“I spoke to Mayda,” she said. “I told her Victor had to have absolute quiet from now on, and he mustn’t get excited, so she shouldn’t come into the house. I told her I was very sorry. She understood, all right.”
“She’s a big mouth,” I said. “She might mention it to Miraglia, later on, and he’d say he never gave any such orders.”
“I’ll tell him about her, when I see him. I’ll tell him I used him as an excuse to get rid of her because she’s such a bore.”
“Good. That’s perfect.”
“She mentioned you.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s all right, though. I fixed that. I told her you were an awful dope, stuff like that. How you couldn’t wait to finish the job. I didn’t make any big thing of it, of course.”
“Shirley,” I said. “I just thought of something. You’ll have to impress this on your mind until it’s an automatic action. The speakers I’m going to put up out back in the yard will have a volume control. You’ll have to see that they’re turned off. And as soon as he’s—gone, you’ll have to turn them on—and you can’t be seen doing it. It would cook us. If he started yelling over the intercom before the unit grounds out, somebody would sure as hell hear him.”
“Could they hear him from inside the house?”
“His voice is too weak to carry that far. Like as not, the unit will short right out. Now, don’t worry about that. I can do it perfect. But you’ve got to be sure you turn those speakers on, because that’s where you’ll say you were when it happened. In the dark, by the Gulf, sitting. You can say you like to sit out there at night.”
“I’ll remember. You’ll have to show me the volume controls.”
“Yeah.”
“Jack, you don’t think they’ll suspect us.”
“How can they? Don’t you worry. It’ll be my fault, like I said, and that won’t mean a thing. I’m just a television repairman, see? There’s nothing between you and me. We’ve only just met. That’s the first thing. Any number of people can attest to that. They’ll never suspect you. All they’ll think is that you got a break.” I hesitated, and pulled her to me, and kissed her, then let her go, because I didn’t want anything starting up right then. “Know what the word will be?” I said. “They’ll say, Poor old Spondell, he’s better off dead. He was suffering. It’s a shame to say it, but you’re better off, and he’s better off. All these years you’ve nursed him, waited on him hand and foot. If they think anything bad, it’ll be counteracted by their own thoughts that he’s better off dead.”
“Don’t say it anymore, Jack.”
“I know. It kind of gets you, sometimes. But, listen, Shirley. We can’t be seen together, and you can’t call me. I’ll contact you somehow, if need be. We can use the alibi of my coming out here to adjust something—once, maybe twice. No more. I’ll be out once to solder the condenser. We should leave it at that.”
“I’ll go crazy.”
“No, you won’t.”
It wasn’t easy, the way she paraded around the rest of the day. She had on a pair of white shorts and a white sweater. The only thing that kept me from busting a seam was the thought of what we’d have when it was all over.
I explained to Victor how the unit in his room worked. He got a kick out of it. He was like a kid.
“All you have to do is flip that switch, and talk,” I told him. “Simple.”
“Maybe you’re not such a son of a bitch, after all, Ruxton,” he said, grinning up at me. There were little dabs of bright red coloring on his cheeks today, and his eyes were bright. He looked over where she was standing at the foot of the bed, by those feet. “Shirley,” he said. “Honey, you go out in the kitchen and listen for me. Say something.”
She did. It went on that way. He kept her jumping and pretty well tied up, talking nonsense from one room to the other, playing radio announcer, and imitating Jack Benny.
Like a kid, he was.
Just the same, he was going to die.
All the time I worked, I kept going over and over every point on the program. I examined each point from all angles. It occurred to me that Victor would want to show Miraglia how the intercoms worked. Shirley would have to go along with that and show some excitement. I told her, and she okayed it.
While I was out back putting up the two PA speakers, one on the coconut palm and the other on the side of the house, somebody called.
“Hello, handsome.”
It was Mayda Lamphier, over in her yard, beyond the hedge. I nodded and kept working. She stood there for a while, wanting to say something. She gave it up, and went inside her house.
I put the speakers down just low enough so Shirley could reach the volume controls.
We had to move his bed so I could fasten the TV set on the ceiling. I worked with a ladder, with him lying in bed, watching. I got the set up there with a sling hoist, and bolted it to brackets fastened through the ceiling to rafters.
Shirley kept saying, “Are you all right, Mr. Ruxton? Can I help you, Mr. Ruxton?”
I just grunted.
When I finished, I was knocked out, but it was up there to stay. You could chin yourself on it, if you wanted, it was that solid. There was a fair picture even without the antenna, so we rolled his bed over into place and let him watch some local hillbilly program. He seemed happy.
Outside, she held the ladder while I headed for the roof with the antenna.
“He can have two days to play around,” I said. “Will the doctor be here by then?”
“He comes tomorrow.”
“Good; then Victor can put on an exhibition with the intercoms and get that out of his system. He can have tomorrow and the next day—then I’m coming to fix the condenser.”
“How will I make him think something’s wrong?”
“I’ll show you,” I told her. “You’ll pull the main light switch, and knock everything out.”
She didn’t say anything. I looked at her and got that feeling. She was staring at me, with her eyes hot, her teeth tight together, and her lips parted a little.
She spoke softly. “I want to see you, Jack.”
“Yeah.”
“What will we do?”
“I don’t know.”
It was hell, what she did to me. She was right there, asking for it. And I could have her, only I couldn’t have her. She pushed against the edge of the ladder and said, “Jesus, Jack. What will we do?”
“We’ll have to wait,” I said. “You’ll have to be here when the doctor comes tomorrow. I want to know everything they do and say.”
“All right. But, I can’t wait, Jack. I’m burning up.”
“We’ve got to wait. You think it’s easy for me?”
She just watched me. Her look really got me. I went up the ladder fast, and put up the antenna, a double V, and fixed the lead. Then I came down and went in to see how Victor was making out.
“He’s sleeping,” she said. “He always naps along about now. He’ll sleep for at least fifteen minutes.”
Her eyes were foggy.
“Where’s the fuse box? There’s time to show you.”
I followed her out through the kitchen, watching the way she moved under those tight white shorts. The fuse box was in a utility room off the back of the house. There was a lot of junk in the room; a wicker clothes hamper, electric hot-water heater, washing machine, some garden tools, and an electric lawn mower. There was a big pile of clothes on the floor.
I showed her the switch and told her to pull it the first thing in the morning, three days from now, and then phone me at the store.
I turned on the light in the utility room, then pulled the main switch, to show her how everything went off. Then I turned the juice back on, and turned off the light.