“As soon as I did realize, thanks to Helene, I began to get rattled and make mistakes. Big mistakes, like leaving Mack’s leash in the kitchen and giving Gerda Lundquist a chance to catch me in that fake telephone call. It seemed that with each mistake I made, the next one became easier. I could no longer think clearly, I was so worried about my wife. I had relied heavily on the theory that the passage of time would bring Amy to her senses. I was too optimistic. Time alone couldn’t do the trick; something more positive was needed. But I could do nothing positive, not even go down to Los Angeles to see her, to reason with her. I was trapped in San Francisco, with you and Gill Brandon on my tail. It was, ironically, Consuela herself who forced me to do something positive.”
They’d met, by prearrangement, in the back row of loges of a movie theater on Market Street. Rupert arrived first and waited for her. When she finally arrived, she had doused herself so extravagantly with perfume that before he saw or heard her approach he could smell her as she walked up the carpeted steps.
It was not the time or place for amenities, even if she’d known or cared about them. She said bluntly, “I need more money.”
“I haven’t any.”
“Get some.”
“How much were you thinking of?”
“Oh, a lot. There are two of us now.”
“Two?”
“Joe and I, we got married yesterday. I have always wanted to get married.”
“For God’s sake,” Rupert said. “Why did you have to drag O’Donnell into this?”
“I dragged no one. I simply wrote him a letter because I was lonesome. You do not understand how it is, being without friends, seeing only people who hate you and wish you dead. So I wrote Joe a letter, telling him how well I was doing, and about my pretty clothes and jewelry and my new hair, more blond than his even. I think it made him jealous. Anyway he borrowed some money and came up here by bus. Seeing him again, I thought, well, now that he’s here we might as well get married and regain the blessing of the Church. So now there are two of us.”
“To be supported by me.”
“Not you. Your wife. You have done nothing to be ashamed of. Why should you pay? It is Mrs. Kellogg who must pay.”
“This is blackmail.”
“I do not concern myself with words, only money.”
“You’ve told O’Donnell everything, I suppose?”
“We are man and wife,” she said virtuously. “A wife must confide in her husband completely.”
“You’re a damned fool.”
He felt her stiffen in the seat beside him. “Not such a fool as you might think.”
“Do you realize the penalty for blackmail?”
“I realize that you cannot go to the police and complain against me. If you do, they will have to question Mrs. Kellogg and she will admit her guilt.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said quickly. “My wife no longer believes your story about Mrs. Wyatt’s death. She remembers the truth.”
“What a bad liar you are. I can always tell a bad liar, I being such a good one.”
“Yes, I know that well.”
“Only I do not lie about vital matters, like Mrs. Wyatt’s death.”
“Don’t you?”
“Must I keep telling you? I was in the broom closet, sleeping, and I woke up when I heard someone screaming in 404. I rushed in. The two women were struggling over the silver box — they’d been arguing about it when I was in the room before. As I approached, Mrs. Kellogg got hold of the box and struck Mrs. Wyatt on the head. The balcony doors were open. Under the force of the blow, Mrs. Wyatt stumbled backwards out on to the balcony and fell over the railing. My mind is very quick. I thought immediately, what a terrible thing if the police accuse Mrs. Kellogg of murder. So I picked up the box and threw it over the railing. Mrs. Kellogg had fainted from shock. I poured some whiskey down her throat from the bottle on the bureau, and when she came to a little, I said to her, ‘Don’t worry. I am your friend. I will help you.’”
Friend. Help. Rupert stared in silence at the oversized movie screen where a man was stalking a woman, intent on killing her. He had a brief, childish wish that he were the man and Consuela the woman. If Consuela died, naturally, or by accident, or by design...
No, he thought. It would solve nothing. I must try to save Amy, not to punish Consuela. With Consuela dead I would have no chance of proving to Amy that she is suffering from a delusion. I must keep the devil alive because without her I cannot kill the delusion.
“The sea and the fog,” Consuela was saying. “They do not agree with my health. I want to go back home where it is high and dry. But of course I will require money.”
“How much?”
“Fifteen thousand dollars.”
“You must be crazy.”
“Oh, I know it sounds like a great deal, but once you have paid, you will be rid of me. Is it not worth that much to be rid of me.” She added softly, “Joe is not stupid. He has investigated. He has found out about the piece of paper you have that lets you cash checks on your wife’s account.”
“A check that large is bound to attract attention”
“You have already attracted much attention. A little more won’t matter. You will get the money?”
“I guess I have to.”
“Very well. Tomorrow, at noon, I’ll come to the restaurant where you eat lunch, Lassiter’s. I’ll sit down beside you, as if by accident, and when you give me the money, that will be the end of the whole thing.”
“Why meet at such a public place as a restaurant?”
“Simply because it is a public place. With so many people around, you won’t change your mind and try to do something foolish. I am not afraid of you, but then I can’t trust you either; you love that little wife of yours too desperately. How does it happen, such a love as this?”
“That’s something,” he said grimly, “you’ll never find out.”
They missed contact at Lassiter’s because of Helene’s surprise appearance. Rupert went home, and later in the afternoon...
“...About 3:30,” Rupert continued, to Dodd, “they drove up to the house in a second-hand car O’Donnell had bought with some o£ the money I’d already paid Consuela. They came around to the back door and I let them into the kitchen. They’d obviously been quarreling. Consuela was in a temper and O’Donnell seemed very nervous and frightened. I think he’d begun to realize that he had a tiger by the tail and the only thing he could do was to let go, run like hell, and hope for the best. O’Donnell’s mistake was in announcing his intention of letting go. It gave the tiger a chance to prepare to spring.
“As soon as I handed the money over to Consuela, O’Donnell told her he wanted out, that he didn’t intend to go with her back to Mexico City or any other place. I got the impression that they often had violent quarrels and that this one was no different. I went into the den. I could hear her screaming about marriage vows and the blessing of the Church. Then he said something to her in Spanish, and everything suddenly became very quiet. When I went back into the kitchen O’Donnell was lying in front of the refrigerator, dead, and Consuela was standing with the knife in her hand, looking surprised.