I pushed back my chair. ‘Well, I guess I’d better get to work. Mr. Burnett wants Dester’s papers tomorrow morning and there’s still a lot to do.’
For the first time since I heard Lewis was going to stay in the house, I lost my sick feeling of fear. If he wasn’t going to prowl around the house, I had a chance of getting Dester’s body into the garden. It would be risky, but I had to take the risk.
Lewis said to Marian, ‘I’ll help you with the dishes. My wife says I’m the best dish washer in the district.’
I went into Dester’s study, shut the door and sat down. I took the gun from my hip pocket and put it in the top desk drawer. Then I slipped on a pair of gloves I had by me, took a sheet of notepaper from the rack and fed it into the typewriter. I took off the gloves and sat for a moment thinking. Then I typed the following:
I’ve come back for the gun. This is my finish. I didn’t mean to hit her so hard. I thought I might get away with it, but I now know I can’t. Anyway I don’t want to live any longer. I’m taking the easy way out.
There’s no future left for me...
I studied the note for a moment, then putting on the gloves again I took the sheet of paper out of the machine and put it under a stack of typing paper in the top drawer.
I looked at the clock. It was just after half past two. In ten hours or so, if I had any luck, I would be free of the whole nightmare thing.
Marian and I didn’t get Dester’s papers parcelled up until past eight o’clock. We had come across another drawer of bills just when we thought we had finished and that held us up.
After I had struck a grand total, I said, ‘Well, I don’t think there will be much left: he now owes close on fifty thousand.’
‘Do you think if anything happens to him that the insurance company will pay up?’ Marian asked.
‘I don’t know. It depends what has happened to him. Anyway, I don’t care one way or the other. I don’t want the money.’ I got to my feet ‘Well, I guess you don’t have to hang on any longer unless you want to, kid. Why don’t you go to a movie or something?’
She shook her head.
‘I don’t feel like it. Do you want to go?’
The thought of staying in this house waiting for Lewis to go to bed wasn’t a pleasant one, but I dared not leave the house. Lewis had shown a mild interest in the freezer. There was just a chance that, left on his own, he might take the bottles off the top and look inside.
‘Let’s go into the lounge. Maybe there’s something to watch on television.’
Lewis was watching the fights when we entered the lounge.
‘These are pretty rotten,’ he said, glancing over his shoulder at us. ‘If you two want some other programme, it’s okay with me.’
Marian said she didn’t want to watch.
‘I’m going over to my room,’ she said, ‘I have some letters to write.’
I was glad to get her out of the house.
‘I’ll come over with you,’ I said.
We walked across to the garage in the fading light and paused at the entrance.
‘I’ll get back,’ I said. ‘I want an early night. All this commotion has made me tired.’
‘You don’t think anything will happen tonight, Glyn?’
‘I’m sure it won’t. Forget it, kid. Dester’s miles away by now. In another few days you can quit.’
‘I shall be glad to go.’
I bent and kissed her. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’
I hurried back to the house. Lewis was lolling in his chair, staring at a couple of bruisers being careful not to hurt each other. ‘These two puffs have been waltzing around the ring now for ten minutes. They haven’t laid a glove on each other yet.’
I looked at my strap watch. It was getting on for nine. I had still at least four hours to kill before I could start on the last leg of this nightmare. I sat down, lit a cigarette and watched the screen.
After five more dreary minutes had ticked by, the referee stopped the fight and called it a no contest.
‘About time too,’ Lewis said. ‘Anyway, they won’t get paid.’
Another couple climbed into the ring and another slow, unexciting fight started. After a while I noticed Lewis had fallen asleep.
I looked at him. His thin face hadn’t relaxed in sleep: it looked as if it had been carved out of stone. I didn’t dare do anything yet. I began to check off in my mind the points I had to remember. I had everything ready. First I would have to remove the bottles from the top of the deep-freeze cabinet, then I had to get him out of the cabinet, take him into the garden, and then fire off the gun.
It was only then that I realized with a sudden sick shock that I wouldn’t be able to get back into the house before Lewis came down to investigate the sound of the shot.
I couldn’t take the risk of him spotting me in the garden. He might look out of his window and see me coming back to the house or he might rush down and meet me as I was entering the house.
I sat staring at the bright television screen, fighting against my rising panic. How was I to get around this snag? It took me several minutes to accept the fact that I dared not take Dester out into the garden. Then it dawned on me that I had been making things more difficult for myself. Dester had originally shot himself in his study. The safest thing for me to do was to set the stage exactly as it had been and stage the suicide once more in his study. I could fire the gun through the open window. The fact that the window was open would point to the way Dester had entered the study. I began to breathe again. It was better this way. As soon as I had fired the shot I would cross the passage into the kitchen, wait until Lewis had gone into the study, then I’d leave the kitchen, creep halfway up the stairs, turn and run down noisily as if I had just come from my room.
In theory it sounded fine, but I flinched from the reality of carrying it out. I dreaded opening the freezer and seeing him again, but I had to do it.
Around half past ten Lewis abruptly woke up. I had been watching him and when I saw him stir, I closed my eyes and pretended I had also fallen asleep.
‘Sweet grief! Those puffs are still waltzing together,’ he said in disgust as he sat up.
I stirred and opened my eyes. ‘Well, they sent us to sleep: what more do you want?’ I turned off the set. ‘I guess I’m going up to bed.’
‘Yeah,’ Lewis returned and stretched. ‘I’ve been wasting time. I should have been in bed long ago.’ He got to his feet. ‘Do you lock up here?’
‘Sure,’ I said. ‘It won’t take me long. You go on up.’
‘I guess I’ll come around with you. I wouldn’t want a burglar to break in while I’m snoring upstairs. I’d get ribbed for the rest of my days.’
He followed me into the hall and watched me lock and bolt the front door, then he came after me, down the passage into the kitchen and watched me fasten the kitchen door.
‘That’s it,’ I said. ‘Now let’s get upstairs.’
He pulled aside the kitchen curtains.
‘This window’s not locked,’ he said and slid the catch. ‘Let’s have a look at the rest of the windows.’
I could have strangled him, but there was nothing to do but to follow him into the dining room, the lounge and finally into Dester’s room. He had checked and found the windows of the lounge and dining room were locked. He pushed open the door leading into Dester’s study, snapped on the light and crossed the room to the window.
‘This isn’t locked,’ he said.
I was staring at the desk, a cold chill creeping up my spine. Like a careless, stupid fool I had left the pair of gloves right by the typewriter in full view. I took a step forward in the hope I could snatch them up before he turned, but he was already turning and I stopped short.