Something hit him a painful blow on the head, the car swerved. He swung it straight again at a sharp command from Milt. In the rear- view mirror, he saw the jeweler turn, hand raised, toward Elaine.
"Dummkopf!" he snapped. "I have a notion to…" Then he smiled, and his voice went suddenly gentle. "It seems we both have the temper. It is not a time to give way to it."
"I'm sorry, honey. He just made me so damned sore…"
"But now you see through his tricks, eh? You see where they might lead to?"
"Uh-huh." Elaine sighed. "You're so smart, darling. You see right through people."
"He doesn't see through you," said Toddy. "If he did he'd take that gun away from you. He'd know what you're thinking-that all of that dough would be better than half."
Elaine made a mocking sound with her lips. Milt chuckled fatly.
"It is useless, Toddy. In the regrettable absence of attraction, there would still be the factor of need. It was I who planned this, and there will be yet more planning, thinking, to be done. Even an Elaine as elemental as the one you portray would not destroy something necessary to survival."
"Anyway," said Elaine, "I don't want the old gun; I wouldn't know how to use it. You take it, honey."
Mitt pushed it back at her. "But you must know! It is imperative. Look, I will show you again… The safety, here. Then, only a firm, short pull on the trigger. Very short unless you wish to empty it. It is automatic, as I told you previously…"
His own gun was in his lap for the moment, and Toddy knew another surge of hope. He couldn't, of course, do anything himself. But Elaine…
But Elaine didn't. Milt picked up his gun again. Toddy turned the car off Olympic and onto Ocean Avenue. They reached Pico Street, and he turned again. Less than a mile ahead was the ocean.
"No more questions, Toddy? Nothing else you would like to inquire about?"
"Nothing."
"After all, the opportunity will not arise again."
"No, it won't," said Toddy. "Look, Milt…"
"Yes?"
"Let Miss Chavez go. She won't-"
"I will not go," said Dolores, calmly.
"You will not," agreed Milt. "I am sorry. It is a terrible penalty to pay for allying oneself with an imbecile."
He rolled down the window of the car and peered out, and the rain sounds mingled with the roar of the ocean, the breakers rolling in and out from shore. Toddy made the last turn.
"You made one mistake, Mitt. There's one thing you didn't count on."
"Interesting," murmured Milt, "but not, I am afraid, true… This is the place you had in mind, I believe? Yes. You will stop, then, and turn off your lights."
Toddy stopped. The lights went off.
There was a moment of silence, the near-absolute silence which precedes action. Before Milt could break it, Toddy spoke.
This was his last chance, his and Dolores'. And he knew it was wasted, no chance at all, even before he started to speak. What he had to say was incredible. His strained, hollow voice made it preposterous.
"Really, Toddy." Milt sounded almost embarrassed. "You do not expect us to believe that?"
"No," said Toddy. "I don't expect you to believe me. But it is true."
"Only stupidity I charged you with," Milt pointed out. "Not insanity. You did not know Elaine was alive. You were sure you would be accused of her murder. Willing though you might be to pass up a fortune, and I sincerely suspect such a willingness, you would not dare abide by your bargain. In this case, you had no choice but to run."
"I was tired of running." (Elaine giggled.) "I knew I hadn't killed her. I was going to fight the case."
"Without money? With all the evidence against you? With a long record of criminality? And if, by some fluke of justice, you cleared yourself, what then? You have no trade but to prey upon others. You-"
"I could get one." The words, the tone seemed ridiculously childish.
"We waste time," said Milt. "You would have me believe you pursued one futility to achieve another. You, risking your liberty- perhaps your life-by keeping a bargain? You, placing your faith, at last, in the courts? You, Toddy Kent, doing these things for a so-called good name, a job, perhaps Miss Chavez-"
"It would not have been perhaps," said Dolores.
"Even so," Milt shrugged. "I know him too well, and he knows himself too well. He does not fit the part… Now, I think…"
"Let Elaine think," Toddy persisted doggedly. "You can't pull out. You want to get her in as deep as you are. Don't let him do it, Elaine! There's a tape recorder in the car. I-"
"Elaine," Milt interrupted, "is not required to think. And, of course, there is a recorder. How else could you obtain the evidence you were supposed to get? I do not deny the existence of a bargain. Only that you had no intention of keeping it."
"I did intend to keep it! I know it looks like I didn't, but I had to make it look that way! I was supposed to meet them here-I called them just before I went to your shop. Elaine-"
"Tonight?" said Milt. "You were to meet them there tonight, or tomorrow night? Or perhaps even the next? You are transparent, Toddy. Your government men would have given you two days without surveillance as quickly as they would give you two hours. Never would they have agreed to such an arrangement."
"They didn't agree to it, but they had to take it. I'd already ducked out on 'em. It was either play it my way or-"
"Nonsense. You insult my intelligence."
"Now, wait a minute," said Elaine, worriedly. "Let me-"
"It is not necessary," said Milt. "I have already thought. Of everything… You were to meet them here, eh? Bah! Where are they, then?"
Toddy licked dry lips, helplessly. It was no use. The evidence was all against him. He couldn't make them believe something that was incredible to himself.
"I don't know," he said, almost indifferently. "It's a big beach. Maybe they don't recognize the car. I don't know where they are, but-"
Milt's curt, bored laugh cut him off. "They would not recognize the car, certainly. You would see to that. And we both know where they are-anywhere but here. Now, enough!"
"But Milt, honey…" Elaine began.
"Enough!" snapped Milt. "Must I explain everything twice? Why do you think I played with him there in the shop, found out exactly where he wished to go? Because it would be safe. It would be the last place his whilom friends would expect to find him."
"All right, honey. I was just-"
"We will proceed! And-please!-the bottle will remain here!"
Dolores was shoved over in the seat, squeezed against Toddy. Elaine pushed past her, and got out. She stood back in the sand a few feet, covering the door as Toddy and the girl emerged.