“Shut mouth!” Kadma roared.
She stood there on her knees near the foot of the bed, her lips working, without sound. Rocko gestured with the automatic toward her as he looked at Cooper. “See the dronk thing? Ugly thing. Cheap thing. Half million of them around, all for asking. For that dronk thing and for one collection you do that to Rocko, best friend. Disappoint, Allan. Lousy judgment. No sense. Ugly blonde dronk thing. Not worth much trouble. Not worth more trouble than this.”
He aimed the gun casually. Cooper felt his lips form the word ‘NO!’ but without sound. Alice made a rusty cawing noise in her throat and the egg-blue eyes bulged. The gun made three separate sounds, like the slamming of the lid of a tiny wooden box.
For a long moment she stayed poised on her knees. Then she sat back slowly onto her heels, put her palms, one over the other, flat against the soft swell of her stomach. She made a face, such as a child with a tummy-ache would make.
The cords stood out in her throat and all at once her face was grey and tired and very old. “I — wanted a chance — to tell you about Allan — but you...”
The lid of the little box snapped again. The black hole appeared at the inside corner of her left eye. She sighed and toppled off the bed to her right, her head striking hard against the polished floor. The high heel of the right shoe was tangled in the spread, holding the leg twisted up at awkward angle.
“Dronk thing,” Rocko said in righteous disgust. “Better dead.”
Cooper tried to hold back the fear. But it roared up through his brain like a fire in a stairwell. He scrambled across the bed, tripping over her body, crawling into the furthest corner of the room, crouching there like a child avoiding punishment. He didn’t know what words he was screaming, but above them he could hear the long roll, the ripe fruity roll, of Rocko Kadma’s joyous laughter.
Chapter 4
Time Sensations
Cooper hid his head and his chin was wet with spittle. He could hear no more laughter. When he looked up he saw that Rocko was gone and he was alone with the body. He had never felt a deeper shame, even in childhood when shame can be the crudest weapon. He tried the door. It was locked on the outside. Unlike his room, the windows were steel casement type; the portions that opened were too small to squeeze through.
The grotesqueness of her position bothered him. He gently untangled the heel, lowered her leg to the floor. He straightened her body out, covered it with the spread. She had bled very little. He heard a distant shout of laughter and he could not recognize the voice. He went into the small bath and sat on the flat edge of the diagonal tub and smoked three cigarettes.
Getting out of this alive no longer seemed so important. He knew that if through some miracle he could escape at this moment, it would do him no good. He would have to carry within himself the sharp memory of the way Kadma had broken him. It didn’t help to blame what had happened during the war years. He knew that wasn’t good enough. And he would have to live with himself in the future. There could be no return to the quiet years. Not after this.
Thus it had to be considered a turning point. To yell cop would be too simple. The credentials were there, taped under the car hood, to prove it. Even Rocko wouldn’t be insane enough to kill him once he knew that he was an impostor.
No, this hand was going to have to be played with Farat’s cards, poor as they were. He knew that it was a crazy, foolhardy decision. But he could see no other way to regain his own self respect.
Farat or Cooper, either one, would have to find a way to get out of the room. That was the first problem. He went back into the bedroom and tried not to glance at the body on the floor, silent under the spread. But he had to look. One strand of the taffy hair was visible under the edge of the spread where it rested on the floor near her head.
He took a cardboard match and pushed it into the keyhole. It struck the key, still in the lock. He began to search through Alice’s things to find tools for the next step. Finally, in the bureau drawer, he found a pair of eyebrow tweezers. When he tried to get a purchase on the key they slipped off. But when he wound adhesive tape around the gripping surfaces, he found that he could make them work. He turned the key slowly. Luckily it was a new lock, well oiled, and it worked smoothly.
He heard the tumbler click over and he tried the door. It opened. He shut it silently and re-locked the door from the inside by the same method. It would be better to have a plan. And a weapon. The weapon was not hard to devise. One nylon stocking with a thick glass jar of deoderant cream in the toe. He swung it against the pillow, testing it. It would crack a skull with the greatest of ease.
He put the improvised sap in his pocket, with the top of the stocking hanging out. He felt as though he had gone beyond fear, had arrived in some new place where there was only a cold and objective calm.
As he started to review the floor-plan of the house, he heard the faint rattle of the key. He stepped quickly to the wall and flattened himself out beside the door, the improvised sap in his hand. The door opened and Carla Hutcheon slid through. She gasped as she saw him, then held her fingers meaningfully to her lips and closed the door.
“Alice?” she whispered.
“Dead.”
“I thought he’d done that. You’re next, you know. So there’s no reason why you shouldn’t help me.”
“Why do you want my help?”
“It’s Barbara. I’d only begun to tell her when I saw the blinker light. I told Rocko about her. I pleaded with him. He said he’d have to have a look at her first. He insisted on talking to her alone. I couldn’t stop him. Now I don’t know what he’s done to her. She does anything he says. They’re out there now, making her take one drink after another. I can’t trust Billy and Susler to help me. I can trust my help and the guards.”
“How many came with Rocko?”
“Five besides Rocko. In a big seagoing launch. She’s moored in my basin near the causeway.”
“What are they like?”
“Tough, competent, silent. They act like military people. They talk together in their own language. One of them is older. He speaks English. Very good English. He seems to be in charge, and he seems to be a little sore at Rocko. I think Rocko took orders from him until they came ashore and now Rocko won’t listen to him. Anyway, that’s my hunch.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Help me get Barbara out of here. I don’t care what happens to me. I’ve got to have somebody drive the car she goes in. The way she acts, she won’t go willingly. You’ll have to make her go.”
“That sounds like a good trick.”
“Shut up and listen. They’re on guard, but I think I can smuggle you out of the house. Here are the keys to your car. I took them out of your room. Go around and get into the car and get down on the floor. I’ve fixed it so my gate guard will let you through. When I’m certain you’re all set, I’m going to go in there and get Barbara away from them. Even if I have to kill somebody, I’m going to get her out of that situation.”
“What time is it now?”
“After two in the morning.”
“How are you going to—”
“Do as I told you. Now don’t make a sound. Follow me.”
She looked out at the hallway, beckoned and slipped out. He followed her. She went quickly into the room she had originally given him. He followed her in. She closed the door and leaned against it. He could hear the shallowness of her breathing.
“So far, so good,” she said.
The floodlights were still on. The room was lighted by the reflected glow. She went across the room and opened the window. “Stay close to the side of the building, Farat. The shadows will be thicker there. Go around in back and get in the car and keep your head down. Go on.”