“I don’t know,” I said. “And if I did know I wouldn’t tell you. Now get out!”
His fat face turned into a mask of snarling fury. He looked like a demon.
“You fool!” he exclaimed, and his voice shook. “Do you think I’m taken in by this loss of
memory stunt of yours? Where have you hidden it? If you don’t tell me you’ll wish you’d
never been born. Where is it?”
“Get out!”
He got control of himself. The meaningless smile came back as he stood up.
“Okay, if that’s the way you want to play it,” he said. “Suit yourself. I’ll talk to Riskin. In a
couple of hours from now you’ll be in jail. Maybe you think you can talk yourself out of one
murder rap, but I’m damned sure you won’t talk yourself out of three.”
He walked silently to the door.
“Want to change your mind?” he asked, pausing to look back at me.
“Get out!” I said.
He went out quietly the way he had come in: like a ghost without a house to haunt.
IV
Before I could even start to think what all this meant a nurse came in.
“Did you enjoy your visitor?” she asked, smiling at me. “Imagine him being your cousin.
You’re not a bit alike.”
“Cousins don’t have to be,” I said, surprised I could say anything.
“I guess that’s right. Did he leave these?” She picked up the carnations. “Aren’t they
wonderful!”
“You have them. I don’t care about flowers. I’ll be glad if you’ll take them away.”
“Well, if you really mean that. Why, thanks. I think they’re wonderful.” She picked them
up and sniffed at them. “Your cousin must have a lot of money. That diamond he was
wearing and his car!”
“Yeah, he doesn’t starve.”
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“I’m beginning to suspect you’re someone very important.”
“Who me? I’m nobody. What gave you that idea?”
“Well, those two policemen outside. They told me they were guarding you, I guess you
must be important.”
I kept a dead pan expression, but it was an effort.
“My cousin imagines someone’s going to kidnap me. He’s nuts, but there it is. I didn’t
know about the cops. How long have they been here?”
“Oh, they’ve just arrived.”
I was beginning to get the shakes again.
“Tell me, nurse, what happened to my clothes ?”
“They’re in that closet; over there. Did you want something?”
“No, it’s okay. I just wondered. The doc said something about me leaving at the end of the
week. I just wondered what had happened to them.”
“Well, they’re right in that closet. Is there anything I can get you?”
“I guess not, thanks. I think I’ll take a nap. Those two guys made me feel tired.”
“Thanks for the flowers. They really are something.”
“You’re welcome.”
I watched her leave the room, then as soon as I was sure she had gone, I sat up.
I had to get out of here. I had to go somewhere away from Riskin and Ricca and work this
thing out for myself. The way I figured it there could be only two explanations: this was
either a case of mistaken identity or one of them or even both of them were trying to frame
me.
It was now twenty minutes past six. The nurse brought me supper at seven-fifteen sharp.
That gave me fifty minutes to dress and get out of the hospital before I was missed.
I lowered my feet to the floor and stood up. I felt weak in the legs and wobbly, but not
anything like so wobbly as I thought I was going to feel. I went over to the closet and opened
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the door. I was expecting to find the white tropical suit Brant had given me, but instead there
was a dark-blue flannel suit on a hanger, a white silk shirt, a pair of black leather shoes, and a
wide-brimmed hat on a shelf.
I stared at the clothes, knowing they weren’t mine. But that wasn’t going to stop me. If my
clothes weren’t to hand I’d take someone else’s.
I pulled on the pair of blue and white check socks I found stuck in the shoes. I put the shoes
on: they fitted me as if they were made for me. The shirt was a fit, too, and so was the suit.
It took me over ten minutes to get dressed, and I was feeling pretty bad by the time I was
through. I had to sit on the bed until my heart stopped racing. I was panting like a worn-out
horse.
I nearly forgot the hat, but that was important. I had to have something to hide the bandages
around my head. I got it on. It was right, and it made my head ache, but I had to wear it.
Then I crept over to the door, eased it open and glanced into the passage.
At the far end standing at the head of the stairs, were two cops; their backs to me. They
stood with their hands behind them, and every now and then they flexed their knees the way
cops do on the movies.
I looked to my right, but the corridor ended in big double windows. My only way out was
down the stairs, and I wouldn’t get far with those cops waiting there to stop me.
I closed the door and sneaked over to the window. Apart from being on the sixth floor, the
ground below was packed with patients sun bathing. If I tried going out that way I’d be
spotted in seconds.
While I was trying to figure a way out, I heard voices in the corridor. Creeping over to the
door I opened it a crack and peered out, ready to make a dive for the bed.
There was a nurse and a guy in a white coat out there. They were manoeuvring a wheeled
trolley into the room opposite mine.
I waited, my eyes on the clock on the overmantel. It was now ten minutes to seven. Time
was running out. I had only twenty minutes before the nurse arrived with my supper. If I were
going to get out I’d have to do something fast.
I was still at the door, trying to make up my mind what to do when the nurse and the
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attendant reappeared.
“I’ll take her down after I’ve seen the doc,” he said. “I’ve forgotten the mortician’s
certificate.”
“One of these days you’ll forget your head, not that it would be a great loss,” the nurse said
tartly, and turned away.
The attendant made a pass at her, but she anticipated it and whisked her rear out of reach.
“And if you don’t keep your paws …”
“I know. I know,” the attendant said wearily. “You’ll tell the matron. Why don’t you relax
sometime?”
The nurse walked off down the corridor, and the attendant followed her. The two cops
obligingly stood aside to let them go down the stairs.
I stood hesitating, then I eased open the door. The cops were leaning over the banisters;
probably watching the nurse out of sight. Their backs were to me.
The attendant had given me the clue, and I sneaked across the corridor, turned the handle of
the door opposite eased it open and stepped inside. I was ready to jump out of my skin, and
very nearly did when I saw a body under a sheet on the trolley.
I took hold of the corner of the sheet and lifted it. I was shaking now from head to foot. The
dead woman looked as if she were asleep. What I was about to do horrified me, but I knew if
I didn’t go through with it I wasn’t going to get away. I looked frantically around the room
for a place to hide her, but there was nowhere. Close by was another door. I opened it an inch
and peered into a luxuriously fitted bathroom.
I ran back to the trolley and wheeled it into the bathroom. Then I stripped off the sheet and
keeping my eyes averted I lifted the body and staggered with it to the bath. It was as much as
I could do to lower it into the bath, but I did it somehow. Then I pulled the shower curtains
and shoved the trolley back into the bedroom.
By that time I was all in. I flopped down on the bed. I thought I was going to pass out. I