He took her by her arm and shoved her to the door, opening it and shoving her roughly out into the twilight of the desert.
Propelled by his violent push, Zelda half ran, half staggered down the wooden slope leading from the cabin. Then she stopped short and stared at the awful thing that lay at her feet. She stared, as Riff was staring, then she put her fingers into her hair and began to scream.
Chita listened to the screams with sadistic relish.
At the Cambria Hotel, Salinas, Kramer asked the telephone operator to connect him to a Paradise City number. He was calling Phil Baker, the man with whom he played regular golf and who was the only person Kramer could think of right at this minute whom he could rely on as a friend.
Kramer had decided to move into the Cambria Hotel where Vic Dermott was to come later in the day. Kramer was losing his nerve. The fact that Dennison was taking an interest in his affairs upset him. Dennison was the last man Kramer wanted to be poking his nose into what he was doing. Kramer now began to wonder if he shouldn’t take what money Dermott had already collected and clear the hell out of the country. By now, Dermott should have a million and a half dollars in cash. Kramer was trying to make up his mind whether to take the money and disappear and leave Zegetti and the Cranes to whistle for their share or go through with the original plan. He felt he just had to talk to Helene before he finally decided.
Baker came on the line. The time was a little after five o’clock in the afternoon.
“Phil... this is Jim,” Kramer said. “Something has blown up. Look, I’m relying on you as a friend. I want you to do something for me and I don’t want you to ask questions. Will you do it for me?”
Obviously puzzled, Baker asked, “Where have you been? I missed a game because I waited for you.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got into a situation that needs a little handling,” Kramer said impatiently. “Will you do something for me? I want you to do it without a lot of questions.”
“Why, sure, Jim... anything.” Baker sounded now a little hurt. “What can I do?”
“Will you go out to my house and tell Helene to go to the club and telephone me at seven o’clock sharp? Will you do that for me?”
“Of course,” Baker said. “But I don’t get it. Why don’t you...?”
“I said no questions!” Kramer barked. “Will you or won’t you do this for me?”
“I said I would, didn’t I? You want me to see Helene and tell her to go to the club and call you at seven: right?”
“That’s it.”
Kramer gave him the telephone number of the hotel.
“When I see you next week, I’ll explain, but right now, this is something I don’t want to go into. Okay, Phil?”
“Sure... I’ll get over to your place in half an hour. You leave it to me.” There was a pause, then Baker said, “Jim... you’re not in any trouble?”
“For God’s sake, Phil! Do what I’m asking you,” Kramer snarled. “I’ll tell you about it next time we meet. So long for now,” and he hung up.
He sat, staring blankly out of the window, waiting. It was an interminable wait, but finally a few minutes to seven o’clock, Helene called him.
“Hi, lover,” Kramer said, forcing himself to sound gay. “How are things? Are you all right?”
There was a pause, then Helene said in a voice Kramer scarcely recognized, “Am I all right? How can you say such a thing? What’s happening? Jim! What’s going on? I have a right to know! Phil came out here... he looked at me as if I were some kind of a criminal. What is happening?”
Kramer felt a shooting pain in his left side as he said, “Relax, Helene. I want to talk to you without the Feds listening in. Don’t you realize that they have tapped our line?”
“Why should they have tapped our line?” Helene demanded, her voice strident. “Why should they? Have you done something wrong? I don’t know what you are talking about!”
Kramer moved restlessly in his chair. This was going to be tricky, he thought angrily. He had never heard Helene talk this way before.
“Skip it, Helene,” he said roughly. “I want to see you. The Feds will be tailing you. You’ll have to lose them. You did it in the past: you can do it now. When you have lost them, I want you to come to the Cambria Hotel at Salinas. I’m staying here. Could be you and I are going on a long trip... could be, we’re going to lose ourselves.”
There was a long silence over the line and Kramer got more irritated.
“Helene!”
“I’m here. So you are in trouble.” Her voice had a note of despair that sent a chill through Kramer. “With all your money... how could you be so stupid?”
“Don’t call me stupid!” Kramer exclaimed, outraged that his wife should say such a thing to him. “You don’t know the half of it! Solly took all our money! The thieving son-of-a-bitch gambled the lot away... four million dollars! He stripped us clean!”
“Solly?” Helene’s voice shot up. “Oh, no! Solly wouldn’t do that to us? How could he?”
“Well, he did! But I’m getting the money back. Listen, Helene, you come out here and I’ll explain everything. For Pete’s sake, be careful how you come. You’ve got to lose whoever is tailing you... be sure you do that. Don’t lead him to me here... do you understand?”
Again there was a long pause and Kramer, his face red, the pain in his side making him sweat, said “Helene! Are you still there?”
“Yes. I was thinking. So we haven’t any more money?”
“That’s it, but we will have. I’m working on a scheme that’ll bring us in as much as we’ve lost. You come out here and I’ll explain what’s been happening.”
“No, Jim. I’m sorry, but I’m not coming. I’m getting old now. You’re old too, Jim... far too old to move back into the rackets again. Come home. We’ll work this thing out together. I’m not going to try to dodge Federal Officers at my time of life. Maybe it was fun fifteen years ago, but it won’t be fun now. Come home, Jim. We’ll work something out together.”
“We haven’t any home,” Kramer said furiously. “Don’t you listen to what I’m telling you? We are stripped clean! I’m in something that will get us back as we were, but you have to come out here and join up with me. Now come on, but be very careful how you come.”
“I’m not coming,” Helene said. “Years ago, we went through all this, but I’m not going through it now. I thought and hoped you and I were free of the rackets. I’m not coming. Goodbye, Jim. I’ll manage somehow and I hope you will also manage. If you change your mind, if you drop whatever you’re doing, then I’ll be waiting, but otherwise, Jim, it’s goodbye.”
The distinct click over the line as she hung up was like the slamming of a door that had, up to this moment, led into a few years of life that Kramer had enjoyed and had been proud of.
He jiggled the crossbar of the telephone, unable to believe that his wife had actually hung up on him. Helene! A second-rate singer he had rescued from a third-rate nightclub... to have done such a thing to him! A woman to whom he had given wealth, position and social security! He couldn’t believe it!
Slowly, he replaced the receiver. He looked around the small, bleak room. He sat there for some time, sweating, a little frightened and in pain.
“Goodbye, Jim,” she had said.
There had been a final, I’m-finished-with-you note in her voice.
Slowly, Kramer got to his feet. He walked with heavy, plodding steps to his suitcase and took from it a bottle of whisky. He went into the bathroom and poured himself a stiff shot. He drank it without water, refilled the glass and then walked slowly back into the bedroom.
Helene! What would she do? There would be no money in the house. He thought of the mink stole he had promised her. What the hell did she imagine she was going to do without him?