‘You mustn’t go on like this,’ he said firmly. ‘It’ll get you nowhere. Veda and I want to help you—’
She turned, caught hold of his wrist.
‘Aren’t you afraid I’ll do something evil to you?’ she demanded. ‘They say I am dangerous... like my father. Do you know what they say of my father? It’s here in the paper. I’ll read it to you.’ She picked up a creased and badly folded newspaper that was lying on the floor by her side. ‘This is what they say:
‘Slim Grisson was a killer: born a mental degenerate, his love of cruelty got him into trouble at an early age. His schoolmaster caught him cutting up a live kitten with a pair of rusty scissors, and he was expelled from school. When he was fifteen he abducted a little girl, who was found a week later half crazed with terror. She had been a victim of a particularly brutal assault. But Grisson was never caught, for his mother, the notorious Ma Grisson, smuggled him out of the town.
‘Ma Grisson built her son into a gangster. At first he made mistakes and drifted in and out of prison on short sentences, but Ma Grisson would wait patiently until he was free and then continue her coaching. He learned not to make mistakes and got in with a powerful gang, working bank hold-ups. He climbed slowly into the saddle of leadership by the simple method of killing anyone who opposed him, until the gang finally settled down and accepted him as their leader. There has never been in the history of American crime a more vicious, more deadly, more degenerate criminal than Slim Grisson—’
‘Stop,’ Magarth said sharply. ‘I don’t want to listen to any more of that. Carol, do be sensible. Where is all this getting you?’
She dropped the newspaper with a little shudder.
‘And he was my father... I have his blood in my veins. You talk about helping me. How can you help me? How can anyone help me with a heritage like that?’ She got to her feet and began to pace up and down. ‘No... please don’t say anything. I know you mean to be kind. I’m very grateful to you both. But now...’ She paused, looked at him from under her eyelids. There was a cold menace in her stillness that startled Magarth. ‘Now I must be alone. Perhaps I am dangerous... as my father was. Do you think I want to endanger the lives of people like you and Veda?’
‘But this is nonsense, Carol,’ Magarth said sharply. ‘You have been with us for more than a month, and nothing has happened. It only makes things worse if you—’
‘I have made up my mind,’ Carol said, interrupting him. ‘I leave here tomorrow. But before I go there are things I want you to do.’
‘But you mustn’t go... not yet, anyway,’ Magarth protested. ‘You’re still suffering from shock...’
She made a quick, angry gesture of impatience and the right side of her mouth began to twitch.
‘I have made my plans and no one will stop me,’ she said, a curious grating note in her voice. ‘For a month I have sat here making plans. I would have gone sooner if I had money. Now I am ready to go.’
Magarth saw it was useless to argue with her. She was in an implacable mood, and, looking at her, he realized that Dr. Travers had some foundation when he said she was dangerous.
‘But where are you going?’ he asked. ‘You have no friends, except Veda and I. You have no home. You can’t go off into the blue, you know.’
Again she made the angry, impatient gesture.
‘We are wasting time. Will you take over my affairs? I know nothing about money and I don’t want to know anything about it. I have talked with the lawyer. He tells me I should appoint someone to look after my investments and to represent me. My grandfather had a number of business activities that have come to me. Will you represent me?’
Magarth was startled.
‘I’ll gladly do what I can,’ he said, ‘but I have my other work—’
‘You will be well paid. I have made all the arrangements with the lawyer,’ she went on in the same cold, impersonal voice. ‘You can give up your newspaper work. You and Veda can marry. You want to marry her, don’t you?’
‘I guess so,’ Magarth said, ran his fingers through his hair. The turn of the conversation embarrassed him.
‘Then you will see my lawyer? You’ll discuss it with him?’
He hesitated a moment, then nodded.
‘All right,’ he said, added, ‘but what do you intend to do?’
‘When can I have some money?’ she asked abruptly, ignoring his question.
‘As soon as you like... now, if you want it.’
‘Yes, now. I want two thousand dollars, and I want you to arrange that I can draw cash anywhere in the country at a moment’s notice. I want you to buy me a car and have it here by tomorrow morning. Go and see the lawyer and bring me the necessary papers to sign so you can take over my affairs immediately. I wish to leave here tomorrow morning.’
‘Won’t you wait a little longer?’ he asked. ‘You’ll be all alone...’
A sudden glow like fever came into her cheeks.
‘Please do what I say or I must find someone else,’ she said with raised voice. ‘Where I am going and what I intend to do is my affair.’
Magarth shrugged.
‘All right,’ he said unhappily, got to his feet. ‘I’ll do it.’
She put her hand on his arm, and for a moment the hardness in her eyes softened.
‘You are very kind,’ she said in a low tone. ‘Don’t think I’m ungrateful. I don’t know what I should have done without you and Veda. I hope you will both be very happy.’
‘That’s O.K.,’ he said, and managed to smile. ‘You know how I feel about you. I do wish you’d think again. Veda and I want you to stay with us. I don’t know what you are planning to do, but I have a hunch nothing good will come of it...’
‘I have made up my mind,’ she said quietly and turned away. ‘Will you leave me now? Will you please tell Veda that I am leaving tomorrow morning? I don’t want to see anyone tonight.’
Magarth made a final appeal.
‘Won’t you take me into your confidence, Carol?’ he pleaded. ‘I might be able to help you. Why do you insist on going off on your own, when you have two people who would do anything for you? Tell me what you plan to do, and I’ll help you.’
She shook her head.
‘No one can help me,’ she said. ‘What I have to do can only be done by myself, and alone. Please leave me now.’
‘All right,’ Magarth said, admitting defeat, and he crossed to the door.
When he had gone Carol went to the window and sat down. She remained motionless for some moments, her cold, clenched hands pressing against her temples.
‘Wherever you are, Steve, my darling, love me,’ she said softly. ‘I am so lonely and afraid, but I will find them. They will not escape me, and I will make them pay for what they did to you. I will be as ruthless and as cruel to them as they were to us. I have nothing left to live for but to make them pay.’
She was still sitting before the window when the pale autumn light faded, and rain, which had been threatening all the afternoon, began to fall.
Rain was still falling the next day, and dirty grey clouds, lying low on the hills, formed belts of mist that brought darkness to the late afternoon.
A black Chrysler coupe, its fenders splashed with mud, nosed its way up the steeply rising by-road which led to the old plantation house so recently occupied by Tex Sherill.
Carol stopped the car before the crumbling porch, got out and stood for a moment while she surveyed the dark building for any sign of life.
The rain dripped dismally from the eaves on to the wooden stoop and made a soft whispering sound. The blank face of the house was tight in darkness, and Carol wondered if it were empty.
She mounted the wooden steps and tried the door-handle. The door was locked. She rapped with her knuckles on the hard panel and waited. She had to rap several times before she heard a faint step on the other side of the door. She rapped again insistently, and the voice of Miss Lolly came through the letterbox, ‘Who is it?’