time, Holly.”
“Your feet cold again?”
“No, I’ve learned.”
“Then where we going, honey?”
“Isn’t Nevada O.K.?”
“Oh, I’d love it.”
Cracking it open was just the beginning, the way she tore in with her teeth. Cops, ambulance, and Val all got there in a bunch, car after car rolling up and parking on the apron, the far side of the loop. Lippert was still out, but I was working on him with ammonia, ice, and massage, partly from how it would look, and partly from real worry, as now when I dug in his wrist I couldn’t find any pulse. But he flinched when the intern dug in his eyeball, and was groaning when they took him out on a stretcher.
Soon as the ambulance left, the sergeant jerked a thumb at me, but Val got in it quick. He roared, asking what I was charged with; and if I was protecting his wife, why I was charged at all. He read the book on Lippert, as a no-good racketeer, who’d served one rap for perjury, had had his license suspended, and been in trouble over his taxes. It was partly an argument, partly throwing his weight, and from the squint the cops were giving it, I knew he’d have his way. The main thing for Holly and me was he was fooled, one hundred per cent apparently, and had been since I called him, told him what I had done, and asked for further orders. After the sergeant thought it over, he decided it was up to Lippert, and warned me to stand by until the hospital was heard from. Val eased off, and was quite sociable walking the cops to their car.
He was like a tiger when he came back inside, white, trembling, and with his tongue licking his lips as he went over to her. She was on the sofa as usual, her little red hat beside her, holding the fire screen with one hand, the poker with the other, as she pushed my logs together to make them blaze up nice. It seemed strange that even now the fire was new and had hardly got burning good. He jerked the poker away, and I stepped up close pretty quick, as for a second I thought he would brain her. He saw me, nodded, put the poker in place, pushed the fire screen up. All that time she stared at him very impudent, until their eyes locked, and he burst out: “Holly, how could you? To your own home! Your family’s place! In your own car! That I bought you! Bring a gangster!”
“Aw, Solly’s cute.”
“Holly, are you out of your mind?”
“But I’ve known Solly. He’s called up. He’s kidded along. We’re old friends. And the prices he’s quoting on bourbon. Why, Val, I ask you to look at these pamphlets.”
He nodded very sarcastic, scooped all the brochures up, tilted the fire screen again, and slid them down on the flames. She looked astonished as they blazed, said: “Val, it’s you that’s out of your mind. Oh well, let’s drop it.”
“Drop it? Drop it! My wife makes such a holy show of herself that Duke has to step in, and now we’re going to stop it!”
“The wonderful Duke.”
“That I apologize to.”
“For what, Val, may I ask?”
“For the suspicions I’ve had about him. I’ve known somebody was back of all this, and, God help me, once or twice I’ve even thought of Duke. That’s one thing I apologize for. The other thing is the spot my wife’s put him in. For what Lippert may do to him, once he’s back on his feet.”
That caught her by surprise, I could tell by the look in her eye, but she laughed quite brassy and said: “Val, I don’t much care.”
“That doesn’t surprise me, Holly.”
“I’m getting sick of Duke.”
“He’s helped you, humored you—”
“Val, I told you, when you first mentioned him, that night over the phone, when I was down in St. Mary’s: I want no piece of him. I tell you again, now’s he dared to butt into my affairs: get rid of him.”
“However, maybe I won’t.”
“Then, you’re rid of me.”
“I don’t take orders from—”
She screamed, jumped at him, clawed at his face with her nails. Then she ran to the kitchen and came back with the long knife, of stainless chromium steel, that he used for slicing beef. She ran at him with it and I grabbed her from behind. I tied her up, told him to take the knife. She dropped it and he picked it up, stalking with it back to the kitchen. She whispered: “Now’s your chance, Duke! You offer to go! You’re willing — except for that paper! You can’t go till you get it!”
When he came back, she was sitting by the phone table, but snapped at him with her teeth, so they gave a little click. He said: “Duke, thanks again.”
I said: “Sir, I think I should go.”
“That’s for me to say.”
“I hadn’t known I was objectionable to Mrs. Val, but now — I certainly ought to leave, and I’m willing to. I remind you, though, I’m bound in a sort of way. By a — confession I gave. To Officer Daniel.”
“That no longer figures.”
“May I ask you why?”
“Duke, can’t you take my word?”
“Sir, with that paper outstanding, like some wild deuce in the deck—”
She jumped up and screamed at him: “Why don’t you tell him the truth? That ’stead of Dan having the confession, you have? That he traded it to you, to save that trollop of his, the one took the money, and—”
“How do you know what he did?”
“I got it from Bill — and he knows!”
They faced each other panting, but she had reached him, I knew. She jerked her thumb toward his office, which was in the front of the house, on the other side from the bedroom, said: “Unlock your desk, Val. Get the confession and hand it over. Because until Duke goes, your wife is out — on strike.” He sat down, wiped his lips with his handkerchief, then made one of those switches I never could understand. In a low, extra reasonable way he said: “I did make a trade with Daniel, that’s true, all true, though I’m surprised Bill should know it. I did it partly to wind it up, the mess the girl got into. And partly for Duke’s protection, so he wouldn’t be open to shakedowns, or anything like that — unlikely, of course, as Dan is a fine officer, but on a thing like that, we shouldn’t take any chances. But I certainly wouldn’t keep it here in the house. It’s at the bank, in my box, and it just so happens that five in the afternoon is a little too late to ask them to open up — even to please you, Holly.”