“Fine. I’m at Jacksonville. I’ve got a contract I want to talk to you about. Suppose I drive over or maybe you can come up here?”
“Sorry, Gene. You’ve interrupted. I’m getting this script together. I don’t want to leave it. The contract will have to wait.”
“Sure, I understand. Well, I guess it can wait, but S. S. H. wants it signed.”
“He’ll have to wait too.” There was a snap in Perry’s voice.
“I met your wife at Jacksonville. She’s with you, isn’t she?”
“Yes.”
A pause, then Franklin said, “S. S. H. wouldn’t approve. She’ll be a distraction.”
If the situation hadn’t been so desperate, Perry would have laughed. Distraction? How about a vicious killer sitting there, pointing a gun at him?
“I write scripts for Mr Hart, but neither he nor anyone else dictates my private life,” Perry said. “See you around, Gene,” and he hung up.
Brown returned the gun to its holster.
“That’s telling them, Perry,” he said and grinned. “You’re smart.”
“You finished, Jim? I want to talk to my wife.”
“Sure. You seem to have your wife on your nut. She’s okay. I want to tell you something. When it’s dark, I’m taking off,” Brown said. “You’ll like that, won’t you? I’ll take the jeep. No cop has ever caught me, and no cop ever will. I’ll take off.”
Perry passed his hand over his sweating face.
“Can’t say I’ll be sorry, Jim,” he said, and forced a smile. “This has been an experience.”
“I guess.” Brown leaned back in his chair.
“One thing, Perry. Listen good. I like you. You’re smart, and you’ve been straight with me. Watch that wife of yours. Man! She needs watching. Know her problem? She has red hot pants. If she was my wife, I’d beat the hell out of her. I’m being straight with you. It’s not my business, but I’m telling you.” He rolled up his sleeve to reveal the cobra tattooed on his arm. “I’d trust her as far as I’d trust this snake. Okay?”
As Perry began to protest, both men heard the loud, savage barking of a dog.
For more than an hour Sheila lay on the big double bed, Brown’s words burning into her mind, over and over again: To me, you are no better than the worst hooker I’ve ever screwed. You are, to me, like the mess a dog makes on the sidewalk.
At first, tears of humiliation ran down her face. Then the shock of sexual frustration, then, finally, a cold rage. Her body stiffened, her fists clenched.
No man had ever dared to speak to her like this! You ape! God! You stinking animal! She swung her legs off the bed and stood up. The rage engulfing her left her breathless. She hammered her clenched fists together. Her body was shaking.
No man would ever speak to her like that and get away with it. You are, to me, like the mess a dog makes on the sidewalk.
Me! Sheila began to move slowly around the room.
After some five minutes, she gained control of herself, but her rage against Brown burned. Her breathing eased, and she began to think. She sat down and stared at the sunlit window.
I’ll fix you, you ape, she told herself. Somehow, I’ll fix you! How can I? she thought. But I’ll do it if it’s the last thing I ever do! Mushy thinking. I want to see you dead. How? A good question. She thought of the telephone. The police! Then she realized this was still mushy thinking. She would never get near the telephone. This ape was in control!
Wait a few minutes. Get control of yourself, she thought. She got up and went into the bathroom. She bathed her face in cold water. She looked at herself in the mirror, aware that the steel in her was exerting itself. She was now relaxing. She spent some minutes fixing her face, then satisfied, she returned to the bedroom and opened the suitcase Calhoun had lent her. She selected a fresh shirt and another pair of jeans and dressed. All the time her mind was active. Her thoughts were only on Brown. How to fix him?
Now, almost calm, she sat in a lounging chair. Her mind darted like a field mouse collecting food.
Finally she nodded, now completely calm. Nothing else will do. I must kill him!
She sat still, repeating the thought again in her mind.
Yes! But how?
She thought of his brute strength. The way he crushed the pewter ashtray. The way he had slapped Perry. If only she had a gun!
Then she stiffened and sat up straight.
A gun. She had a gun! How could she have forgotten?
She remembered taking Perry’s gun from the safe and scaring the life out of that stinking private eye. She remembered stuffing the gun into her handbag.
She jumped to her feet.
Where was the handbag? She looked at the two suitcases. She looked around the room, her eyes searching.
No handbag.
Then she remembered. She had put the handbag in the jeep’s map pocket by the driver’s seat when she had left Jacksonville. Perry had missed it. So, the handbag was in the jeep, parked outside the lodge.
How to get it?
Then she heard the sound of a car approaching. She ran to the window and saw the jeep pull up outside the lodge. She saw Perry get out, carrying a plastic sack, and enter the lodge.
She stared for a long moment at the jeep, knowing she had to get to it and get her handbag. She heard voices below, and moving silently, she opened the bedroom door to listen.
“I want to talk to my wife.” She heard Perry say, Brown said something, then a door shut and she heard no more.
Wait, she told herself. The time must come. The gun is there. Just wait.
Chapter 11
Hollis switched on his radio.
“Sheriff?”
“Listening.”
“A bit of a mess. I suspect my cover is blown.” Hollis went on to explain about the dog. This punk is sure to guess I’m up this tree,” Hollis concluded.
“Oh, hell! I’d better tell Jenner, Hank.”
“As soon as it gets dark, I’ll move to another tree. I’m sorry about this. This punk won’t show his face before it’s dark, and maybe not even then.”
“Look, Hank, it won’t be completely dark. I’ve checked, and there’ll be a moon tonight.”
“That’s something, anyway. He has only to show himself and I’ll nail him. I’ll keep in touch.”
“You’re sure you don’t want me to come down there?”
Hollis forced a laugh. “I’ve been in much worse spots in the army, Sheriff. I can handle it.”
He switched off, eased his aching back against the tree trunk and lifted his rifle. Already the sun was sinking. In another half hour it would be dark. There was a glow on the river. Lights had come on behind the curtains of the lodge. He wondered what was happening behind those walls. Leaning forward, he inspected a nearby tree. It would be easy to climb, but the sighting from up there wouldn’t be as good as from the one he was in.
He’d wait, he thought. If Logan suspected he was in the tree, there was a chance he would come out to try to shoot him.
Hollis fondled his rifle.
The moment the sound of the barking dog came to Perry and Brown, Brown, moving with the speed of a striking snake, was on his feet, gun in hand and at the window.
The speed of his movement stunned Perry. It seemed incredible that any man could move that quickly. He remained in his chair, watching, as Brown gently parted the curtains and stared out.
Perry listened to the savage barking of the dog. He was sure the dog had spotted the cop up in the tree. Now, what was going to happen?
There was a long pause. Then Perry heard a man’s voice call to the dog. For some seconds, the dog continued to bark, then the man called again, and the dog ceased to bark.