‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, not moving.
‘My arm’s bad,’ he said. It was extraordinary how her presence had suddenly given him a new lease in life. The sight of her seemed to lift him above the fever that was devouring him. ‘Are the cops outside?’
‘There’s been an accident,’ she said, ‘A man died.’
‘Aren’t they looking for me?’
‘It’s the accident,’ she repeated, and began to move slowly and warily up the stairs. ‘Do you want me to look at your arm?’
He tried to grin.
‘It’s past being looked at. It’l have to come off.’
‘Perhaps I can do something.’ She came within a yard of him and stopped, her eyes on the gun.
‘Your door’s locked. I tried to get in.’
‘I always keep it locked. Do you want to lie on the bed?’
‘Maybe I’d better not. I don’t want to get you into trouble. I may die on you.’ He closed his eyes for a moment. ‘Are you sure the cops aren’t looking for me?’
‘There was an accident,’ she said, refusing to lie to him. ‘They found a dead man in a car outside.’
‘A dead man? You’re sure he’s dead?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s Hater,’ he said. ‘I remember now. He’s dead, is he?’
She didn’t say anything.
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ he said, his mind groping vaguely into the past. ‘I forgot about him. We tied him and hid him under a blanket, then my arm got bad and I forgot about him. I forgot about everything except you. I’ve driven over five hundred miles to see you.’
Still she didn’t say anything.
‘Hater was quite a guy,’ Baird went on, half to himself. ‘You wouldn’t believe it to look at him. He hid four million bucks worth of jewellery somewhere. Think of that! Now he’s dead, and no one will ever find the stuff.’
‘You killed him,’ she said, in a cold, flat voice.
‘No. If he’s dead it’s because it was coming to him. I forgot about him, that’s al . You can’t cal that killing a man.’ He put his hand on the door knob. ‘Aren’t you going to open up?’
‘Yes,’ she said, and moved closer to him. She touched the gun. ‘Shal I take this? You won’t need it.’
His fingers tightened on the gun.
‘I might,’ he said. ‘I guess I can manage. Open the door, won’t you?’
She put a key in the lock and pushed open the door.
‘Remember the last time?’ he asked, looking into the shadowy room, lit by the moonlight coming in through the window. ‘Take it.’ He pushed the Thompson into her hands. ‘When I woke up last time you had put my rod by my side. I haven’t forgot en that. You’re the only one I’ve ever met who I can trust.’
He sank down on the bed. ‘I’ve often thought about you and what you did for me. I’ve often thought what you said about kindness isn’t something you buy from a grocery store. I guess you were right.
You’ve got to have kindness in you.’
She held the gun stiffly, the barrel pointing down at the floor.
‘Paul Hater was my father,’ she said.
Baird rubbed his ravaged face with the back of his hand.
‘What’s that?’
‘I said Paul Hater was my father.’
He looked at her, then at the gun.
‘Would you have told me that if I hadn’t given you the gun?’
She shook her head.
‘No.’
‘But he can’t mean anything to you. You can’t have seen him for fifteen years. You must have been about five when they took him away.’
‘My mother told me about him,’ she said quietly. ‘She told me how they tortured him. The only thing that kept him alive was the knowledge I’d be waiting for him when he came out.’
‘The only thing that kept him alive,’ Baird said, ‘was the thought of that stuff he had hidden away, and what he was going to do with it.’
‘No, that’s what everyone thought,’ she said, coming to the foot of the bed and looking down at him.
‘When he was arrested, my mother took the col ection. No one knew he was married. It was easy for her to get out of the country. The ship struck a reef. Only she and five others were rescued. The collection went down with the ship. For fifteen years my father suffered so my mother could go free. I never told him she found someone else. Then you had to come along and kill him when his suffering was nearly ended.’
‘I didn’t kill him,’ Baird said obstinately.
‘But you did. If you had left him alone, he would be alive now.’
‘You’re feeling pret y bad about it, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘I guess I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known. I want you to believe that. I stil owe you a lot. I could have squared our debt if I had known.’
‘I shouldn’t have helped you the first time,’ she said. ‘That’s where I went wrong. I only did it because I remembered what they did to him. If I had let them find you here, he would be alive now.’
‘I guess that’s right,’ he said, and lay back on the pillow. ‘There’s not much of me left. They can have what there is. Go ahead and call them.’
‘They’re waiting now,’ she said.
‘I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known,’ he muttered. ‘I don’t suppose you’l believe that.’
‘Does it matter now? It’s a little late for regrets, isn’t it? You did it, and he’s dead. I blame myself, not you.’
His despair was bitter as she went out of the room without looking at him. For the first time in his life he felt afraid, for he realised he was going to die as he had lived: uncared for and in loneliness.
Olin and two patrolmen, guns in hand, came into the room. Dallas followed them.
Baird lay flat on his back, his eyes closed. He was breathing with difficulty, and sweat ran off his face, soaking the pillow.
Olin snapped, ‘Get that intern up here, and tel him to hurry.’
Dallas shook Baird’s shoulder.
‘Hey, you! Wake up!’
Baird opened his eyes.
‘Did Hater tell you where the stuff is?’ Dal as demanded. ‘Come on, spil it! It’s not going to be of any use to you now.’
Baird shook his head.
‘I forgot to ask him,’ he said, in a voice that was scarcely audible. ‘Too bad, isn’t it, copper?’ His eyes moved from Dallas to Olin. ‘I holed up in this room after I knocked off those two in the drug store,’
he said, speaking with difficulty. ‘I told her if she didn’t hide me Rico would get her. She didn’t want to do it. Do you understand? I made her. You’re not going to hold it against her, are you?’
‘Get ing soft?’ Olin said with a sneer. ‘You know as well as I do she covered you, and that makes her an accessory to murder!’
‘She thought Rico would rub her out if she didn’t cover me.’ Baird made an effort to sit up, but he couldn’t make it.
‘Quit lying!’ Olin said. ‘Why should you want to shield her? She took your gun. If it hadn’t been for her we wouldn’t have found you. Now, come on; she hid you wil ingly, didn’t she?’
Baird looked at Dallas.
‘You fix it,’ he gasped. ‘She’s a good kid. I made her do what she did. Put it in writing. I’l sign it.’
‘Listen,’ Dal as said to Olin, ‘if she hadn’t got his gun, you’d have had a bat le on your hands. What do you want to pick on her for?’
Olin made an impatient gesture.
‘Oh, the hel with it! I don’t want her. She can go for al I care. Where’s that damned intern?’
Baird relaxed limply back on the pillow. His eyes closed.
Dallas said, ‘Can I tel your man to let her go?’