“What I want more than anything else in the world...” she began, stopped and smiled at Terrell who looked helplessly at her.
“Where do you sleep?” he asked.
“In the next room. Go and look.”
He got up and left the room Mrs. Prescott was standing nervously in the kitchen doorway.
“May I go in?” Terrell said, pausing outside Angel’s room.
She nodded and Terrell entered the tiny room. He crossed to the window and saw that he was looking straight at Henekey’s cabin. The child’s bed was close to the window. He saw that if she had sat up and looked out of the window she could have seen anyone entering Henekey’s cabin.
Mrs. Prescott came to the door.
“Please don’t take Angel seriously. She is too advanced for her age and she does romance. You really shouldn’t listen to her.”
“That’s all right,” Terrell said. “Don’t worry about it,” and he went back into the sitting-room and shut the door.
Angel was standing before the mirror, examining herself with concentrated interest. She turned and smiled at him.
“If I bought you a Teddy Bear,” Terrell said, “would you tell me who you saw going into Mr. Henekey’s cabin?”
“Of course, but it has to be as big as myself and it has to growl.”
“You really did see these two men? You see, Angel, I would have to pay for your bear out of my own pocket. It wouldn’t be very nice if you were telling stories just to get what you want.”
The child shook her head.
“I wouldn’t do that. There were two of them. I can describe them.” She smiled brightly at him. “The trouble is I keep asking Mummy and she hasn’t any money. I do really want a Teddy Bear that’s...”
“All right,” Terrell said, “I’ll get it for you and then you’ll help me... right?”
She gave him her charming smile
“Thank you. Yes, I’ll help you.”
Terrell left the cabin and went in search of Beigler. When he had found him, he said, “Joe, I have an important job for you. I want you to drive fast to Miami and get a Teddy Bear, about three and a half feet tall that growls,” Terrell said, keeping his face straight with an effort.
Beigler stared at Terrell.
“A Teddy Bear? Look, Chief...”
“It’s an order, Joe. Get going. It’s got to growl and make sure it is at least three and a half feet tall.”
Beigler’s face was a study. He drew in a long, choking breath and dragged at his shirt collar with hooked fingers.
“Who’s going to pay for it?” he demanded.
Terrell handed over a fifty-dollar bill.
“She’s a cutie,” he said and grinned. “She knows something, so we’re doing a trade. Go get it, Joe, and hurry.”
Beigler opened and shut his mouth, took the bill and then plodded away towards his car.
Val walked along the path of the ornamental garden to where her husband was sitting. She found hint under a shady tree, listlessly staring down at his hands. Some twenty yards behind him, sat an Amazon of a nurse who gave Val an encouraging smile when she saw her, her knitting needles ceaselessly clicking.
There was a vacant chair near Chris’s, and as Val drew nearer, he looked up, frowned, then smiled and reaching out, pulled the chair closer to him.
“Hello,” he said. “I was wondering if you were coming.”
“I’ve been waking all the morning to come,” she said. “How are you, darling?”
“I’m all right. What have you been doing with yourself?” He looked steadily at her. The blankness of his eyes tugged at her heart. “You’re looking very brown. Been swimming?”
“Yes. The water is marvellous.” She groped for something else to say but could find nothing. The weight of what Homer Hare had said paralysed her mind.
“Have you thought more about the divorce?” Chris asked abruptly. “Did you talk to your father?”
“I don’t want a divorce, darling.”
His mouth twitched, and he suddenly looked irritable.
“You haven’t been thinking about it. You mustn’t spend all your tine enjoying yourself... you must think sometimes.”
She recalled the long hours before lunch when she had sat on the beach after Hare had plodded away and what her thoughts had been.
“I just don’t want to lose you, Chris.”
“She’s watching us, isn’t she?” he said. “She’s quite clever, she keeps out of sight, but I know she’s there. You must get a divorce, Val. I’ll never get any better.”
“Oh, you will,” Val said earnestly. “I know how you must feel. This is something that has happened... It could have happened to me. I would be so happy to know that if it had happened to me you would still want me as I want you.”
He didn’t seem to be listening. He stared across the close cut lawn, his face expressionless.
“Well, all right, if you don’t want a divorce, then you have only yourself to blame,” he said.
“Yes, I know, Chris.”
There was a long, long silence, then Val said, “Have you thought about that night you went away... when you couldn’t remember anything?”
He leaned back in his chair She wasn’t sure if he had heard what she had said.
“She’s still there, isn’t she? I won’t give her the satisfaction of looking at her, but she is still there?”
“Yes.” Val longed for a cigarette, but knowing Chris now no longer smoked, she resisted the urge. “That night, Chris...”
“Why do you ask?” He stared curiously at her.
“I just wondered if you remember now what happened.”
He hesitated, frowning and not looking at her.
“I suppose I do. It’s all rather confused.” He glanced slyly over his shoulder at the nurse, then as the nurse paused in her knitting to look at him, he quickly turned away. “She’s always watching me,” he went on, “like that other woman. She knew I wasn’t normal.”
“What other woman, Chris?”
“The one I met. I was sitting waiting for someone to give me a lift back to the hotel. I had smashed up the car. I think I must have gone to sleep or something. I came to when the car hit the tree.” He rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes, frowning. “You don’t want to be bothered with all this. Have you heard from your father? Is he back in New York?”
“Yes, he’s back,” Val said quietly. “What happened when the car hit the tree?”
“After waiting a bit, I started to walk. I walked some way. I tried to get cars to stop, but none of them would. I got bored and when I saw a car coming, I stepped in front of it. It was dark by then. I really hoped it would knock me down, I was so bored with myself, but it didn’t. There was this woman...”
Val waited, but he seemed to have forgotten what he was saying and just sat there limply, staring into space.
“Tell me about her,” Val said at last.
“About who?”
“This woman who stopped.”
“There’s nothing to tell. She stopped... that’s all.”
Val had a sudden idea he was concealing something from her that frightened him. She regarded him, feeling a cold sensation building up around her heart.
“Did she talk to you?”
He moved restlessly.
“We drove some way. Yes, she talked. I can’t remember what about... I think I was sorry for her somehow.”
“What was she like?”
“I don’t know.” He frowned. “It’s odd, but when I think of her, I think of elephants.”
Val was startled.
“But, why? Was she so big then?”
“No... I don’t think so. I honestly don’t remember anything about her except the elephants.”
He looked over his shoulder at the nurse. “She thinks I could become violent. Did you know?”