“Easy for you to talk !” I snarled at her. “You didn’t have to do it.”
“I had to sit with him for nine hours. I’ve done my share.”
I finished the Scotch and poured another.
“Go into the bathroom and smarten yourself up. If Hame sees you like this, he’ll know you
did it.”
I went into the bathroom. She had cleaned up the mess in there. I caught sight of my face in
the mirror. I looked like helclass="underline" my face was running with sweat, my hair hung over my eyes
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and my skin was the colour of a fish’s belly.
I ran cold water into the basin and stuck my face in it. I rubbed my skin h*rd with a towel
until it got back a little colour. I fixed my hair, I was still trembling.
She stood in the doorway, watching me.
Then suddenly she said softly, “Who was she, Johnny?”
I didn’t think I had heard right.
“What was that?”
“Who was she?”
I went on combing my hair, but my insides turned cold.
“Who was who? What are you talking about?” Somehow I managed to keep my voice
steady and my face expressionless.
“The girl who brought you back. The guards told me. Who was she?”
“How the hell do I know?” I said, and turned to face her. “I’d lost my way. I told you. I was
late. I wanted to get back quick. She passed and I thumbed a ride. I didn’t ask her who she
was. What does it matter, anyway?”
She stared at me, and I stared right back.
“I only wondered,” she said. “You’re good at thumbing rides, aren’t you?” She moved into
the sitting-room, and I followed her. “From now on, Johnny, our future lies together. Even if
we didn’t happen to love each other, we know too much about each other ever to pan. You do
understand that, don’t you?” She didn’t wait for an answer, but went right on, “I think we’d
better have an understanding together. There must be no other girls. I mean that. I’d never
share you with anyone. I told Paul the same thing. I just won’t tolerate cheating. If the idea
that you can play around with other women ever enters your head, I’ll get rid of you, and
there’s only one way to do that. I’ll turn you over to Hame.”
I started to say something when the telephone bell rang. She walked swiftly across the
room, picked up the receiver and said, “Hello?”
I stood and watched her. She listened to the excited voice for what seemed a long time, then
she said, “I can hear the noise now. How awful. He was always a fool, going into their cages.
Paul warned him time and again. Yes, Ricca’s here. He’s just got back. No, we’ll keep clear
of it. Will you handle it? We don’t want to get mixed up with the newspaper men. That’s fine.
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I’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you so much, Captain.” She listened, laughed, and said, “Good-bye, now,” and hung up.
She looked at me.
“It’s all right. It’s working out just the way I said it would. Hame is making himself useful.
We keep out of it.” She came over to me. “Pour me a drink, darling. We must celebrate.”
I gave her a whisky.
“Well, here’s to us. We’re set now. We’re rich. Life’s just beginning for us. Can you
believe it, Johnny?”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.
She drank the whisky, her eyes on my face, then she moved across the room, smiling, and
pushed home the bolt on the door.
“No one will disturb us, darling. They’re all too busy. Let’s celebrate properly. Show me
how much you love me, Johnny.”
I hated her as I had never hated anyone before. She had me where she wanted me. A word
from her and they’d send me to the chair. I was fixed unless I did exactly what she told me.
No other girls.
I thought of Ginny.
“We have all the money in the world,” Della went on. “This is the biggest moment in my
life. The biggest moment in your life, too. Can you believe it?”
“I can believe it all right,” I said.
She slid her arms around my neck. I stood looking down into the black, hard, triumphant
eyes.
“What’s it feel like to be a millionaire?”
I said it felt fine.
“Kiss me, Johnny.”
I kissed her. I even caught hold of her, crushing her to me. I even carried her over to the
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divan.
Up to now she had been a lot smarter than I. If I was to save my neck I had to be the one to
be smarter, and I had to be patient, too.
I knelt over her and grinned down at her. It would have been easy to have put my hands on
her white throat and throttled her, but that wouldn’t have been smart. If I were going to beat
this rap I’d have to out-fox her. Killing her wouldn’t help me. It would only make things
worse. With her help I had covered up one murder. I knew I wouldn’t get away with another.
No, I had to out-fox her somehow. I wouldn’t do it in five minutes, but I was going to do it.
V
The next four weeks were spent consolidating our position as Della called it. What she
really meant was she was consolidating her position. I had kittle to say in the matter.
Although she didn’t refer to it again, I knew she didn’t believe for one moment that I had
lost myself when I had been away from the casino during those nine hours she kept guard
over Reisner’s body. Nor did she believe that the girl I had said had given me a lift was a
complete stranger to me. Instead of being her partner, I found myself acting as her assistant,
and having to pretend I was satisfied with the position.
Trust her to be one jump ahead of me all the time. When I had left her alone with Reisner’s
body, she had gone through his pockets, and had got his keys and the combination of the safe.
But she didn’t tell me what the combination was, nor did I set eyes on the keys.
The agreement between us had been that we should share the reserve: a quarter of a million
for her, and a quarter for me, but I didn’t get it.
“We’re in business now, Johnny,” she said, when I rather hesitantly suggested it was time
my share was paid over. “We need the reserve. Being in control of a money-maker like the
casino is fifty times better than a lump sum of money.”
I didn’t see it that way. With a quarter of a million I could have skipped out of the country
and taken Ginny with me, but with the hundred bucks Della paid me each week, all found,
including clothes, I wasn’t going to get far, and she knew it.
“You’re not used to money, Johnny,” she went on, lying on the divan, her wrap open,
showing me her legs. “I have plans for you. You’re going to get your share, but not just yet.
I’m keeping it for you; investing it. I know the markets, you don’t. I’ll have a fortune for you
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in a little while. Be patient.”
Neither of us believed this nonsense, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Besides, if you want anything, you know you have only to ask me for it,” she continued,
smiling at me. “I want you to be happy, darling. You are happy, aren’t you?”
And I’d twist up my face into a grin, and say I was happy, and hate her with my mind,
brain, soul and guts, and tell myself my time would come. It was just a matter of waiting for
the right opportunity.
But she didn’t have it entirely her own way. She found to her surprise that no one at the
casino wanted a woman boss, and when I say no one, I mean not only the staff, but the
millionaires and their wives, kids, girl friends and hangers-on.
She started off by sitting in Reisner’s office, ready to do business with the visitors, ready to
tell the staff what to do and what not to do. She got a big bang out of sitting behind that desk,