‘Wait here,’ Calvin said, and went down the stairs to Iris’s room. He knocked on the door. Getting no answer, he turned the handle and looked into the room which was empty. He went to the closet and opened it. A quick look inside, a quick look in the drawers of the chest told him she hadn’t taken her clothes. Where was she?
Had she decided to tell Travers? She hadn’t been home now for six hours. What was she doing?
He went back to Kit’s room. Kit was still sitting motionless, her head buried in her hands.
‘I don’t know where she is,’ Calvin said, ‘but if Travers telephones tell him she had a headache and has gone to bed. I’ve got to talk to her before she sees him unless she’s seeing him now.’
Kit didn’t look up. After staring at her for a few seconds, Calvin shrugged and went to his room. He closed the door, then taking the gun from his hip-pocket he was about to put it in a drawer of the chest when he had second thoughts.
He was very uneasy. Had Iris decided to give him away? He thought it was unlikely, but she was young and the decision might have been too much for her. Well, if she had told Travers and if they tried to arrest him, they would have a job on their hands. He wouldn’t be taken alive. He wasn’t going to spend weeks in jail and then be taken like an animal to be slaughtered. He put the gun back in his hip-pocket. If Travers started something, he’d land up with a bellyfull of lead.
He washed his face and hands. The time was now close on seven-fifteen. He forced himself to sit down. He lit a cigarette and tried to relax, but he was too tense. He immediately got to his feet and began to prowl around the room.
He heard Kit go downstairs. He waited a moment, then went out and leaned over the banister rail. He heard Kit talking to Flo. He rested his thick arms on the banister rail and listened.
Suddenly he heard the telephone bell ring. The sound sent a wave of hot blood up his spine. There was a delay, then he heard Kit say, ‘Iris has gone to bed. She has a headache.’ There was a pause, then she said, ‘She has a headache,’ and he heard the receiver drop back on its cradle.
He drew in a long, slow breath of relief. That would be Travers. At least Iris hadn’t contacted him. But where was she?
As he looked down the two flights of stairs into the hall, he suddenly saw Iris. She came in silently, took off her coat and hung it on the hall rack, then slowly she began to mount the stairs.
Calvin drew back. He listened. When he heard her enter her room, he moved quickly and quietly down the stairs and paused outside her door. He could hear Flo saying good night. He heard the click of the back door as Flo left. He still waited. He heard Kit begin to put the finishing touches to the dinner, then he gently turned the door handle and entered Iris’s room.
Iris was standing, her back to him, looking out of the window. She glanced over her shoulder as he came in and she stiffened. She turned swiftly to face him.
‘What do you want?’ she demanded, her voice shaky. He could see she had been crying. Her face was white and drawn. ‘I don’t want you in here!’
He closed the door and leaned against it.
‘Have you made up your mind what you are going to do?’ he asked. ‘Kit knows. I told her. Our lives are in your hands. Are you going to help us?’
‘I don’t know,’ Iris said. ‘I must talk to Kit. Please go away.’
Calvin studied her, then he nodded.
‘Yes… you talk to her, but remember this: she’s as guilty as I am. Give me away and you give her away. Just remember that.’
He went out of the room and back to his own room.
At eight o’clock, the dinner bell sounded, and Calvin went downstairs. The meal was set on hot plates on the sideboard. Neither Iris nor Kit made an appearance. Calvin served the old couple, chatting to them, telling them that Iris had a headache, probably due to the change in her work, and all the time he talked, he listened for sounds that would tell him what was happening upstairs, but he heard nothing.
In her room Kit took from the closet a bottle of whisky and poured herself a stiff drink. She drank the whisky, then poured another drink. She lit a cigarette and then moved to the armchair and sat down, still holding the bottle of whisky. As she began to relax and as she was deciding to have another drink, the door opened and Iris came in.
CHAPTER SIX
1
It was Sunday after lunch. Kit, Iris and Calvin sat in the lounge. Miss Pearson and Major Hardy had gone to their rooms for a nap. Kit and Iris were both pale and silent. Calvin was relaxed and very confident.
‘It’s one of those things,’ he was saying to Iris. ‘You can’t go through life without some of the gilt being rubbed off. I admit it: we shouldn’t have done this thing, but we did it, and now we have to make the best of it. Three hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. If you think about it, you’ll realise why we were tempted. I’m sorry about Alice. She just happened to get in the way, so…’
‘Shut up, you swine!’ Kit screamed at him.
Iris closed her eyes and her hands turned into fists. For the past twelve hours she had been through a nightmare. The sound of the violent, drunken voice of the woman who was her mother sickened her.
Calvin’s eyes blazed with fury. He half started out of his chair, then controlled himself.
‘If you scream like that,’ he said, an edge to his voice, ‘the old people upstairs will hear you.’
Kit stared at him, her face convulsed with hate.
‘Then stop talking… do something!’
‘There’s nothing I can do. If anyone is to do anything it will have to be Iris.’ Calvin twisted around in his chair to look directly at Iris. ‘If you want to save your mother from the gas chamber, you’ll have to help. You’ll have to see Travers and tell him you had the chance to search the bank yesterday and you found nothing. You’ll tell him you went through all the deed boxes and found nothing relating to the robbery. You’ll give him a carbon of one of the bank letters. I have one ready for you. I went into Downside yesterday and typed a letter on a Remington in a typing bureau. You’ve got to convince him he has made a mistake in picking on me. Do you understand?’
Kit was watching Iris anxiously. Iris continued to stare down at her hands. She didn’t say anything.
‘After you have talked to Travers,’ Calvin went on, ‘you’ll go to ’Frisco on Monday and you’ll take the money with you. Once it is out of Pittsville, your mother will be safe. If it is found here, she won’t be safe. Don’t imagine I’ll let them arrest me without dragging her into it. Once I have the money in a safe deposit in ’Frisco, your mother and I will leave here. You’ll be free to marry Travers. You can then forget about us, I expect you’ll be glad to.’
Still Iris said nothing.
‘Well, come on,’ Calvin said, his voice suddenly impatient. ‘What are you going to do? You can’t just sit there like a dummy. Are you going to help your mother or aren’t you?’
Iris looked up and stared at Kit, then she said quietly, ‘Yes.’ She got to her feet. ‘I’ll do what you want. When I go to ’Frisco, I’m not coming back; I hope I’ll never see either of you ever again.’
She went out of the room. Calvin got quickly to his feet and followed her. She was putting on her coat. He gave her the carbon copy of the letter. She took it without looking at him, then turning away, she opened the front door and walked quickly towards the garage.
Calvin watched her drive to the highway, then shrugging his heavy shoulders, he returned to the lounge. Kit had lit a cigarette. She stared at him as he came in.
‘Well, that’s that,’ he said. ‘She’ll do it. In less than a month you’ll have your share of the money. I told you it would work out, didn’t I?’