“You’re okay. I’m right here.”
“Aren’t you cold?”
“No, I feel fine.”
I put my hands under her elbows and lifted her off the bottom, until the water was down below her shoulders.
“That better?” I said.
“Yes, but I’m so cold.”
I backed out slowly, step by step, until the water was almost up to my chin. Now it was over her head.
“Johnny, don’t. This is too deep. Take me back in.” Her voice was thin and scared.
I didn’t know whether this was it or not. I was thinking fast. I could say we were swimming and she got a cramp, and when I pulled her out it was too late. Nobody could say anything else.
I backed up a little more. All I had to do was let her go and she’d drown. She was only six feet from shallow water, but she’d lose her head and start fighting wildly, and then she’d get a mouthful of water and it would all be over.
She pulled herself close to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Johnny, I’m scared,” she whimpered. “Why don’t you take me in? Please, please, Johnny!”
“You’re all right, honey. Just let go my neck and I’ll tow you back in.”
“No, Johnny, no.” She was scared now, bad, and it made her frantic. Her thin little arms were tightening around my neck and I was having trouble breathing.
I knew this was the time.
I put my hands on her shoulders and shoved down hard. Her head went under the water and I felt her legs starting to kick wildly. I knew that in a minute she’d go crazy and start beating the water with her hands. When that happened all I had to do was let her go and the water would take care of everything else. I felt the thin bones in her shoulders twisting and then her arms slipped from my neck and she began clawing at the water with her fingers.
It was just at that second I heard the automobile. I shot a look back at the beach and I saw the headlights of a car coming along the road. The lights bounced up and down as the car hit the ruts in the road, then swept over the beach and out over the water.
The light hit me in the eyes, blinding me for a second. I heard the motor cut and then a voice yelled, “How’s the water?” and I knew whoever was in the car had seen me.
She was still fighting the water. I pulled her up fast and got my arms around her body. When the guys in the car saw her head next to mine they snapped off the lights and we were left alone in the dark water.
She was choking and crying. Her arms were around my neck and her fingernails were digging into my shoulders.
“Take me in, Johnny,” she said, but she was crying and choking so much the words were just gasping noises.
I moved into shallow water with her and I felt weak and scared.
“Just take it easy, honey. You’re all right now,” I said.
“Why did you do it, Johnny?” she said, with a kind of gasping sob.
“I got a cramp. It doubled me up for a second and I pulled you under with me. That’s all it was, honey.”
I didn’t know whether she believed me or not but it was all I could think to say. After she was able to stand we went up on the beach. We dried ourselves with my shirt and got back into our clothes. The other car had pulled away by the time we were dressed. We went back to my car and got in and I gave her a cigarette.
From the light of the match I could see the white circle of her face. Her lips were blue and every now and then she’d shudder a little.
“Would you like to go somewhere and get a hot drink?” I said.
“I... I’d like to go home, Johnny.”
I drove slowly to her home. My mind was twisting a lot of ideas around. I didn’t know whether she knew I’d tried to kill her. If she did I couldn’t leave her now.
When we pulled up to her place the houses on the street were dark. I cut the motor and then I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to me. Her body felt tense but when I tilted her chin up she let me kiss her a couple of times on her lips.
“Mad at me?”
“No, it’s just that I was so scared out there, Johnny. Then when you told me you had a cramp, I got to thinking of how it would be if anything happened to you.”
“Would that bother you?”
She turned her face up to me and kissed me hard on the mouth. I didn’t know what she was thinking, but I decided to take the chance. Everything inside me felt so tight and scared that I knew I would have trouble trying anything else that night.
We stayed out in the car for about half an hour and then I took her up to the porch. I made a date with her for the next night and kissed her a few more times and went back to the car.
When I turned left on Belmont I noticed that a blue Nash was following me. When I got over to the drive it was still there.
I gave the car to the doorman at the hotel to put away for me. As I started toward the lobby, I saw the blue Nash pull past and head north on Madison.
There were two guys in the front seat and they were looking straight ahead.
Chapter XIII
The next morning Harrigan called me and asked me to come down to the Criminal Courts building. When I got there I found him in an office on the second floor, talking with an assistant State’s Attorney, Morowitz.
Harrigan introduced us and then said, “This is just for the record, Johnny. We want to get your statement on what happened Sunday night.” He punched a buzzer on his desk and pretty soon a court reporter came in, carrying a notebook.
I sat down and lit a cigarette. Harrigan put his feet on the desk and looked at his hands. His face was tired and lined and he needed a shave, but his eyes still had that quick bright look. Morowitz sat down, too, and just looked at me without any expression at all on his face.
The office was hot and close. There were butts on the floor and there was a rip in the window shade that let a bar of dusty sunlight fall across the floor.
“Any time you’re ready,” Harrigan said.
The court reporter had his book open and a pencil ready, so I went through the story. I almost had it memorized by this time. I had the funny feeling I’d never talked about anything else in my life.
When I got through Harrigan looked over at Morowitz. “Got any questions?”
Morowitz shrugged. He was a short stocky guy with black hair and sharp eyes. “It all seems pretty clear.” He looked at me then and said, “When did you say you talked to Lesser, Ford?”
“About him going up to her place Sunday night? That was Friday afternoon.”
“About what time?”
“Pretty early, I guess. We were having lunch.”
“I see. And what time did you leave Olsen that night?”
“Around eight-twenty.”
“We’re sure of that,” Harrigan said. “He was in his hotel room at eight-thirty. I talked to the person who was with him at that time.”
The court reporter was still taking everything down and I had a feeling of relief. One thing had bothered me about getting rid of the blonde. That was because she was my cover-up on that time angle. But now it was in an official record, in Harrigan’s words. That would be just as good a witness as the blonde.
There weren’t any more questions for Morowitz and we talked about nothing in particular for a while. I asked them how the case against Frank was going and Harrigan shrugged his shoulders.
“He claims he didn’t do it. The State’s Attorney says he did. It’ll be up to a jury.”
“Have you got a decent case against him?” I said.
Morowitz said, “We’ve got a decent circumstantial case. We can establish the fact that he had been quarreling with his wife for a week before the murder. We can prove he knew his wife was seeing Lesser that night. And we can place him, by his own admission, in the apartment at eight-thirty, which was the time the neighbors heard the shots fired. It all adds up.”