He looked fixedly at her, his eyes glittering.
‘It’s got to be safe. If it isn’t, you and I will probably run into Alice again… if we are lucky.’
The following afternoon Calvin had a visitor who surprised him. He was busy at his desk When a tap came on the door and thinking it was Alice he called to come in and went on working.
‘Am I disturbing you?’
He looked up then and was startled to see Iris Loring standing before his desk. For a moment he stared fixedly at her, then his fleshy face brightened and he smiled his charming smile as he got to his feet.
‘Why, this is a surprise. Sit down.’
Iris sat down. Calvin regarded her curiously. He noted there was a worried expression in her grey-blue eyes.
‘I hear you are going to become my step-father,’ she said. ‘Kit told me this morning.’
Calvin sat back in his chair. He was thinking it would be much more amusing to have this girl for a wife. She was so much younger, so much fresher and so much more sexually exciting than Kit.
‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘I hope you approve.’
‘If it will make Kit happy, then of course, I approve,’ she said quietly.
‘I’ll make her happy,’ Calvin said, his charm very much in evidence.
She looked searchingly at him and he had an uneasy feeling that his charm wasn’t working the way it usually worked.
‘I’m worried about her,’ Iris said. ‘That’s why I’m here. She’s got something on her mind. We’ve always been very close and I can tell when something’s bothering her. I’ve asked her, but she won’t tell me. Do you know what it is?’
Calvin took out his cigarette case and offered it. Iris shook her head. He lit a cigarette and he wondered how this pretty little thing would react if he told her her mother was worried because between them they were planning to murder Alice and to steal three hundred thousand dollars from the bank.
‘Frankly, I think she’s worrying about you,’ Calvin said.
Iris looked sharply at him.
‘About me… why do you think that?’
‘We’ve talked about you. She doesn’t approve of you marrying young Travers.’ Calvin broadened his smile. ‘She is ambitious for you. She hopes you will marry a rich man.’
Iris flushed.
‘I’m going to marry Ken,’ she said. ‘I may have to wait until I’m twenty-one, but I intend to marry him.’
‘Good for you,’ Calvin said. ‘As your future step-father, I approve. I think he’s a fine boy and I think you’ll be very happy as his wife.’
He saw her relax.
‘Have you said that to Kit?’ she asked.
‘Yes. I told her you should marry him. I can’t see any objections, but I’ll talk to her again. Don’t you worry about this. When Kit and I marry, I plan to start a rooming-house in Florida. She and I will run it. I’m going to persuade her to leave you here to marry Ken. Would that suit you?’
‘Of course.’ She leaned forward, her face animated. ‘Do you think you can persuade her?’
Calvin grinned.
‘I’m pretty good at persuading people. I think I can.’
‘I didn’t know you planned to go to Florida. Kit said nothing about that. What’s going to happen to Miss Pearson and Major Hardy?’
‘Perhaps the new owner will take them on. Kit is going to sell the house.’
‘When it’s sold then I can get married?’ Iris asked.
‘That’s the idea. Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix it. I’m good at fixing things.’
She was now looking admiringly at him and this pleased him.
‘Yes… I’m sure you are. I’m so glad I came to see you.’ She paused, hesitated, then said, ‘There’s one other thing… I don’t know if I should tell you.’
Calvin stubbed out his cigarette.
‘That’s up to you. I’d like to think you had confidence in me. What is it?’
‘You do love Kit, don’t you?’
Calvin frowned.
‘That’s an odd question. I’m going to marry her. Of course I love her. What is it?’
‘I think you should know that she is an ex-alcoholic,’ Iris said. ‘She’s all right now, but she mustn’t ever drink alcohol. If she does, the doctor tells me, she will become an alcoholic again. So please don’t ever ask her to join you in a drink. I don’t know if you like a drink, but if it means little to you, it would be much safer and much better if you never had alcohol in your home when you marry and settle down.’
Calvin stared at her for several long moments. He began to hum tunelessly under his breath. Judas! he was thinking, so that’s it! I’ve gone into partnership for murder and robbery with an ex-alcoholic and she’s already hitting the bottle again. Judas!
‘You know it is a disease,’ Iris said, a little shocked to see a sudden glaring flash light up Calvin’s staring eyes. It was gone in a brief moment, but his fleshy face was now expressionless, his almost lipless mouth like a pencil line. ‘It’s like diabetes. So long as she doesn’t touch alcohol she’ll be perfectly all right. I — I thought I should tell you.’
‘Yes… thank you.’ With an effort he relaxed and smiled at her. ‘I’m glad to know. Poor Kit! I had no idea. Well, now you’ve told me I’ll watch out. I don’t drink much myself. I can easily do without and I will.’
Iris looked curiously at him. That brief flash in his eyes had frightened her, but now the charm was back again and she wondered if she had imagined the vicious, frightening glare.
He got to his feet.
‘Well, as far as your affairs are concerned,’ he said, ‘just be patient. As soon as we leave Pittsville, you can marry your nice young sheriff.’
When she had gone, he sat behind his desk and lit a cigarette.
An alcoholic! The most unreliable, dangerous partner he could have chosen! And as the days dragged on towards the end of the month, he became aware that he was going to have trouble with it. She began to avoid him, and he guessed she was not only drinking, but losing her nerve. Whenever he ran into her, and he made a point of searching her out, he saw the obvious signs of her slow deterioration. He could see she hadn’t been sleeping. She was losing weight and her complexion was becoming like wax.
As soon as he had convinced himself she was drinking heavily, he left her alone. Alice and the old couple had already been told of their engagement. Calvin now spent much of his time in his room. From time to time, he would creep downstairs and remove Alice’s hat and coat to keep up the illusion that she was still seeing her boy-friend. Since he now seldom joined the old couple to watch television, they believed he and Kit were together upstairs, double romance pleased them.
Four nights before the date set for the bank robbery, Calvin was sitting in his room, smoking and turning the pages of a golfing magazine. The communicating door abruptly opened and Kit came in. She looked distracted and ill. She closed the door and leaned against it, her breasts heaving with her heavy breathing.
Calvin waited.
‘I’m not going through with it!’ Kit said, her voice shrill. ‘I was crazy to have agreed to do it in the first place! I’m not doing it! Do you hear me? I’m not doing it!’
‘Well, all right,’ Calvin said in a deceptively mild voice. ‘Don’t get so worked up about it. What’s the trouble?’
She stared at him, her eyes glittering.
‘Trouble? Do you call murdering that girl just trouble? I won’t let you kill her! Do you hear me?’
‘Yes… I hear you. If you don’t keep your voice down, she’ll hear you, too.’
‘You are a devil! You have no feeling. I’m not going to do it!’
‘Don’t get so excited,’ Calvin said. ‘Sit down… let’s talk about it. I thought you wanted the money.’