I Would Rather Stay Poor

1

There were only two other guests besides Alice Craig staying at the rooming-house: a Miss Pearson and a Major Hardy. Miss Pearson, a bright, bird-like little woman in her late sixties was in charge of the local Welfare Clinic. Major Hardy, in his early seventies, was the secretary of the Downside Golf Club.

Calvin met them when he went downstairs for dinner.

The talk centred around Joe Lamb and his stroke. Calvin listened while Alice described how she had found the old man on the floor of his office. From time to time, Calvin said the right thing at the right moment, and wondered irritably when they were going to eat.

When the topic of Mr. Lamb was finally exhausted, they sat down to an excellent dinner, served by Flo, a large, cheerful coloured woman. Calvin was vaguely disappointed that Kit Loring didn’t eat with them. With his ready charm and his confident manner, he easily won over the two old people who hung on his every word. Even Alice Craig seemed more relaxed as he chatted. He was careful not to embarrass her by addressing his remarks directly to her, but making sure she wasn’t left out of the conversation.

After the meal, Alice went upstairs to write letters and Miss Pearson went to listen to a quiz programme on television. Calvin and Major Hardy wandered into the lounge and sat down.

Calvin allowed the major to question him about his war record, his golf, his career as a banker until the old man had satisfied his curiosity. Then Calvin felt it was his turn to satisfy his own curiosity.

‘I’ve only just arrived here,’ he said, stretching out his long, powerful legs. ‘Miss Craig was good enough to recommend this place.’ He smiled his charming smile. ‘Who is Mrs. Loring? What’s happened to her husband?’

By now the major, a lean, burnt-up old man, was ready to gossip.

‘Mrs. Loring is a remarkable woman,’ he said. ‘There isn’t a better cook in the district. I’ve known her off and on for ten years. Her husband was Jack Loring, a successful insurance agent who worked this district. In some ways, it was a pity they married. They didn’t hit it off. Loring was always after the women.’ The major shook his head and paused to polish his beaky nose with a silk handkerchief. ‘But that’s neither here nor there. There was a child: a girl. Loring was killed in a car crash. Mrs. Loring was left a little money. She bought this house and set it up as a rooming-house and educated her daughter. She has had a very hard struggle and she’s still having a struggle.’

‘Does her daughter live with her?’ Calvin asked.

‘Certainly. She’s a nice girl and she works hard too. She’s in the box office of a movie house at Downside. She works the late shift.’ The major smiled slyly. ‘She and young Travers, the deputy Sheriff, are courting. He does the night shift at the sheriff’s office more often than not so Iris prefers to have her days free. You probably won’t see much of her. She doesn’t get to bed before two o’clock and is seldom up before ten.’

They continued to chat until half past ten, then Calvin said he was ready for bed. He went up to his room and lay in bed, smoking and staring up at the ceiling. He never read books. Occasionally, he would flick through a magazine, but reading didn’t interest him.

He had a habit of talking to himself, and he began a silent monologue as he lay in the double bed, a cigarette burning between his thick fingers.

‘This looks as if it is going to be yet another wasted year,’ he said to himself. ‘I’m thirty-eight. I have less than five hundred dollars saved. I owe money. If I don’t do something pretty soon, I’ll never do anything. I’ll never be any good as a banker, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t be good at something else… but what? If only I could lay my hands on a big sum of money! Without capital, I can’t hope to get anywhere. For seventeen years now I have been waiting for the right opportunity. Now, I’ve just got to do something. I can’t go on hesitating. Is there something I can do here in this one-eyed hole? I don’t think there can be. If I’m going to take a risk, it’s got to be for something worthwhile. It’s got to be for big money, and I can’t believe there is big money in Pittsville.’

A sound coming through the wall from the next room jerked him out of this silent monologue. He lifted his head from the pillow to listen.

He could hear Kit Loring moving around in the other room. He heard the closet door being opened and he imagined her getting ready for bed. A few minutes later, he heard the bath water running.

He reached for another cigarette. As he lit it, he heard her walk from her room with a slip-slap sound of slippers into the bathroom. He slid out of bed and silently opened his door and peered into the passage. He was in time to see the bathroom door close. Moving silently, he walked down the passage and looked into the next room.

It was a pleasant room. There was a double bed: on it lay her dress, a pair of flesh-coloured panties, stockings and a girdle. There were two comfortable armchairs, a writing-desk, a television set and a range of closets. On the wall was a good reproduction of an early Picasso.

He returned to his room and closed the door. For some moments he remained motionless, his blue eyes fixed in a blank stare at the opposite wall. Then he sat on the bed and waited.

After twenty minutes or so, he heard Kit Loring come from the bathroom, enter her room and close the door. He imagined her getting into bed. The click of the light switch told him she had turned out the light.

She was interesting, he thought. She had that something that could compensate him for the dreariness of this job and the town. He had an idea she might be easy, but he wasn’t entirely sure. That amused expression he had seen in her eyes warned him it would be unwise to rush anything.

He stubbed out his cigarette, then settled himself once again in bed. He turned off the light.

It was when he was enclosed by darkness that his stifling fear of failure, his pressing need for money, his realisation that unless he broke out of this rut, he would never get anywhere, crowded in on him as it did every night when he turned off the light.

He lay still, struggling to throw off this depression, saying to himself, ‘You’re no good. You never will be any good. You might be able to kid yourself sometimes, but you’re still no good.’

It was only when he turned on the bedside light that he finally fell into a restless, uneasy sleep.

2

The next four days followed a pattern that Calvin forced himself to endure: a pattern of boredom and meaningless routine. Each morning he had breakfast with Alice, Miss Pearson and Major Hardy. At nine o’clock, he drove with Alice to the bank. The girl seemed embarrassed to be with him in the car, but there was no alternative. He lived where she did: it would be impossible for him to go to the bank by car and leave her to get to the bank by bus.

The business at the bank was dull and of no interest to him. All the time he was in the bank dealing with this financial problem and that financial problem, he was constantly aware of his need for money and the need to get away from this routine job.

At four o’clock, the bank closed. Then he and Alice completed the bank business behind locked doors. At five-thirty they left the bank and drove back to the rooming-house. Calvin would remain in his room, smoking and staring blankly at the ceiling until dinner time, then he would go down to the dining-room, eat with the other three, making polite conversation, and then pass an hour watching television before retiring to his room again.

During these four days, he got to know something about Alice Craig. She was a good worker, and once she got used to him, an easy companion. He found he could leave most of the routine work to her and he was happy to do so. He was thankful she was so completely sexless and negative. To share such long hours with her if she had been otherwise would have been dangerous. Calvin had always made a point never to have an association with any girl employed by the bank.

During these four days he had seen little of Kit Loring. He had listened to her going to bed each night, and he had got into the habit of lying in his bed, staring fixedly at the communicating door as if he were willing it to open. Each time he met her to speak to, he found her more attractive, but he made no serious attempt to get to know her better.

On the Wednesday evening while he was completing the work of the day, his desk-lamp alight, papers spread out on his desk, Alice tapped on the door and came in. He looked up, switching on his charm.

‘It’s about tomorrow, Mr. Calvin,’ Alice said, hesitating at the door.

‘Something special? Come in and sit down.’

She perched herself on the arm of the armchair.

‘The money for the wage pay-out will be coming.’

‘What wage pay-out?’

‘It’s for the four local factories. The money arrives in an armoured truck at six,’ Alice explained. ‘Sheriff Thomson and Mr. Travers are here to see it into the vault. Then the following day the accountants from the four factories come at nine and collect the money.’

Calvin rubbed the side of his jaw while he looked at her.

‘Seems an odd way to do it. What amount is involved?’

‘Three hundred thousand dollars,’ Alice said quietly.

Calvin felt a sudden rush of cold blood up his spine. He leaned forward, staring at the girl, his blue eyes alive.

‘How much?’

She looked startled at his reaction.

‘Three hundred thousand dollars,’ she repeated.

Calvin forced himself to relax. He leaned back in his chair.

‘That’s quite a sum,’ he said. ‘What’s the idea — leaving it here over night?’

‘It comes from Brackley. It wouldn’t arrive in time if they delivered it on Friday. The pay-out always starts soon after nine. We don’t really have anything to do with it. We just house the money for the night. The factory accountants handle it.’

Calvin stared at the glowing end of his cigarette, his mind busy. Three hundred thousand dollars! You could take quite a few risks to get your hands on that kind of money!

‘Has this arrangement been going on for long?’

‘Oh, yes, for the past five years.’

‘Well, so what do we have to do about it? Are we responsible for the money until it leaves here? It doesn’t seem to be a hundred per cent safe bet. Any determined robber could get hold of it. Our security isn’t all that brilliant, is it?’

‘It’s quite safe,’ Alice said seriously. ‘You have the key to one of the locks of the vault and I have the other. There is also a device that protects the vault. No one could rob the vault without being detected.’

Calvin ran his fingers through his sand-coloured hair.

‘That sounds like famous last words to me. Just what is this wonderful device?’

‘It is an electronic eye one of the factories installed,’ Alice told him. ‘Once it is switched on you can’t go near the door of the vault without setting off alarms at the sheriff’s office and the Federal Bureau’s office at Downside…’

‘Sounds fine: so we just don’t have to bother our heads? It’s not our responsibility?’

‘No. We lend the vault, but we’re not responsible.’

‘But we do have to remain here late every Friday?’

‘Yes, we do have to do that.’

‘And it looks as if I’m going to be a little late tonight. I have another half hour’s work to do. Have you finished?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, okay, you get off. I’ll lock up.’

‘Can’t I help you?’

He gave her his charming smile.

‘Thanks, no. I have to write this report about Mr. Lamb. I’ll be back in time for dinner.’

She smiled nervously at him and went out of the office. After a few minutes, she came back wearing her hat and coat.

‘I’ll lock myself out,’ she said.

What an awful taste in clothes this girl has, Calvin thought as he got to his feet. She was wearing a mustard-coloured coat with a green collar that made her complexion seem muddy. Her big dowdy hat half hid her face.

‘I’ll let you out,’ he said and walked with her to the door. ‘Tell Mrs. Loring I won’t be late for dinner.’

He watched her walk towards the bus stop, then as he was closing the door, he suddenly realised that across the street was the sheriff’s office. He could see the sheriff’s ten-gallon hat hanging on a peg through the big, lighted window that was half screened to hide the actual office. As a symbol of authority, the hat made Calvin stiffen and stare. He stood for a long moment staring at the hat, then he closed the door and locked it.

He remained, his hand on the door handle, thinking, then he went behind the counter, opened the door leading to the vault and descended the ten steps into the cold, steel-lined room. Facing him was the door of the vault with its two elaborate locks. He could see no sign of an electronic eye. He stared at the door for some minutes, then humming tunelessly, he left the vault, closed and locked the door and returned to his office.

He sat at his desk and stared sightlessly at his half-written report.

Three hundred thousand dollars! Was this the chance he had been waiting for for seventeen long, dreary years? The sum was certainly worth great risks, but just what were the risks?

‘I’m here for at least six months,’ he said to himself. ‘I mustn’t rush this thing. I have plenty of time. I must see how the money is delivered, how this electronic gadget works. I must find out if there is any weakness in the security measures these people have taken to protect their money. If I am going to take this money, I must be absolutely certain no one will know I have taken it. That’s how every bank robbery fails. Once the Federal agents know who has taken the money, you’re as good as cooked. The trick in this set-up is not to let them have a clue that you have taken it. If you can do that, if you are patient enough not to spend a cent of the money until the heat is off, you stand a ninety-nine per cent chance of getting away with it. These odds are worth the risk when three hundred thousand dollars are for the having.’

With an effort he shelved these thoughts and finished his report about Joe Lamb. Then he turned off the lights and left the bank.

As he edged his car into the big garage at the back of the rooming-house, he saw Kit getting out of her car.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘Have you just got in?’

She was wearing a short leather coat and black slacks. She rested her hips against the fender of the car and surveyed him coolly.

‘I’ve been to the movies. Now I must rush. It’s Flo’s night off.’

He came closer to her. He took out his pack of cigarettes and offered it. They both lit up.

‘I’m a handy man,’ he said, switching on his charm. ‘Can’t I help? I’d like to. I get bored sitting up in my room waiting to eat.’

Her brown eyes studied him with that odd, amused expression that slightly irritated him. It was as if she were telling him she knew his charm wasn’t to be trusted.

‘I never refuse help. Come on then: help me get the dinner.’

He followed her from the garage, around the back of the house and into the well-equipped kitchen.

‘The menu is soup, grilled kidneys and apple pie,’ she told him. ‘Can you peel a potato?’

‘I can make soup. Want me to prove it? What have you got?’

She opened the refrigerator.

‘Beef bones, vegetables, cream and flour. Anything else you need?’

‘Do fine.’

‘Well, all right, then you make the soup. I’ll run up and change. I won’t be a minute.’

She tossed him an apron and then went out of the kitchen. He watched her go: his blue eyes taking in the shape of her body. When she had gone, he stood for a moment, his smile fixed, then he turned his attention to making the soup.

When she returned, wearing her black and scarlet dress, he was already well advanced with the soup. She collected the table-ware and went into the dining-room to set the table. By the time she had returned, he had prepared the vegetables and had set the pressure cooker on the stove. He took the kidneys from the refrigerator and was skinning them expertly.

‘Where did you learn to cook?’ she asked, moving to his side.

‘It sounds corny,’ he said, intent on what he was doing and not looking up, ‘but my mother taught me. She said if ever I fell in love with a girl who couldn’t cook, it would be a good idea for me to know how. It so happened I did just that thing. She couldn’t cook, so I did.’ He looked up suddenly, his blue eyes staring at her. ‘It didn’t save the marriage. I guess my mother was just kidding herself the way most mothers do.’

Kit lifted her hair off her shoulders with an unconscious, graceful movement.

‘So what happened?’

‘Oh, the usual thing: we begged to differ and we got a divorce.’

‘I suppose I was luckier. I didn’t have to get a divorce. My husband died. It’s a mess, isn’t it when people marry and then stop loving each other?’

‘Yes… it’s a mess.’ Calvin scooped up the chopped kidneys and put them in a saucepan. ‘Have you any brandy?’

‘Yes… it isn’t much good.’

‘It doesn’t matter. Let me have it. I’ll cook these in a brandy sauce. They’ll make the major’s single hair curl.’

She went to the store cupboard and took out a half-filed bottle of brandy.

He moved to the table towards the brandy and that brought him close to her. She didn’t move out of his way and it seemed to him the most natural thing in the world to reach for her. His thick fingers dug into the flesh of her back as he pulled her to him. She didn’t resist. His mouth came down on hers. They stood for a long moment, straining against each other, then she jerked away. They stood looking at each other: her eyes were dark with desire. As he reached for her again, she moved away, holding up her hand.

‘This isn’t exactly the way to get dinner, is it?’ she said unsteadily. ‘Are you doing the kidneys or am I?’

He drew in a long, deep breath, then he managed a crooked smile.

‘I’ll do them,’ he said and picked up the bottle of brandy. ‘You’re damned attractive, but you would know that for sure.’ He put a knob of butter in the saucepan and set the saucepan on the stove. ‘I’m surprised you’ve buried yourself in this dead hole. Just why did you do it?’

She rested her hips against the kitchen table and folded her arms across her breasts.

‘I made a mistake. The house was very cheap. I didn’t have much money…’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Money! Ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted money. I’ve been waiting and waiting for money now for over twenty years.’

He moved the kidneys around in the saucepan with a wooden spoon.

‘Yeah… that makes two of us. I want money, too,’ he said. ‘There are people who inherit money and then don’t know how to use it. There are people who even make money but still don’t know how to use it, but there are also people like you and me who don’t have it but would know how to use it. Tough, isn’t it?’

‘Then there are people who have the chance of getting a lot of money but are scared of taking risks,’ Kit said quietly. ‘There are people like myself who never have the chance, but wouldn’t be scared of any risk providing the money is big enough.’

Calvin looked sharply at her, his blue eves suddenly alert.

‘Risks? What kind of risks?’

‘Any kind of risk,’ she said and smiled. ‘For instance, if I were in your position as manager of a bank, I know I would be awfully tempted to steal all the money you must handle.’

He studied her, feeling a surge of excitement go through him.

‘You would be making a very serious mistake,’ he said. ‘To take money from a bank is easy enough if you are employed by the bank, but getting away with the money is another thing. That, let me tell you, is nearly impossible. What’s the good of stealing the money if you’re caught and can’t spend it?’

‘Yes… but if you happen to be clever and you think long enough about it, there must be some way that would be safe.’

He poured some of the brandy into the saucepan, then set fire to it. As the flames shot up, he turned off the gas.

‘We’re about ready,’ he said. ‘Will you serve the soup?’

It wasn’t until after nine o’clock when the old people and Alice were watching the television and while Kit was washing up that Calvin came into the kitchen again. He picked up a cloth and began to wipe the dishes.

‘You should have a washing-up machine,’ he said. ‘You need one here.’

‘There are lots of things I need,’ she returned without looking at him. ‘Most of all I need money.’

They worked in silence for several minutes, then she said, ‘That payroll… three hundred thousand dollars! What a sum of money to own!’

Plate in hand, tense, he stared at her.

‘What do you know about the payroll?’

‘Only what everyone else in Pittsville knows about it. It arrives every Thursday evening and is lodged in the bank, then it is taken to four factories on Friday morning and the lucky people get their money.’ She pulled the stopper out and let the water drain out of the sink. ‘Like a lot of people, every Thursday night, I dream of that money and imagine what my life would be like if it belonged to me.’

‘Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be locked up in a cell for fifteen years?’ Calvin asked quietly.

She took off her apron and hung it up.

‘Yes, I’ve even thought about that.’ She stretched, arching her breasts at him. She yawned. ‘I’m tired. Thank you for helping me. I’m off to bed… good night.’

He watched her leave, then he wandered into the empty lounge. He lit a cigarette, sat down and glanced through a magazine without seeing anything he was looking at. In the room down the passage came the sound of gunfire, then hard metallic voices. There was a gangster movie being shown on television; both Miss Pearson and Major Hardy were gangster movie addicts. He sat staring blankly at the magazine for twenty minutes or so, then getting to his feet, he went up the stairs and to his room.

No light showed under Kit’s door. He brushed his teeth, undressed and put on his pyjamas. Then he moved silently to the communicating door. He had no doubt that now the door would be unlocked.

He had thought she might be easy and his instinct had proved right. A woman didn’t surrender to a kiss as she had done unless she was ready to go the whole way.

With a heavily beating heart, his thick fingers closed around the door handle. He turned it gently and pushed. It came as a shock when the door didn’t yield. It was still locked.

He moved back, staring at the door. His blue eyes gleamed viciously, but only for a moment, then he shrugged and got into bed. He turned off the light.

He lay in the darkness, his mind busy.

So she wasn’t to be had all that easily, he said to himself. Well, never mind, all my life I have had to wait. What I don’t get today, I’ll get tomorrow.

If I were in your position as manager of the bank, I know I would be tempted to steal all the money you must handle, she had said. Had she been joking? If he could dream up a safe way to get that payroll, he would have to have help. Could he rely on her?

Impatiently, he turned on the light and groped for a cigarette.

This was something he must think about.

1

A few minutes before half past five the following evening, Calvin came out of his office and walked over to where Alice was sitting on her stool at the counter, checking her till.

‘Nearly through?’ he asked, his staring blue eyes examining her.

She smiled nervously at him.

‘I’m all through now, Mr. Calvin.’

‘Suppose we go down to the vault and you explain what it’s all about?’ he said. ‘I don’t want to look dumb when the money does arrive.’

‘Yes, of course.’

She unlocked a drawer under the counter and took out a key.

‘You have your key?’ she asked, getting off the stool.

‘I have it.’

He followed her down the steps and into the vault. It felt chilly down there. He looked around. Stacked from floor to ceiling on three sides of the room were black steel deed-boxes: each with a name painted on it in bold white lettering. The boxes contained the private papers, the wills, the house deeds of many of the bank’s customers. Facing him was the steel door of the safe.

‘This is a pretty old-fashioned set-up, isn’t it?’ he said, waving to the deed boxes. ‘We should have proper safes for each individual customer.’

‘There are no valuables in the boxes,’ Alice said. ‘It’s all paper. People like to keep their papers with us in case they have a fire at their homes.’

Calvin again looked at the deed-boxes. There must be, he thought, over two hundred of them. The sight of them gave him a vague idea which he filed away in his mind to think about later.

‘Tell me about the electronic eye device,’ he said. ‘Where is it?’

She pointed to a steel grill that looked like a ventilator set high up near the ceiling and facing the safe door.

‘It’s behind that grill’

Calvin moved back and looked thoughtfully at the small grill. It was set in a steel frame and cemented in. He could see it would take a lot of shifting and while anyone struggled to shift it the alarms would be sounded.

‘What’s to stop anyone cutting the electric leads?’ he asked. ‘This set-up seems pretty unsafe to me.’

‘The leads are cemented into the walls and floor,’ Alice told him. ‘There is a separate generator. It is in the safe.’ She unlocked one of the complicated locks. ‘Will you unlock the other please?’

He unlocked the other lock and then opened the safe door. The safe was the size of a large closet. On the floor stood a small but powerful generating plant.

‘The leads run under the floor and up the wall to the electronic eye,’ Alice explained. ‘The eye is so sensitive that if anyone tried to get at the leads to cut them the alarm would go off.’

‘Why isn’t the alarm sounding now?’ Calvin asked.

He saw her hesitate, then she said, ‘I’m sure it is all right to tell you, Mr. Calvin. After all, you are in charge here now. I was told not to tell anyone. It is so arranged that when we turn the lights off in the bank, the electronic eye comes into operation. So long as someone is in the bank with the lights on, the alarms can’t go off.’

Calvin ran his fingers through his sand-coloured hair.

‘Is that such a hot idea?’

‘The insurance people accepted it,’ she said. ‘You see, if the lights are on in the bank, they can be seen across the road by the Sheriff or by Mr. Travers. There is always someone there who can see any light on in the bank.’

‘What happens in the summer when you don’t have the lights on?’

‘We always keep a light on. It can be seen as the ceiling is so dark.’

Calvin shrugged.

‘Well, so long as the insurance people are satisfied.’

Leaving the safe door open, they went upstairs into the bank to await the arrival of the money.

After some minutes, they heard the sound of a car pulling up outside the bank.

‘That will be Sheriff Thomson,’ Alice said and went to the bank door and opened it.

Calvin joined her.

Although he had been in Pittsville now for some days, he had yet to meet the sheriff and he was curious. He watched a tall, bulky man, wearing a ten-gallon hat and a dark suit get out of the dusty Packard. Sheriff Thomson didn’t look his seventy-five years. He was still powerful, his sun-tanned face was lean and his eyes clear. He had a straggly moustache and his white hair was long. He looked like a character out of a Western movie.

He came up the path to the bank, followed by Travers.

Not over dangerous, Calvin was thinking. He’s an old man and probably not too quick mentally. The other is just a hick kid. These two needn’t worry me if I decide to have a shot at grabbing this money.

Alice introduced him and the sheriff shook hands. Travers stood half way up the path, his hand on his .45. He nodded to Calvin.

‘The truck won’t be long, Mr. Calvin,’ the sheriff said, suddenly aware of this big, fleshy-faced man confronting him: aware in a way that made him look searchingly at Calvin. He thought: I don’t know if I like this fellow. There’s something about him… that mouth… those staring eyes… could be a devil with women.

He said, ‘Any news of Mr. Lamb?’

‘Nothing very encouraging, I’m afraid,’ Calvin said and abruptly switched on his charm. He had become aware of the sheriff’s scrutiny. ‘Won’t you come in, Sheriff?’

The sheriff was startled by Calvin’s sudden transformation. When this man smiled, the sheriff, like Travers, wondered why he had been uneasy at the first sight of him. Now the frank, friendly smile quite won him.

‘I’ll hang around here,’ he said, then he looked at Alice. ‘Everything all right with you, Miss Craig?’

Alice blushed as she said, ‘Yes, thank you, Sheriff.’

They stood chatting while Travers kept watch on the passing traffic. Then out of the gathering dusk came the armoured truck, escorted by two out-riders.

Calvin was quick to see how alert everyone was. Although they had been doing this chore now every week for the past five years, there was nothing slack about the operation. While the drivers opened up the back of the truck, the out-riders and Travers kept watch, hands on guns. Two men, also armed, got out of the truck when the steel doors were opened. They came swiftly up the path, carrying two heavy wooden cases. They went past Calvin, behind the counter and down into the vault.

The sheriff closed the bank doors. Alice turned the key in the lock, then they and Calvin went down into the vault where the two men had set down the boxes on the floor of the safe, near the generator.

The taller of the two men bent over the generator. He pressed a button which started the generator humming.

‘All set,’ he said, and the two men moved out of the vault.

Alice and Calvin locked the vault door, watched by the sheriff. The whole operation hadn’t taken more than three minutes. The two men left and the truck drove away.

The sheriff regarded Calvin with a satisfied smirk.

‘Pretty smooth, huh?’ he said. ‘Doesn’t give any bad boys much chance to grab the money, does it? You can lock up now. So far as you’re concerned, Mr. Calvin, you can have a dreamless sleep tonight.’

But Calvin didn’t have a dreamless sleep. He scarcely slept at all. His mind was too occupied for sleep. He told himself he mustn’t even think about this thing until he had seen the whole operation. So far, providing the electronic eye really worked, he could see no weakness in the security measures. But this he was sure of: if the money vanished the Federal agents would know it had been an inside job. Suspicion would be immediately centred on Alice and himself. No one in their rights minds would believe a girl like Alice with her nervous personality would ever aspire to steal three hundred thousand dollars. The limelight of suspicion would fall directly on him. It wouldn’t take the Federal agents long to find out he was in debt and struggling to keep up his wife’s alimony payments. They would start on him and maybe, sooner or later, he would crack. Even if he didn’t, even if they couldn’t prove he had taken the money, he would never dare spend it. They would be watching him all the time, and as soon as he began to spend the money, they would pounce on him.

The fallowing morning, at nine o’clock, the armoured truck again appeared outside the bank. From it came four accountants from the out-lying factories to collect the money: with them were the four guards. Everything moved like clockwork. The four men were introduced to Calvin by the sheriff, then with Alice joining them, they all went down to the vault while the four guards stood outside the bank, alert and watchful. Calvin and Alice unlocked the door of the vault and two of the four accountants produced keys and unlocked the wooden cases.

The sight of all that money in small bills turned Calvin’s mouth dry. He stood to one side watching the four men as they counted the money, each taking the amount needed for their particular payroll, putting the money in their briefcases.

While they counted the money, the sheriff stood at the head of the stairs. The out-riders and the two guards with Travers guarded the entrance to the bank. Within fifteen minutes, the four accountants had collected their money and had gone.

During the day, Calvin continued to think about the money, but he always came back to the same impossible snag: if he took the money, he would immediately become suspect No. 1. He knew this to be fatal.

That evening, while Alice, Miss Pearson and the major had settled down to watch television, and after he had heard Flo leave, he went into the kitchen.

Kit was pressing a dress. She looked up and smiled at him.

‘Television isn’t interesting you?’ she asked, moving the dress on the ironing board.

‘Television seldom interests me,’ he said, leaning against the wall and watching her. ‘Am I in the way?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Tomorrow is Saturday,’ he said, his blue eyes intent. ‘What does one do in a place like this on Saturday?’

She shrugged as she moved the damp cloth into position.

‘Nothing very exciting… there are a couple of movies on at Downside if you can bother to drive that far.’

‘Would you come with me?’ he asked, watching her. ‘Being on one’s own isn’t much fun.’

She folded the cloth and put it away.

‘Thank you, but I can’t tomorrow.’ She looked directly at him, the irritating amused expression in her eyes. ‘Besides, it wouldn’t be a good thing for the local bank manager to be seen with me in Downside. People have the habit of gossiping here.’

He scowled.

‘Yeah… I hadn’t thought of that. Well, I guess I’ll be able to kill time somehow. Is there a golf course handy?’

‘There’s quite a good one at Downside. At least, Major Hardy says it is good… I wouldn’t know.’

‘Maybe I’ll take a look at it.’

She held up the dress, examined it critically, then folding it, she moved towards the door. As she passed him, he put his hand gently on her arm.

‘You said the other night, you could be tempted. I have an idea that might tempt you.’

She disengaged her arm, her brown eyes suddenly alert.

‘What idea?’

He hesitated, wondering if he could trust her. ‘Just how badly do you want money?’ he asked, staring at her.

‘I want it,’ she said. ‘Why do you ask?’

Again he hesitated, then urged on because he was sure he couldn’t do this thing alone, he said, ‘I’m talking about the payroll. Didn’t you say if you were in my place you would be tempted to steal it?’

She stared at him for a long moment, her face suddenly expressionless, then she said quietly, ‘Did I? You mustn’t believe everything I say.’

‘Why not? You say something… you must mean what you say.’

‘Not necessarily.’ She moved away, putting the ironing board back into a closet. ‘I must get on. I have a lot to do before I go to bed.’

She was moving to the door when he said, ‘Let’s talk about it tonight. Will you come to my room?’

She paused in the doorway and looked searchingly at him. For a long moment she seemed to hesitate, then she nodded.

‘Yes… all right.’

She went out of the kitchen. He waited a few moments, then he went to his room. He sat down, loosened his tie, lit a cigarette and began to think.

He was still thinking when he heard Kit come upstairs and enter her room. There was a long pause while he waited expectantly. The lock of the communicating door clicked back and the door swung open.

She came into the room, closing the door behind her. Calvin sat motionless, watching her as she walked to an armchair and lowered herself into it.

‘Well?’ she asked, looking at him. ‘What is it?’

‘You say you want money,’ Calvin said. ‘Will you tell me why?’

‘That’s not difficult. I want it to get out of this dreary town. I want it so I don’t have to slave for the rest of my days. I want it so my daughter can live a decent life instead of working in the box office of a third-rate movie house. I want it so I can take her away before she is stupid enough to marry a small-time deputy sheriff with no future and no hopes of making any money. I want it to give her the opportunity to have the right clothes and right background to hook a rich husband.’

‘Why shouldn’t your daughter marry a deputy sheriff?’ Calvin asked.

‘If she does, she’ll have to remain in this narrow-minded, gossip-ridden town for the rest of her days. She’ll have to scrape for money as I have done when I was fool enough to marry a man who lived here. I know what it means. I’m going to take her away if it is the last thing I do.’

‘Maybe she doesn’t want to leave here. Maybe she even wants to marry this guy. Maybe she’s even in love with him.’

Kit made an impatient movement with her hands.

‘She’s too young to know her own mind. Once I can get her away from here, show her how the world really lives, she won’t want to marry that small-time boy.’

‘Just how far would you go to get your hands on big money?’ Calvin asked.

‘You mean the payroll?’

Calvin nodded.

‘I told you… I would take any risk,’ Kit said. ‘If you think I can help you and if my share is big enough, you can rely on me.’

Calvin drew in a long slow breath.

‘We’ll have to trust each other,’ he said.

She smiled.

‘You are frightened of me?’

‘Why shouldn’t I be?’ He leaned forward, his blue eyes gleaming. ‘I don’t know you. You could call the sheriff and tell him I’m planning to steal the payroll. Then where would I be?’

She laughed.

‘Where would I be too? I’d never do such a thing. I’ve been waiting and waiting and hoping and praying that someone like you would come into my life… a man who isn’t scared to take risks.’

Looking at her, he was suddenly convinced that he could trust her.

‘Okay, so you have yourself a partner,’ he said. ‘With your help, we could lay our hands on this money… three hundred thousand dollars!’

‘But how?’

‘I don’t know — yet. It’ll be tricky. I’ll be the first one they’ll suspect.’

‘So you haven’t even an idea, let alone a plan?’

‘Not yet, but I now have a partner and that’s important. If we are going to do this thing we mustn’t rush it. When we do it, it must be foolproof.’

‘I’m ready to take risks.’

‘You think about it,’ Calvin said. ‘I’ll think too. It’s got to be foolproof.’

He got to his feet and crossed to the closet. He took from it a bottle of whisky. ‘Let’s drink to it.’

She looked first at him, then at the bottle he held in his hand. Her expression puzzled him.

‘I don’t drink,’ she said curtly. ‘I never drink.’

She moved past him towards the communicating door. He put down the bottle and caught hold of her arm. For a moment they looked searchingly at each other, then she jerked free.

‘I give nothing for nothing,’ she said. ‘Don’t complicate things.’

She went into her room, shut and locked the door.

Calvin shrugged. He poured a stiff shot of whisky into a glass.

‘I’ll wait,’ he said half aloud. ‘What I don’t get today, I’ll get tomorrow. She’s worth waiting for.’

For the first time in years he slept dreamlessly and in the dark. He now felt secure, knowing he was no longer alone.

2

On Saturday afternoon, Calvin drove out to the Downside Golf Course.

He played perfect golf because his mind was fully occupied with the problem of stealing the payroll. He didn’t think about golf. He approached the ball and hit it without bothering if it hooked, sliced or flew straight. It had flown straight. He putted in the same frame of mind. The ball would either drop or miss by yards: it dropped.

His afternoon wasn’t wasted. He now had an idea. This was something he wanted urgently to discuss with Kit. It irritated him when he drove into the garage to find her estate wagon wasn’t there. He went up to his room, stripped off, took a shower, then putting on a shirt and slacks, he pulled his armchair up to the window and sat down to consider this idea of his. A little after six o’clock, he heard the television start up. Then at half past six, he saw the estate wagon drive into the garage.

There would be the inevitable dinner to prepare. He would have no chance to talk to Kit for at least another three hours. He went downstairs.

He met Kit as she came hurrying in. They paused and looked at each other.

‘Did you get any golf?’ she asked.

‘I played a round… not a bad course.’ He stared fixedly at her. ‘I have an idea. Let’s talk about it tonight.’

She nodded.

‘About ten?’

Again she nodded.

He went down the stairs and into the lounge. Alice was sewing on a button on a blouse. The two old people were in the other room, watching television.

Calvin dropped into a lounging chair. He switched on his charm as Alice looked up. She flushed and looked quickly away from him.

‘Gee! I’m tired,’ he said. ‘I’ve been playing golf all afternoon. What have you been doing?’

She looked confused as she said, ‘Nothing… really… sewing…’

‘Don’t you find it dull living here?’ he asked, staring at her. Suddenly this thin pale spinsterish girl had become very important to his financial future.

‘No… I don’t find it dull at all,’ she said. ‘I like it here.’

‘Do you ever go out dancing?’

Blood stained her face.

‘No… I don’t care for dancing.’

His expression was kindly as he shook his head.

‘But you should. You’re young. Don’t tell me you haven’t a boy-friend.’

Her flush deepened painfully.

‘No… I haven’t.’

There was a pause then he said, ‘By the way, I meant to ask you about Mrs. Reeder’s account. Couldn’t we suggest she invests in something a bit more exciting than gilt edged?’ Now he had learned what he wanted to know, he deliberately changed the subject. Alice immediately lost her shyness. For the next half hour, they discussed Mrs. Reeder’s investments, then they were interrupted by Miss Pearson and Major Hardy who had seen the six o’clock serial and were now anxious to be entertained by the younger people.

After dinner Alice and the old people watched television and Calvin, excusing himself, saying he had letters to write, went upstairs.

He stretched out on his bed, lit a cigarette and gave his mind again to the idea that had suddenly come to him on the golf course. The more he considered it, the more convinced he became that it would work.

Finally, a little after ten o’clock, he heard the lock click back, then the communicating door opened. Kit came in and went to one of the lounging chairs and sat down.

‘Well? What is this idea of yours?’ she asked, looking at him as he lay inert on the bed, staring fixedly up at the ceiling.

‘Maybe it’ll surprise you to learn that Alice is planning with her boy-friend to steal the Pittsville payroll,’ Calvin said. ‘What do you think of that as an idea?’

Kit frowned.

‘I don’t follow you. What do you mean?’

‘You heard what I said. If the payroll vanishes, the Federal agents will know it is an inside job. Either Alice or myself will be suspected. Well, Alice is the one who is going to get stuck with it.’

Kit moved impatiently.

‘No one would believe she would do such a thing.’

‘That’s right, but they would believe it if she had been persuaded by her boy-friend to let him have the keys and if he persuaded her to tell him about the electronic eye… they would believe that.’

‘But she hasn’t a boy-friend. She isn’t the type ever to have a boy-friend. What are you talking about?’

‘She’s going to have one,’ Calvin said and grinned, ‘and he’s going to be quite a boy. He’s going to grab that three hundred thousand dollar payroll and vanish into thin air.’

She sat tense, watching him. ‘Explain…’ she said sharply.

‘The more I think about it, the more certain I am that Alice is made for this job,’ Calvin said. ‘Don’t forget she had both keys to the vault when Lamb had his stroke. She would have had plenty of time to make an impression of my key before I arrived. It is easy enough to do with a piece of soap. She gives the impression to her boy-friend who makes a duplicate key. She also tells him about this electronic eye arrangement. The trick of this hicky is it doesn’t come into operation until all the lights are out in the bank. All the boy-friend has to do is to remove all the light bulbs except the one in the vault and then turn on the light. The vault light can’t be seen from the street and when it is on, the alarm system can’t operate.’

‘But Alice hasn’t a boy-friend and she isn’t likely ever to have one,’ Kit said impatiently.

‘Before I’ve done with her, she’s going to have a boy-friend, and the two of them will lift the payroll.’

‘But how are you going to get her a boy-friend?’ Kit demanded. ‘She…’

‘It’s a trick,’ Calvin said and got off the bed. He went over to the closet and took out the bottle of whisky. ‘Sure you won’t have one?’ he asked, waving the bottle towards her.

‘I told you… I don’t drink!’ she snapped. ‘What do you mean… a trick?’

Calvin poured himself a drink, then sat on the edge of the bed.

‘Alice won’t know she has a boy-friend, but she’ll have one just the same. In actual fact, he won’t exist, but when the money vanishes, the police will be convinced it is her boy-friend who has taken it.’

Kit’s brown eyes were suddenly alert with interest. ‘How is it done?’

‘We have only to convince two people: Major Hardy and Miss Pearson. The police will question them and they’ll tell them about the boy-friend. Naturally, you and I will also have seen him, but we’ll know he doesn’t exist whereas the old couple have got to believe he does.’

‘They may be old, but they’re no fools.’

‘I know… I know. I’m not saying this is going to be easy, but if we handle it right, it’ll work.’

‘I still can’t see how it is done.’

‘We have time,’ Calvin said. He drank some of the whisky, set down the glass and lit a cigarette. ‘That’s the beauty of this thing… we have all the time in the world. So long as Lamb is out of action, I’m in charge of the bank. He’s going to be out of action for months, so that gives us time. We first have to create the boy-friend. You must drop a hint to Miss Pearson that you think Alice has found a beau. Say you’ve seen her out with him. Miss Pearson will tell the major. They have nothing else to do but to gossip. You must persuade Miss Pearson not to speak to Alice about her beau. Tell her it’ll embarrass her. They both like her and it shouldn’t be hard to make them keep quiet.’

Kit made a movement of exasperation.

‘But she never goes out in the evening. She sits glued to the television. How could they believe she has a boy-friend if she never goes out to meet him?’

‘I’ve thought of that one,’ Calvin said. ‘You’d be surprised how much thinking I have been doing. In a few days, Alice is going to give up watching television. She’s going to work for a bank examination. She’s going to be in her room five nights a week. But every now and then when the old couple are watching television, Alice will sneak downstairs and go out to meet her boy-friend.’

‘How will that be done?’

‘We all leave our coats in the lobby. When Alice is upstairs working for her examination, you will remove her hat and coat and put them out of sight. You’ll tell the old couple Alice has gone out. The proof will be her hat and coat are missing. Later, you’ll put them back. The old couple will be under the impression Alice has returned. It’s as simple as that.’

Kit sat motionless for several moments, thinking, then she nodded.

‘Yes, of course, it could work. It’s a trick, but it could work. Major Hardy and Miss Pearson will only know about her boy-friend because I have told them about him… is that enough?’

‘No. They’ll have to see him. That can be arranged. I’m giving you the bare outline of my idea. Later, we’ll have to work out the details. But I’m sure we’ll be able to produce a convincing boy-friend.’

Kit reached out and took a cigarette from the pack lying on the table. She lit the cigarette, flicked the match into the ash-tray, then drew in a lungful of smoke. She stared at the wall behind Calvin’s head, her face set in concentration.

Calvin watched her, guessing what was going on in her mind.

‘Am I being stupid about this?’ she asked abruptly. ‘I can see we can produce a convincing boy-friend who doesn’t exist. I can see he might be able to persuade Alice to help him take the payroll. I can see the police might believe this possible. But what happens to Alice? If we are planning to put the blame on her, how do we persuade her to run away? How long do you imagine it’ll be before they catch her? Once they start questioning her they’ll find out fast enough she had nothing to do with the robbery and there never was a boy-friend.’

Calvin flicked ash off his cigarette. His eyes became remote.

‘They won’t ever catch her,’ he said. ‘That’s the trick in this. They may find her but they won’t catch her.’

Kit lifted her hair off her shoulders with an impatient movement.

‘Will you stop talking in riddles? If they find her, they’ll catch her, won’t they?’

‘Not necessarily.’ He didn’t look at her. ‘They’ll find her all right, but she won’t be in a position — shall we say — to talk.’

There was a sudden tense pause. Calvin continued to stare down at the carpet, humming tunelessly under his breath. Kit became rigid, her fists gripped between her knees, her face suddenly without colour.

‘It depends on how much you really want the money,’ Calvin said at last. ‘I really want it. I’ve made up my mind to have it. Nothing and nobody is going to stop me having it.’

She remained motionless. He could hear her quick, heavy breathing and he wondered if he had misjudged her. If she hasn’t the nerve, he thought uneasily, to go ahead with this thing, then I’m in trouble. I could have two murders on my hands… Alice and she. I’m not giving up this idea just because she hasn’t the nerve to help me. I’ll have to find someone else, but first, I’ll have to silence her.

‘I think I’d like a drink,’ Kit said in a hoarse, harsh voice.

He splashed whisky into his empty glass and held it out to her. He saw her hand was unsteady as she took the glass from him. She drank the whisky in one quick gulp, shuddered and sat back, holding the empty glass so tightly her knuckles turned white.

‘There must be some other way,’ she said.

‘Okay, if you think so,’ Calvin said, watching her, ‘then you tell me. Once the money has gone, they’ll know it’s an inside job. So it has either to be me or Alice. Now you take it from there.’

‘There must be some other way.’ Two faint red spots showed on her cheeks. She looked at the whisky bottle standing on the night table. Calvin got up, lifted the bottle and poured a stiff shot of liquor into her glass.

‘You won’t have anything to do with it. It’s my job to fix Alice,’ he said.

He watched her as she again drained the glass.

‘You’d better go slow on that,’ he said sharply. ‘You don’t want to get drunk.’

‘I won’t get drunk.’

He put down the bottle, then sat on the bed.

‘I’ve thought about this,’ he said. ‘There’s no other foolproof way. You have to make up your mind whether Alice is more important than three hundred thousand dollars. It’s as simple as that. I’m no stranger to murder. I murdered a number of people during the war… not only soldiers, but civilians who got in my way. I have waited years for the chance of getting my hands on big money without a risk to myself. It was you who started my thinking.’ He paused, then went on, a sudden edge to his voice, ‘It might not be all that safe for you to back out now. You can see that, can’t you?’

She got to her feet and walked over to where he had put the bottle of whisky. She poured a stiff drink into her glass.

‘Are you threatening me?’ she asked.

‘You can call it what you like. You’re in this thing now with me. Give me an idea that will keep both Alice and me in the clear and I’ll listen. But make up your mind to this fact: I’ve told you too much for you to back out now. I’m reasonable. Give me an idea that takes care of your scruples and keeps me in the clear and we’ll do it your way.’

‘I’ll think about it,’ she said in a flat voice and moved towards the door.

‘Tomorrow I’m going to persuade Alice to take the bank examination,’ Galvin said. ‘We have time, but there is no need to waste it.’

Without looking at him, Kit went into her bedroom, carrying the glass of whisky. Calvin heard the key turn.

He sat there on the bed for a long time, smoking and humming tunelessly under his breath. Then suddenly, he got to his feet and began to undress.

Putting on his pyjamas and his dressing-gown, he went along to the bathroom and washed. Then he returned to his room and picked up a cigarette. He held it unlighted between his thick fingers as he looked towards the communicating door. He stared at the door for several seconds, then he put the cigarette down. Moving silently, he went to the door and gently turned the handle. The door yielded. He pushed it wide open. The bedside lamp was alight. Kit was in bed.

They looked at each other, then he moved into the room, closing the door behind him.

He felt a surge of satisfied triumph run through him. This was her way of telling him she would go ahead with him in this plan of his.

When he reached the bed, she turned off the light.

1

‘The thing we have to make up our minds about,’ Calvin said, ‘is what we are going to do with the money when we get it.’

Kit and he were alone in the kitchen. The house was empty except for them. The old people and Alice had gone to church. Flo didn’t come in on Sundays. Kit was preparing the lunch. Calvin sat on the kitchen stool, away from her, a cigarette between his lips.

‘That won’t be difficult for me,’ Kit said. ‘I know what I’m going to do with my share.’

‘The take is three hundred thousand dollars. We split it down the middle… a hundred and fifty each.’

‘Yes… I’ve always dreamed of owning such a sum.’

‘You may have dreamed about it,’ he said, flicking ash off his cigarette, ‘but I don’t think you have thought about it.’

There was a note in his voice that made her look sharply at him.

‘What do you mean?’

‘When we get the money, the real trouble begins,’ he returned. ‘We shall have all this money in cash: there’s a lot of it. You realise you can’t stash it away in a bank? Even a safe deposit can be dangerous. The Federal agents can search safe deposits. You’ll have to be very careful how you spend it… no splashing it around. If you do, the Federal agents will investigate you.’

She made an impatient movement as she said, ‘I intend to sell this house and leave here. With the money I get from the house, I’ll be able to drop out of sight. Then I can spend what I like.’

‘That’s where you are wrong. It is a difficult thing to drop out of sight. But that’s neither here nor there,’ Calvin said. ‘If you leave, then I can’t. It would look very odd, wouldn’t it, if we both suddenly left town?’

‘I don’t see why. We don’t have to leave together. You could leave a few months later: what’s wrong with that?’

‘You are not being very bright this morning,’ Calvin said. ‘I am the manager of the bank. I have no other means of earning a living. I couldn’t suddenly resign and leave town. The Federal agents would want to know what I was going to do: how I was going to earn a living. They would be interested especially as there has been a big robbery at my branch. Do you see that?’

‘That is for you to work out,’ Kit said. ‘I know what I’m going to do.’

‘If you are stupid enough to believe you would be safe to splash your money around you’ll find yourself in trouble. In every town there is a Federal agent who keeps track of newcomers. He’ll wonder where your money is coming from. He’ll make inquiries and he’ll find out you are from Pittsville, the town that has had a payroll robbery. He’ll start checking and then you’ll be in trouble… so will I.’

‘I can take care of myself,’ she said. ‘I’m not scared. All I want is the money.’

‘If the money is no good to you when you have it, there is no point in taking it,’ he said mildly.

‘Just what are you driving at?’ she demanded, facing him, her brown eyes angry. ‘What is it?’

‘There is only one safe way for us once we have the money. I stress the word us because there isn’t much point in it being safe for you and not for me since neither of us can take the money without the other. It isn’t unnatural that you should think only of yourself: nor for me to think only of myself, but since neither of us can do without the other, we must think of this thing as a combined operation.’

She walked over to the kitchen table and sat on it, swinging her long legs, her arms folded tightly across her breasts.

‘Can’t you say what you want to say? Must you go round and round the point. What is it?’

‘You and I are going to get married,’ Calvin said and smiled his charming smile. ‘That is the only safe solution.’

She stiffened. Her eyes showed her startled, shocked surprise.

‘Oh no! I’m not marrying you! I’ve had one husband… that was plenty!’

‘I feel exactly the same as you do, but it is the only safe way. It needn’t be permanent. Just long enough to be convenient.’

She studied him, then because she had already learned to respect his shrewdness, she said more quietly, ‘I don’t want to marry you, but I’ll listen. Why do you say it is safer?’

‘It would be the most natural thing in the world for me, staying in your rooming-house, to fall in love with you and want you to be my wife,’ Calvin said. ‘We have to be sure that every move we make is a natural one. Every move we make could come under scrutiny. It would also be natural, after we were married, for you to sell this house, and for me to resign from the bank. We would say there is no future in Pittsville for either of us, which is true. We are using your capital and my small savings to go south where we hope to find a more profitable rooming-house and run it together. That story would be accepted and both of us could leave here without arousing any suspicions.’

‘All right,’ she said, shrugging, ‘but are you suggesting we should buy another rooming-house? I’m not risking so much to get this money to be landed with another rooming-house… get that quite clear.’

Calvin shook his head.

‘You and I will have our honeymoon in Las Vegas. It is an exciting place: a honeymoon place. I happen to have a good friend there who runs a gambling joint. I haven’t seen him for years, but I know I can rely on him because he owes me plenty… I saved his life in the Pacific fighting. I will use some of our capital to gamble with and I’ll win. My pal will see to that. In fact I’ll win quite a lump of money. We will suddenly find ourselves with more money than we had originally and we will change our ideas about buying a rooming-house: instead, we’ll buy a much more ambitious proposition: a motel in Florida. I also happen to know someone who has a motel to sell. We’ll buy it. It isn’t much of a place, but with us working at it, it’ll suddenly begin to make money. If there is one thing I can do it is to fake a set of books. We will pay, little by little, money from the payroll into a bank, showing it is profit from the motel. In three or four years, we’ll have enough in the bank to let us start speculating on the market. Then once we are in this position, we are safe. You and I can part and have our money without any danger to either of us.’

‘Did you say three or four years?’ Kit demanded, her voice going shrill.

‘That’s what I said.’

‘If you imagine I’m going to wait three or four years before I spend that money…’

‘If you can’t wait that long,’ Calvin cut in, ‘then we had better not do the job. This is a three hundred thousand dollar take. It’ll put us on easy street for the rest of our lives. If we make one false move we’ll both land in the gas chamber. Think about it.’

He got to his feet and left her, going up to his room, humming tunelessly, satisfied in his mind that she would do what he wanted.

Their love-making the previous night had been disappointing. He had expected a fierce, wild passion, but she had given herself to him the way a prostitute gives herself. He had the disturbing feeling that it was only because of the whisky she had drunk that she had given herself at all. He had been glad to get away from her and return to his room. It had been the most frustrating sex experience he had ever had.

It was after lunch when the old people were taking a nap and Kit was clearing up in the kitchen that Calvin had the opportunity of getting Alice to himself. She was in the lounge looking through the Sunday newspaper when he wandered in and sat down.

He said very casually, ‘I’ve been thinking about you, Alice. Would you mind if I talked to you about your career for a moment?’

She went red and then white and shook her head, dropping the newspaper and staring at him like a startled rabbit.

‘I’ve been very impressed by your work,’ Calvin said, his voice matter-of-fact. ‘You’re wasted in Pittsville.’ He switched on his charm. ‘You should be more ambitious.’

Hanging on his words, Alice continued to stare at him.

‘I — I don’t understand, Mr. Calvin,’ she said.

‘A girl like you should be working at head office. They’re always on the look-out for keen, energetic workers. Would you like me to put your name forward?’

Her eyes widened behind the shiny lenses of her glasses.

‘But they wouldn’t consider me,’ she said breathlessly.

‘Of course they would.’ He paused, his trap set, then he went on, ‘But you would first have to take the advance bank examination. It isn’t difficult. You’d have to take a correspondence course. It wouldn’t cost you anything. Head Office fixes all that.’ His smile widened. ‘You’d have to work in the evenings for two or three months. That wouldn’t worry you, would it?’

She was pathetically eager as she said, ‘Oh no, of course not.’

‘Okay, then leave it to me.’ He waved his big hands. ‘You’ll have to give up watching television, but that won’t be a hardship, will it?’

She shook her head.

‘It would be wonderful to go to San Francisco.’

‘Fine, then tomorrow, I’ll fix it for you.’ Smiling, he got to his feet and wandered out of the room. It seemed almost too easy, he thought as he began to mount the stairs. Now the next move was to get Kit to tell Miss Pearson that Alice not only was going to sit for a bank examination but she had found a boy-friend.

He was humming to himself as he reached the head of the stairs when he became aware of a girl looking at him and waiting to pass. He paused, staring at her, his blue eyes suddenly alert.

The girl was fair, young and pretty. She was wearing a white sweat-shirt and white shorts. She carried a tennis racket. In that get-up, Calvin was quick to see how well made she was and his eyes ran over her young body with quick appreciation.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, switching on all his charm. ‘I didn’t see you… you must be Miss Loring.’

‘Yes, that’s right. You must be Mr. Calvin. Kit said you were staying here.’ She smiled and he saw at once he had impressed her. He reached the head of the stairs and stood aside.

‘Getting some exercise?’ he said as she began to move past him.

‘Yes… I don’t get much chance… Sunday is really my only time for a game.’

‘You’re working nights, I understand. That’s why we haven’t met.’ He was loath to let her go. There was something exciting in her young freshness that appealed to him.

‘That’s right,’ she said, waved her racket and went on down the stairs.

He turned to watch her, his eyes roving over her neat young figure. When she went out of the house, closing the front door behind her, he felt suddenly bored and lonely. He had thought of a round of golf. Now he couldn’t be bothered. He went into his room, sat down and stared out of the window.

It might have made him happier if he could have known what was going on in Iris Loring’s mind as she got into the estate wagon and started the engine.

She was thinking: Hmm… he’s quite a man. He’s like a movie star. That stare he has. I felt he was looking right through my clothes, but not in a horrid way either. It was rather exciting. She giggled. He is a man who knows his own mind… that smile… Hmm… yes… quite a man!

She found Ken Travers waiting for her at the Country Club. They played two strenuous sets of tennis, then went and sat under a tree where they could talk.

‘Ken… I’m worried,’ Iris said abruptly. ‘It may not be anything, but I have a suspicion that Kit is drinking again.’

‘Oh, hell!’ Travers showed his shocked distress. ‘What makes you think that?’

‘When she was really bad… it must be over two years now, she always had a glassy, set expression in her eyes. I could always tell by that if she had been drinking. This morning when she came into my room, there was that same expression.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I don’t know. I can’t bear to think of it starting again after what she has gone through. I don’t think I can face having that all over again.’

‘But you just can’t do nothing,’ Travers said, his voice sharpening. ‘She’s done a hell of a lot for you. I admit I have no cause to like your mother. She doesn’t like me and she’s stopped us marrying, but at least, I have to admire her for what she has done for you. You can’t let her down now if she needs help. Why not ask her outright?’

‘She would never admit it. I think maybe I’ll talk to Dr. Sterling. He knows what she’s been through. I know nothing I say will do any good. Besides, I may be wrong. I’ve had it on my mind all the morning. I just had to share it with you.’

He put his hand on hers.

‘Well, watch her. If you think… well, Dr. Sterling is a good friend of hers. Maybe you should speak to him.’

‘I’ll see how she is tonight. Let’s get some tea. I could be wrong.’ She stood up. ‘I hope I am. The thought of that awful business starting again…’

They walked in silence to the tea pavilion. Then when they had got tea from the bar, they stood in the sunshine, sipping the tea and watching a foursome battling it out on the court nearby.

Travers said abruptly, ‘Have you met Calvin yet?’

Iris nodded.

‘I ran into him as I was coming out. Quite a man!’

Travers looked sharply at her.

‘Yeah… I don’t quite know what to make of him. There’s something I don’t like about him… I don’t know what it is.’

Iris laughed.

‘I know… he’s the type every man is jealous of. He reminds me a little of Cary Grant. He could be a movie star.’

‘You think so?’ Travers grinned uneasily. ‘He’s not all that good looking. The sheriff doesn’t know what to make of him either. He says he could be rotten with women.’

‘There you are! Pure envy! I bet he’s thrown poor Alice into a terrible tizz. .Imagine being locked up in the bank alone with that he-man for twelve hours a day!’

‘Just so long as you don’t get into a tizz,’ Travers said quietly.

Iris looked at him: her eyes sparkled.

‘Is that worrying you?’

‘I can’t say it does. You don’t get much chance of meeting the guy, do you?’ Travers took her empty cup. ‘Feel like another game?’

‘Yes… all right. And Ken… even if I did have the chance, I’d still prefer you.’

He gave her a delighted grin, then linking his arm through hers, went with her towards a vacant court.

2

By the end of the week, Alice had begun her correspondence course and a hint had been dropped by Kit to the old couple that she had seen Alice with a handsome young man. The old people were delighted, agreeing with Kit to say nothing that might embarrass Alice.

During the week, Iris, still unsure of her suspicions about her mother, had kept a dose watch but had seen nothing further to confirm her first impression that Kit was drinking again.

It was soon after Iris’s seventeenth birthday, a few months after her father had been killed, that she had discovered her mother had become an alcoholic. She had returned from college one hot summer evening to find Kit sitting motionless, her face ashen, her eyes glazed, an empty whisky bottle on the table. This had been an experience that Iris was never to forget. Kit had been unable to speak: unable to move. Terrified, Iris had telephoned for Dr. Sterling who had attended the Loring family ever since they had set up home in Pittsville. He had helped Iris get her mother to bed, then he had taken the frightened girl downstairs and had talked to her.

She would always remember Dr. Sterling’s quiet, kind talk in which he had persuaded her that her mother should go into a sanatorium. Kit had remained there for two months.

Iris got a job as cashier at a movie house at Downside. When Kit was cured, she bought the rooming-house with the money her husband had left her. For months Iris watched her mother. Kit seemed cured, but now just when Iris was beginning to relax, her suspicions were again alerted. She continued to watch, but so far, after the first alarm, she hadn’t further proof that Kit was backsliding.

One evening, a week after the first hint had been dropped about Alice’s boy-friend, Kit came into Calvin’s room. She received a shock.

Looking at himself in the mirror was a tall, heavily-built man wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a fawn belted overcoat. He had black sideboards and a black moustache. The sight of this stranger made Kit’s heart skip a beat and she paused in the doorway, asking, ‘What are you doing here?’

The man turned and grinned at her and she recognised Calvin.

‘This is Johnny Acres — Alice’s boy-friend,’ he said. ‘Not bad?’ He took off the halt and tossed it on the bed, then he stripped off the crepe sideboards and the moustache.

As she watched him take off the overcoat and hang it up, he said, ‘In the half light no one would recognise me. Now the problem is how the major and Miss Pearson can get a glimpse of Mr. Acres.’

A little unsteadily, Kit went to the armchair and sat in it.

‘Mr. Acres must have a car,’ Calvin said. He opened the closet and took out the bottle of whisky. ‘Hello! There’s not much here.’ He looked sharply at her. ‘Have you been drinking my Scotch?’

‘Is that all that of a crime?’ she asked sullenly.

‘Can’t you buy your own whisky?’ he said irritably. He poured himself the last of the whisky and dropped the empty bottle into the trash basket. She watched him furtively. ‘As I was saying, Acres has to have a car. This is where we have to spend to gain. I have three hundred dollars. I’ll need at least another three hundred. Have you got it?’

She hesitated, then nodded.

‘I can get it.’

‘Then tomorrow evening we’ll go to Downside. We’ll go to a movie. There’ll be no secret about it. It’s time the old people knew there is more than one romance in the house. Have you told your daughter yet?’

Kit’s face stiffened.

‘No.’

‘Well, you’d better.’

She didn’t say anything.

‘While you’re at the movie, I’ll go along, dressed as Johnny Acres, and buy a second-hand car. I’ll park it behind the bank until we want it.’

She said tonelessly, ‘You’re sure all this is going to be safe?’

His fleshy face hardened.’

‘I’ve waited a long time for this chance: every move I am making is going to be safe.’

A few days later, Major Hardy was the first of the old couple set eyes on Alice’s boy-friend. It was just after eleven o’clock and the major was finishing a crossword puzzle before going to bed. Miss Pearson had already gone upstairs and so had Kit. The major was on his own. He knew Alice had gone out because her hat and coat weren’t in the lobby. In actual fact, Alice was in bed, reading The Manual of Banking and making notes as she read, but the major wasn’t to know this. He wasn’t to know that Kit, wearing Alice’s hat and coat, had sneaked out the back way and had joined Calvin, dressed as Johnny Acres, who was waiting for her down the road in. a newly-bought, second-hand Lincoln.

The major heard a car come up the short drive, went to the window and peered out into the darkness. He saw whom he thought to be Alice getting out of the car. He then saw a heavily-built man, wearing a fawn-coloured overcoat join her. All this he could see clearly as the couple moved into the light from the car’s headlights. They kissed fondly and the major nodded approvingly. Then he watched the woman he thought was Alice run up the steps and he heard her open the front door as the man got back into the car and drove away.

Rather than embarrass her, the major remained where he was. After he heard the women he imagined to be Alice reach the head of the stairs, he turned off the lights and went upstairs himself.

The following morning, he told Kit and Miss Pearson what he had seen when Alice and Calvin had gone off together to the bank.

‘They’ll make a good-looking couple,’ the major said.

Reporting this to Calvin when they were alone together, Kit said, ‘He has no suspicions at all. I was scared, but you were right.’

‘We’ll do it once again,’ Calvin said. ‘Next time the old girl must see us. Then we don’t have to worry our heads. They’ll make convincing witnesses.’

Three nights later, it so happened there was nothing on television to interest either Miss Pearson or the major. They elected to play gin rummy together.

Calvin and Kit went through the same performance as they had staged for the major’s benefit, and they were aware as they kissed in the beam of the car’s headlights that both the major and Miss Pearson were peeping at them from behind the curtains of the window.

‘We are nearly home,’ Calvin said later. He was lying flat on his bed, a cigarette between his lips, his blue eyes staring fixedly up at the ceiling. Kit sat in the armchair, watching him. ‘We now have two witnesses that Johnny Acres exists. Next month the payroll is delivered on the last day of the month. Alice and I will be working late on that day. We have to get out the monthly statements.’ He lifted his head and looked at Kit, ‘This is the day we’ll do the job. Are you still sure you want to go through with it?’

‘And Alice?’ Kit said, staring at him.

‘Don’t think of her,’ Calvin said. ‘I’ll take care of her. I’m asking you: do you still want to go through with it?’

‘You’ll take care of her? It really means nothing more to you than that?’

Calvin’s thin lips parted in a sneering smile.

‘At least I’m honest,’ he said. ‘I’m sacrificing Alice for three hundred thousand dollars. She means no more to me than a rabbit that has to be killed. You, you’re trying to make something out of this. You want to dramatise the situation. Do you or don’t you want the money?’

Kit shuddered. Her eyes were glassy and there were sweat beads on her face.

‘You are a devil,’ she said. ‘Yes, I want the money, but I’ll never stop thinking of that girl. All right, don’t sneer at me. I couldn’t do it, but if you will, then I’ll take advantage of what it brings.’

Calvin laughed.

‘Well, that’s honest. All right, so at the end of the month, we’ll do it. Between now and then, we’ll make the happy announcement that we are engaged.’ He raised his head and looked at her. ‘Have you told your daughter yet?’

She looked away.

‘Not yet.’

‘Tell her tonight! She has to be the first to know.’

‘I’ll tell her.’

‘Let’s go through the whole plan now,’ he said. ‘If you think I’ve made a mistake anywhere, tell me.’ He let smoke drift down his nostrils while he collected his thoughts. ‘Thursday three weeks ahead falls on the last day of the month. Instead of Alice and I leaving and locking up after the payroll has been delivered, we have the legitimate excuse to stay on because we’ll have to work late getting out the monthly statements. As we will be in the bank while the money is there the sheriff or Travers will keep watch on the bank. They will know that as long as we have the lights on, the safe isn’t protected by the electronic eye. That won’t worry them because they know if anyone tries to break in to grab the money, I have an alarm button under my desk that I can set off, and besides, you can bet, they’ll be on the watch. There is a back entrance to the bank that is never used. It leads out onto a small parking lot where I have parked the Lincoln. The door to the back entrance is locked and bolted. When Alice is busy, I will unlock and unbolt the door. She has a key as well as I so when the investigation begins, it will be assumed that she unlocked the door to let Acres in.’ He paused, staring up at the ceiling for so long that Kit said sharply, ‘Well, go on… what happens next?’

‘What happens next?’ Calvin lifted his head to look at her. ‘Alice exchanges that awful hat of hers for a halo. At least, I hope it is a halo. That’s what happens next.’

Kit huddled down in the chair, her face growing paler.

‘In other words, Alice dies,’ Calvin said. ‘At five minutes to seven, and you must be dead on time, you’ll arrive by the back entrance. You’ll put on Alice’s hat and coat and we will leave the bank together by the front entrance. While I am locking up, you will go over to where my car is parked and get in. You mustn’t hurry or loiter. This will be the most dangerous part of the plan, but the sheriff or Travers must see Alice leave the bank. I don’t see why it should come unstuck. It will be dark. You will walk under two or three street lights on the way to the car. The mustard-coloured coat should convince either the sheriff or Travers he is seeing Alice leave. How do you like it so far?’

‘Go on,’ Kit said, a rasp in her voice. ‘Then what happens?’

‘We drive back here. The old people will be watching the serial on television. You’ll hang up Alice’s hat and coat. Then we’ll stage a little scene for the benefit of the old people. You’ll go upstairs and I’ll call out, loud enough for them to hear, that you should go to bed. They’ll imagine, of course, I am talking to Alice. When they come in for dinner, I’ll tell them that Alice had a bad headache and has gone to bed. You will tell them you have been up to see her, given her aspirin and she is sleeping.’

‘What really has happened to her?’ Kit asked.

‘Her body will be left in my office,’ Calvin said.

Kit stiffened, her hands closing into fists.

‘You — you’re going to leave her there?’

‘Don’t let’s rush this,’ Calvin said. ‘Let’s go through it step by step. We will have dinner. After dinner, I’ll watch television with the old people and then go up to my room. I’ll dress up as Johnny Acres. I’ll have to walk to the bank. It’ll take me a good hour. I will have left the back entrance open. I’ll remove all the electric lamps from their sockets except the lamp in the vault, then I’ll turn on the light switches. That will put the electronic eye out of action. I’ll have Alice’s key to the vault. I’ll break open the boxes containing the payroll and transfer the money to one of the deed boxes in the vault.’

Kit leaned forward.

‘Why do that? Why not bring the money here?’

‘The safest place in which to keep money is in a bank,’ Calvin said. ‘They will never think of looking for the payroll in one of those deed boxes. I’m sure… if s a foolproof hiding place. We can’t use the money for some time and that’s where it is going to be hidden.’

She hesitated, then realising the shrewdness of this idea, she shrugged.

‘Well, go on…’

‘Now it is your turn to come to the bank. You’ll also have to walk. It would be fatal for the old people to hear a car start up. The time now will be around three o’clock. You’ll have to be careful your daughter doesn’t hear you leave. What time does she get back from Downside?’

‘Around two.’

‘Okay. I’ll have to watch out I don’t run into her. By the time you leave, she should be asleep, but be careful. At that hour no one should be around, but on the way to the bank, you’ll have to be sure no one sees you. You know where we have left the Lincoln… at the back of the bank. Go there, move the car close to the back entrance of the bank and wait. You’ll remain in the car. You will, of course, be wearing Alice’s hat and coat. I’ll bring her out and put her in the boot.’

Kit took a handkerchief from the top of her stocking and wiped her sweating face. In a voice she tried to make nonchalant, she said, ‘Why not leave her in the bank?’

‘I want to give Johnny Acres plenty of time to get away,’ Calvin said. ‘We’ll drive to Downside. There’s a filling station on the main road and we’ll stop there. I’ll buy gas and let the attendant get a look at me as Johnny, of course. You will remain in the car. You’ll shield your face, but I want him to see the coat. While he is filling the tank, you and I will start an argument about the last train out from ’Frisco. I want him to imagine that we’re going to ’Frisco.’ He stubbed out his cigarette and lit another. ‘There’s one thing I’ve forgotten to tell you. The day before we do the job, you must drive to Downside in your car and leave it in the station car park. You’ll have to come back by train. We must have your car waiting for us to come back in. Got that?’

She nodded.

‘Okay, after we have filed the tank, we drive to Downside and leave the Lincoln in the station car park. We’ll use your car to come home in. That’s the plan. What do you think?’

Kit rubbed her forehead with a shaky hand.

‘It’s complicated,’ she said, not looking at him. ‘If you think it will work, I’ll do it with you. I’m no good at making plans. I’ve got to leave all that to you. There is one thing… if Alice is supposed to be running away, shouldn’t she take some of her clothes?’

Calvin lifted his head off the pillow and he stared at her. Then he nodded.

‘Of course… I had forgotten that. That’s important. And another thing, there will have to be two suitcases: one for her clothes and the other to carry the money in. The cases will have to be on the back seat so the gas attendant will see them. She must have a suitcase. Do you know where it is?’

‘Probably in her room.’

‘Okay. That’ll be your job. You pack some of her clothes and bring the suitcases in the Lincoln. The gas attendant must report to the police he saw two suitcases.’

‘You really think this is going to work?’ Kit asked, leaning forward to stare at him.

‘It’ll work,’ be said. ‘We’ll need some luck, but that’s not worrying me. We have three weeks. We must talk about it: think about it: polish it.’

‘How long will it be before we can spend the money?’

‘You’ve certainly got that subject on your mind, haven’t you?’ he said and grinned. ‘A month after the robbery, we’ll get married. Two months after we are married and you have sold this place, I’ll resign from the bank. You’ll be able to spend some of the money in three months’ time. You’ll be able to splash around with your share in three years’ time.’

‘You really think this is going to be safe?’

He looked fixedly at her, his eyes glittering.

‘It’s got to be safe. If it isn’t, you and I will probably run into Alice again… if we are lucky.’

The following afternoon Calvin had a visitor who surprised him. He was busy at his desk When a tap came on the door and thinking it was Alice he called to come in and went on working.

‘Am I disturbing you?’

He looked up then and was startled to see Iris Loring standing before his desk. For a moment he stared fixedly at her, then his fleshy face brightened and he smiled his charming smile as he got to his feet.

‘Why, this is a surprise. Sit down.’

Iris sat down. Calvin regarded her curiously. He noted there was a worried expression in her grey-blue eyes.

‘I hear you are going to become my step-father,’ she said. ‘Kit told me this morning.’

Calvin sat back in his chair. He was thinking it would be much more amusing to have this girl for a wife. She was so much younger, so much fresher and so much more sexually exciting than Kit.

‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘I hope you approve.’

‘If it will make Kit happy, then of course, I approve,’ she said quietly.

‘I’ll make her happy,’ Calvin said, his charm very much in evidence.

She looked searchingly at him and he had an uneasy feeling that his charm wasn’t working the way it usually worked.

‘I’m worried about her,’ Iris said. ‘That’s why I’m here. She’s got something on her mind. We’ve always been very close and I can tell when something’s bothering her. I’ve asked her, but she won’t tell me. Do you know what it is?’

Calvin took out his cigarette case and offered it. Iris shook her head. He lit a cigarette and he wondered how this pretty little thing would react if he told her her mother was worried because between them they were planning to murder Alice and to steal three hundred thousand dollars from the bank.

‘Frankly, I think she’s worrying about you,’ Calvin said.

Iris looked sharply at him.

‘About me… why do you think that?’

‘We’ve talked about you. She doesn’t approve of you marrying young Travers.’ Calvin broadened his smile. ‘She is ambitious for you. She hopes you will marry a rich man.’

Iris flushed.

‘I’m going to marry Ken,’ she said. ‘I may have to wait until I’m twenty-one, but I intend to marry him.’

‘Good for you,’ Calvin said. ‘As your future step-father, I approve. I think he’s a fine boy and I think you’ll be very happy as his wife.’

He saw her relax.

‘Have you said that to Kit?’ she asked.

‘Yes. I told her you should marry him. I can’t see any objections, but I’ll talk to her again. Don’t you worry about this. When Kit and I marry, I plan to start a rooming-house in Florida. She and I will run it. I’m going to persuade her to leave you here to marry Ken. Would that suit you?’

‘Of course.’ She leaned forward, her face animated. ‘Do you think you can persuade her?’

Calvin grinned.

‘I’m pretty good at persuading people. I think I can.’

‘I didn’t know you planned to go to Florida. Kit said nothing about that. What’s going to happen to Miss Pearson and Major Hardy?’

‘Perhaps the new owner will take them on. Kit is going to sell the house.’

‘When it’s sold then I can get married?’ Iris asked.

‘That’s the idea. Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix it. I’m good at fixing things.’

She was now looking admiringly at him and this pleased him.

‘Yes… I’m sure you are. I’m so glad I came to see you.’ She paused, hesitated, then said, ‘There’s one other thing… I don’t know if I should tell you.’

Calvin stubbed out his cigarette.

‘That’s up to you. I’d like to think you had confidence in me. What is it?’

‘You do love Kit, don’t you?’

Calvin frowned.

‘That’s an odd question. I’m going to marry her. Of course I love her. What is it?’

‘I think you should know that she is an ex-alcoholic,’ Iris said. ‘She’s all right now, but she mustn’t ever drink alcohol. If she does, the doctor tells me, she will become an alcoholic again. So please don’t ever ask her to join you in a drink. I don’t know if you like a drink, but if it means little to you, it would be much safer and much better if you never had alcohol in your home when you marry and settle down.’

Calvin stared at her for several long moments. He began to hum tunelessly under his breath. Judas! he was thinking, so that’s it! I’ve gone into partnership for murder and robbery with an ex-alcoholic and she’s already hitting the bottle again. Judas!

‘You know it is a disease,’ Iris said, a little shocked to see a sudden glaring flash light up Calvin’s staring eyes. It was gone in a brief moment, but his fleshy face was now expressionless, his almost lipless mouth like a pencil line. ‘It’s like diabetes. So long as she doesn’t touch alcohol she’ll be perfectly all right. I — I thought I should tell you.’

‘Yes… thank you.’ With an effort he relaxed and smiled at her. ‘I’m glad to know. Poor Kit! I had no idea. Well, now you’ve told me I’ll watch out. I don’t drink much myself. I can easily do without and I will.’

Iris looked curiously at him. That brief flash in his eyes had frightened her, but now the charm was back again and she wondered if she had imagined the vicious, frightening glare.

He got to his feet.

‘Well, as far as your affairs are concerned,’ he said, ‘just be patient. As soon as we leave Pittsville, you can marry your nice young sheriff.’

When she had gone, he sat behind his desk and lit a cigarette.

An alcoholic! The most unreliable, dangerous partner he could have chosen! And as the days dragged on towards the end of the month, he became aware that he was going to have trouble with it. She began to avoid him, and he guessed she was not only drinking, but losing her nerve. Whenever he ran into her, and he made a point of searching her out, he saw the obvious signs of her slow deterioration. He could see she hadn’t been sleeping. She was losing weight and her complexion was becoming like wax.

As soon as he had convinced himself she was drinking heavily, he left her alone. Alice and the old couple had already been told of their engagement. Calvin now spent much of his time in his room. From time to time, he would creep downstairs and remove Alice’s hat and coat to keep up the illusion that she was still seeing her boy-friend. Since he now seldom joined the old couple to watch television, they believed he and Kit were together upstairs, double romance pleased them.

Four nights before the date set for the bank robbery, Calvin was sitting in his room, smoking and turning the pages of a golfing magazine. The communicating door abruptly opened and Kit came in. She looked distracted and ill. She closed the door and leaned against it, her breasts heaving with her heavy breathing.

Calvin waited.

‘I’m not going through with it!’ Kit said, her voice shrill. ‘I was crazy to have agreed to do it in the first place! I’m not doing it! Do you hear me? I’m not doing it!’

‘Well, all right,’ Calvin said in a deceptively mild voice. ‘Don’t get so worked up about it. What’s the trouble?’

She stared at him, her eyes glittering.

‘Trouble? Do you call murdering that girl just trouble? I won’t let you kill her! Do you hear me?’

‘Yes… I hear you. If you don’t keep your voice down, she’ll hear you, too.’

‘You are a devil! You have no feeling. I’m not going to do it!’

‘Don’t get so excited,’ Calvin said. ‘Sit down… let’s talk about it. I thought you wanted the money.’

‘Not if it means killing her,’ Kit said, not moving. ‘I won’t have her death on my conscience!’

‘There is no other way,’ Calvin said. He stretched his long, massive legs and yawned. ‘I told you: you haven’t to do anything, I’ll do it.’

‘No! You’re going to leave her alone. Her life isn’t much, but she’s entitled to it! I won’t let you touch her!’

Calvin sucked at his cigarette, then released a stream of smoke down his nostrils.

‘I can’t do without your help,’ he said ‘Think a moment… three hundred thousand dollars! Think what it will mean to you. A poor thing like her! Who cares what happens to her?’

‘You can’t talk me into this!’ Kit said hysterically. ‘I’m not going to do it! I can’t sleep! I keep thinking of her studying her stupid books night after night while you are planning to murder her! I won’t do it! I’d rather stay poor!’

Calvin pointed to a bottle of whisky standing on the chest of drawers.

‘Have a drink. You sound as if you need one.’

Kit looked at the whisky, hesitated, then poured a large shot into the glass. She drank greedily in two long gulps and set down the glass with a little shudder.

‘I can’t do without your help,’ Calvin said. ‘Well, all right, if that’s the way you feel, then we’d better forget it. We’ll have to go on living out our miserable, drab little lives: you running a half-baked rooming-house and I the manager of a half-baked bank.’

‘I’d rather live as I’m living now than have her death on my conscience.’ She looked at the whisky bottle, hesitated, then poured another drink. ‘You’ve got to leave this house. You are evil. I can’t have you here.’

‘We’re suppose to be getting married,’ he said and smiled at her. ‘Remember?’

‘I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man left on earth! You are to go! I mean that! I won’t have you in my house!’

He thought for a moment, watching her, then he shrugged.

‘All right. I’ll leave at the end of the week. What are you going to tell Iris, the old people and Alice? Or would you rather I tell them that I have discovered you are an alcoholic and I now don’t fancy marrying you?’

She turned white and put down the glass of whisky.

‘You’re not to tell them that! It isn’t true!’ she said in a rasping voice.

‘Of course it is! You’re half drunk now. It’ll be interesting to see Alice’s face. She admires you. It’ll be interesting too to hear what the major and Miss Pearson have to say when they learn you are an uncontrolled boozer. But what should be amusing is to hear what Iris has to say.’ He leaned forward and suddenly snarled at her. ‘Get out of my sight. You sicken me!’

Kit turned and went into her room, closing the door and locking it.

When he heard the lock turn, his fleshy face became hideous. He looked like a savage, his face convulsed with rage. Suddenly he spat on the carpet and clenching his fists, he began to pound them on his knees.

He sat there for over an hour. When his rage finally wore itself out and his mind began to function again, he became like a trapped animal. He couldn’t see any way out of this impasse. His immediate reaction was to murder Kit, but he quickly realised killing her wouldn’t help him lay his hands on the payroll. Without her, his foolproof plan became impossible.

Exhausted by the murderous rage that had gripped him, unable to find a solution to the problem, he stripped off his clothes and got into bed. He lay in the darkness, his mind seething, trying to decide what to do.

Finally, around one o’clock in the morning he fell asleep. He had no idea how long he slept but he woke suddenly aware his heart was thumping. He hadn’t awakened like this since his combat days. Then he had developed an acute animal sense of self preservation that had served him well. There had been times when he had been sleeping in his fox-hole, his rifle gripped in his hands, and had come awake as he had now come awake, in time to spot a Jap crawling towards him out of the jungle.

The faint light of the moon came through the curtains. He could just make out the outlines of the armchair and the big closet facing him. Why had he woken like this? He was about to switch on the bedside light when he heard a sound that made him stiffen.

Someone was in the room!

By listening intently, he was able to hear rapid, uneven breathing.

He remained motionless. His eyes stared into the darkness. Then gradually he was able to make out a shadowy figure standing at the foot of his bed. His powerful muscles became tense, but he didn’t move.

As he continued to stare, the figure became recognisable. Kit, in her nightdress, was looking towards where he lay.

‘Dave…’

Calvin slowly lifted his head.

‘Dave… please…’

She moved around the bed and sat beside him. He lay motionless, trying to see her hands, trying to see if she had a weapon or not.

‘Dave…’

‘What is it?’

He could feel she was trembling and he could smell whisky on her breath.

‘I’ll go through with it,’ she said. ‘You’re right. I can’t face living here for the rest of my days. I’ve got to have money. I’ll do it with you, but please be kind to me… please be kind to me.’

He jerked back the blanket and sheet and caught hold of her, pulling her down beside him. Her whisky-laden breath fanned his face as she twined her arms around his thick muscular shoulders.

She was crying and very drunk.

‘I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever you say,’ she moaned, ‘but don’t tell them about me… please promise not to tell them. I can’t help it… I’m so ashamed of myself.’

His expression of contempt and disgust hidden by the darkness, Calvin forced his hands to caress her.

1

‘Well, that’s it,’ the sheriff said as the armoured truck drove off into the darkness. ‘You two are working late tonight, aren’t you?’

‘We’ll be here until seven,’ Calvin said.

‘You’ll be okay,’ the sheriff said. ‘If anyone knocks on the door, sound the alarm buzzer in your office. I’ll come over or I’ll send Ken. Don’t open the door when you are leaving before you turn the lights out. You know about that?’

‘Sure,’ Calvin said.

‘Then I guess I’ll be getting along.’ The sheriff tipped his hat to Alice who was standing by Calvin. ‘Good night, Miss Craig. Good night, Mr. Calvin.’

He walked away down the path, followed by Travers and Calvin shut and locked the bank doors.

He was aware that his big, fleshy hands were damp with sweat and his muscles ached with the fatigue of three almost sleepless nights.

‘Well, let’s get on with it,’ he said to Alice. ‘The sooner we start, the sooner we finish.’

‘Yes, Mr. Calvin.’

He watched her walk to her stool and hoist herself onto it. The lights from her shaded desk lamp reflected on her glasses. He stood for a long moment staring at her, realising that in less than half an hour, she would be dead and he would be responsible. He took out his handkerchief, wiped his hands, then went into his office and closed the door.

He sat down and with unsteady hands, he lit a cigarette.

The past three days had taken a toll of him. He was still not sure if Kit could be relied on. Each night after he had returned from the bank, he had found her drunk. She had been in a weepy, sexually excited state that had nauseated him, but it was essential to keep her in this mood and he had played along with her: hating her, but realising if she was to play her part, he had to jolly her along somehow.

As he sat smoking, he began to talk silently to himself.

‘This woman is neurotic and dangerous, I’ve got to use her, but once I have the money, what am I going to do about her? I have to have her now to impersonate Alice. I still have to have her to provide a reasonable excuse as to why we are both leaving town and more important still, why I am resigning from the bank. Without the money from the sale of the house, the Federal agents will wonder how I could afford to resign. Now wait a minute… let me think about this. Do I really need her for that? Suppose, after she has impersonated Alice, I get rid of her? Suppose someone offered me a good job, and as I’m getting nowhere in the bank, I decide to make a change. That would be an acceptable reason for resigning, but what if they check? I can’t risk a bluff… someone will have to offer me a good job… but who?’

He sat for some minutes, his mind busy.

‘Marvin Godwin… he owes me plenty. I was going to use him anyway in the original plan. His gambling joint at Las Vegas is a perfect cover for me to appear to make money. He’d fix it, but he would guess something was up… that doesn’t matter. If the Federal agents keep track of me… and they might… I could prove through Godwin that I had won a lot of money. As soon as they lost interest in me, I could leave Las Vegas and drop out of sight. Working in this way, I won’t need Kit once she has impersonated Alice. From the start of this thing, I had an idea I would have two murders on my hands. It could be the safest and easiest way out — to get rid of her. It wouldn’t be all that difficult. She takes a bath every night. I have only to go into the bathroom while she is in there and hit her over the head and then drown her. I would fix it I would be working on my car while she was taking her bath. I could slip upstairs without anyone seeing me, kill her and then return to the garage. She would be found by Flo in the morning. They’d think she was drunk, hit her head on the taps and then drowned. With her out of the way, I would have all the money and my freedom.’

He stubbed out his cigarette, frowning. He was rushing this thing, he warned himself. First, he had to get his hands on the money which was now in the vault, only twenty yards from where he was sitting.

He glanced at his strap watch, noticing the fair, thick hairs on his wrist were shiny with sweat. It was now eight minutes past six.

He lifted the telephone receiver and dialled the number of the rooming-house. With the receiver screwed against his ear, he listened to the burr-burr-burr on the line, then abruptly, Kit’s voice came to him.

‘What is it? Who is that?’

From the slurring note in her voice, he knew she was drunk and his eyes gleamed viciously.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked, keeping his voice low, mindful that Alice might hear him.

‘What… what did you say? Who is it?’

His fleshy, sweating hand gripped the telephone receiver more tightly.

‘Are you all right?’ he said, raising his voice slightly.

‘All right? Of course, I’m all right. Why shouldn’t I be?’ She spoke loudly and violently.

‘Keep your voice down,’ he snarled. ‘I’ll be expecting you in an hour. Leave at half past six. Do you understand?’

‘What do you imagine I am…an idiot? You’ve said this over and over again until I’m sick of hearing it. I’ll be there.’

‘Lay off drinking, will you? I don’t want you down here drunk.’

‘You’re lucky to have me any way,’ she shrilled and hung up.

He replaced the receiver on its cradle and then stared into space. He sat there for some moments, then he pulled open the top drawer of his desk and took from it one of his worn out socks filled tightly with sand.

He balanced the home-made weapon in his hand, his face expressionless, then he shoved the sand-filled sock into his hip pocket. Again he looked at his watch. He had still forty minutes before he could murder Alice.

With an effort of will, he began to work on the monthly statements. He soon found he was making mistakes, and cursing, he tore up the statement he was working on and dropped the pieces into the trash basket. He pushed back his chair and stood up. He went silently to the door. Opening it, he looked at Alice who was perched on her stool, her feet twined around the rung of the stool, her head bent as she worked swiftly and as he knew by now, accurately. He watched her. In less than half an hour she would be dead, and by his hand. He suddenly wished he could get some support from whisky as Kit seemed to be doing, but he had never been a drinking man. As he stood there, watching, Alice must have felt his presence for she suddenly turned and looked at him through the glittering lenses of her glasses.

With an effort he managed to switch on his charm.

‘Going all right?’ he asked, his voice casual.

She regarded him. He could see she was a little puzzled and perhaps startled.

‘Yes, Mr. Calvin.’

‘Good… I won’t disturb you.’ He moved back into his office. He stood just inside the door, his mind plagued by uncertainty. Would Kit come? he asked himself. He looked towards the telephone, hesitating. If she had drunk too much, it was possible she might collapse on her bed and go to sleep, then he would be stuck with Alice’s body.

He still had time. At half past six he would ring again to make sure Kit had left for the bank.

He forced himself to sit at his desk. His mind now concentrated on the money in the vault: three hundred thousand dollars! With Kit out of the way, every dollar would be his!

He struggled to work. The hands of the desk clock moved on to half past six. Every statement he made out was smudged by his sweating hands, and suddenly and viciously he screwed up the papers he had been working on and threw them into the trash basket.

He lit yet another cigarette, and as the minute hand of the desk clock moved to the half hour, he reached for the telephone receiver and called the rooming-house.

Flo answered.

‘This is Mr. Calvin. Is Mrs. Loring there, Flo?’

‘No, sir. Mrs. Loring’s just this moment gone out.’

‘Thanks… it’s nothing important. Miss Craig and I will be back soon after eight.’

He hung up. So she was on her way. There was no point wasting any more time. His hand moved to his hip pocket and his thick fingers closed around the neck of the sand-filed sock. He stood up and walked to the office door.

‘Oh, Alice…’

‘Yes, Mr. Calvin?’

‘Just a moment…’

He waited, aware he was breathing heavily, aware too of that same odd feeling he had experienced during his combat days when he used to slaughter Japs who he first had had tied to trees. Those moments, as he approached the line of helpless little yellow apes, bayonet in hand, had given him a sexual excitement he was never to forget. Now as he waited for this thin, spinsterish girl in her glasses and shapeless dress to come in, he again experienced this same sexual excitement.

Alice came to the door and peered short-sightedly at him.

‘Yes, Mr. Calvin?’

His smile was a grimace as he waved towards his desk.

‘I’d be glad if you’d check those figures. I don’t seem to get them to balance.’

She looked towards the pile of papers lying on his desk and then moved forward, passing him. He pulled the sand-filed sock from his hip pocket and balanced it in his hand. He watched her approach the desk, put both her hands on the desk and lean forward over the papers he had laid out for her to look at.

He began to move slowly towards her, his eyes glittering, his breathing quick and light. As he was within striking distance of her, as he was about to swing up his arm to deal the back of her head a crashing blow, the telephone bell began to ring.

The sound of the bell went through him like a sword thrust. He remained paralysed with shock as Alice picked up the receiver, saying, ‘Yes?’ She listened, then, ‘Why of course, Mrs. Rason. Yes, he is here. Will you hold on please?’

Calvin stuffed the sand-filled sock back into his hip pocket as Alice turned.

‘Mrs. Rason is asking for you,’ she said and he saw her stiffen and stare at his white, sweating face. ‘Is — is there something wrong?’

He moved around her without answering and taking up the receiver, he sat down at the desk.

‘Yes, Mrs. Rason?’ he said, his voice strangled and unsteady.

Mrs. Rason was one of the wealthiest clients of the bank. She had taken a fancy to Calvin and he had been re-investing her money. She launched into a long conversation about a merger she had been told about. What did Calvin think? Should she buy? If she did, Calvin would have to hurry.

Calvin watched Alice take up the papers on his desk and go out of the office. He scarcely heard what Mrs. Rason was saying. He suddenly remembered he had forgotten to unlock the back entrance to the bank. Any moment now Kit would be arriving. If she found the door still locked, what would she do? Go away? Do something stupid? A drop of sweat fell on to the blotter as the high-pitched voice yammered against his ear.

‘Look,’ he said, trying to keep his voice under control, ‘right now, Mrs. Rason, I can’t talk to you. I’m sorry. We’re closed. Could we discuss this tomorrow?’

‘Well, for heaven’s sake!’ Mrs. Rason said sharply. ‘I don’t know what I’ll be doing tomorrow. If I buy, you’ll have to do something fast first thing tomorrow morning.’

Calvin could have strangled her. The startled expression on Alice’s face had warned him she had noticed something was wrong. What was she doing out there? He controlled himself with an effort.

‘Yes, I understand. Well, I think you should buy. I think…’ Gently he pressed down the cradle of the telephone, breaking the connection. He replaced the receiver, knowing in a few moments she would be calling back.

He got to his feet, moved quickly out of the office and around to the back entrance. He was aware Alice had seen him leave his office, but this was too important to him to care if she saw him or not. He unlocked the door, pulled back the bolts as the telephone bell began to ring. He opened the door and there was Kit, standing in the shadows, peering at him.

‘Wait here,’ he said ‘Don’t go away…’

Then Alice said behind him, ‘Why, hello, Mrs. Loring. What are you doing here?’

‘Answer that damned phone!’ Calvin snarled at her, then as Alice, looking shocked, backed away, he said to Kit, ‘Come on in.’

Kit moved into the bank. She was very drunk. He could smell the whisky on her breath.

‘I thought she was dead,’ she said in a loud aggressive voice. ‘I thought she was bound to be dead by now.’

‘Shut up!’ Calvin said fiercely. ‘Keep your mouth shut! You’re drunk!’

Alice came to his office door.

‘It’s Mrs. Rason… you — you were cut off.’

Calvin hesitated. He wanted to scream at Alice to tell the old bitch to go to hell, but he knew he must control himself. Later, when the police began their investigation, it was possible Mrs. Rason might be questioned.

‘Watch it,’ he said to Kit in a low voice, then he went into the office and picked up the telephone receiver. Through the open doorway, he could see Alice was staring at Kit. He heard her say, ‘What’s the matter, Mrs. Loring? Aren’t you feeling well?’ Then Mrs. Rason’s high-pitched voice blotted out any other sound.

When he could interrupt her, Calvin said, ‘I think it would be a sound idea for you to take up a thousand shares. Would you like me to do that for you?’

‘I guess I’ll talk to my husband first. I’ll call you back.’

‘I’m just leaving,’ Calvin lied. ‘Could you call me first thing tomorrow morning?’

‘Well, I suppose I could,’ she said and then held him for another minute or so in an inane conversation before she hung up.

He got swiftly to his feet and came out of the office. He paused. Alice was staring at Kit who was saying in a loud, slurred voice, ‘So he intends to murder you. You believe in God, don’t you? At least, you go to church. Well, this is the time to pray.’

Alice looked from Kit to Calvin. Calvin’s expression as he moved towards her brought a look of horror to her face. In sudden panic, she spun around and ran towards the entrance to the vault. Calvin was startled by her swift move. He went after her. As he passed Kit, she grabbed hold of his arm, jerking him to a standstill.

‘Don’t do it! Don’t do it!’ she moaned.

He shoved her away so violently that she fell on her hands and knees.

He darted down the steps to the vault.

Alice was crouching against the door of the vault. At the sight of him, she lifted her hands in a feeble attempt to ward him off.

‘No… don’t touch me… don’t touch me!’

As he moved towards her, she began to scream. She was still screaming as his thick fingers closed around her throat.

2

Ken Travers sat at the sheriff’s desk trying to concentrate on a paperback that had a naked woman lying in a pool of blood on its jacket.

From where he sat, he could see the lighted windows of the bank. He looked impatiently at the clock on the wall. The time was five minutes after seven. The sheriff had said Alice Craig and Calvin would be through by then, then he could go to the restaurant across the way and have his supper.

He tossed the paperback aside and lit a cigarette. The previous afternoon he had seen Iris and had had a long talk with her. What she had told him worried him. He was startled to learn that Kit intended to marry Calvin, but the news went into the background when Iris went on to tell him that her mother was again drinking.

Iris now had no doubt about this. She had talked with Dr. Sterling but he hadn’t been very helpful. He was getting old, and although he had promised to talk to Kit, he didn’t hold out much hope.

‘These cases are difficult,’ he said. ‘If she really wants to drink again, there’s not much I can do about it. I don’t think I can persuade her to take a second cure. A second cure is never much good. It’s the first one that counts.’

Iris had said the old man had brightened when she had told him Kit was getting married again. ‘Then that could be the best solution.’

If Calvin married Kit and took her to Florida, Travers thought, then his troubles would be over. Once Kit and Calvin left Pittsville, he and Iris could get married. Sheriff Thomson had already hinted he was thinking of retiring. Once he did, Travers would automatically step into his shoes.

Travers shook his head unhappily. It wasn’t really much of a job. If only he had the chance of earning big money so he and Iris could get out of Pittsville and start a new life in some progressive town that offered scope. But without capital, he wouldn’t dare take the risk.

He was still brooding over his financial future when he saw the lights in the bank go out and he looked at the wall clock. The time was six minutes after seven. He got to his feet and moved to the window to look across at the bank. He saw who he thought was Alice Craig come out and walk down the path towards where Calvin’s car was parked.

Now there was a poor thing if ever there was one, Travers thought. Not that she wasn’t always polite to him, but a girl who turned fiery red whenever a man looked at her bored Travers. And her clothes! He watched her move under a street light. That coat! How any girl could spend good money on a thing like that… let alone wear it!

Suddenly he stiffened and frowned. Was he imagining things? he wondered. As the girl crossed the street to Calvin’s car, had he imagined she had lurched? He watched closely, pressing his forehead against the window pane. There… she did it again: almost as if she were drunk, Travers thought, puzzled, but the idea of Alice Craig being drunk was so ridiculous he immediately began to wonder if she were ill.

He watched her reach the car. She seemed to be having trouble opening the car door. He looked across at the bank and saw Calvin locking up.

Maybe she was ill, Travers thought and hesitated, wondering if he should go out and ask, but then remembering how hopelessly embarrassed she always became when he spoke to her, he decided to let Calvin deal with her.

Calvin crossed the road with long swift strides. He got into the car and started the engine. He was aware that Travers was at the window, watching him. His heart was thumping. This he knew was the most important part of his plan and the most dangerous. He wondered if Travers had seen Kit lurch as she had crossed the road. He himself had seen her lurch: would Travers think anything of it?

Kit sat huddled up in the corner of the car, crying softly and hysterically. Calvin could have strangled her. He had had to shake and slap her before he could force her into Alice’s hat and coat. He hadn’t thought, as he pushed her out into the dark street, that she would be able to reach the car, but he had had to take that risk.

Now as he headed back to the rooming-house, he began to relax for a moment. As he drove past the sheriff’s office, he waved towards Travers and he saw Travers wave back. Then being careful not to drive too fast, he continued up the main street.

Nothing was said until they were in sight of the rooming-house, then Calvin slowed down and pulled to the grass verge and stopped the car.

‘Listen to me,’ he snarled. ‘You’ve got to pull yourself together, you drunken bitch! Do you hear me! We’re not through yet. When we get in, go straight upstairs and stop at the top. I’ll tell you to go to bed and you’ll say just one word: ‘Yes’. If either Miss Pearson or the major is in the hall, go past them, keeping your head turned away. Understand?’

She sat there, stinking of whisky, crying helplessly, apparently not listening.

Swearing under his breath, Calvin caught hold of one of her wrists in both hands and twisted her flesh in opposite directions. The sudden agony of his grip made her cry out and brought her upright.

‘Do you hear me?’ he snarled, letting go of her wrist, his hands closing over her shoulders. He shook her. ‘Sober up! Do you understand what you’ve got to do?’

She cringed away from him.

‘Yes…’

‘All right, then do it! Make one mistake and you’ll land yourself in the gas chamber.’

He started the car engine again and drove on to the rooming-house. When they arrived, he put the car in the garage.

‘Come on… get out!’

She got out. Now she was sobering up and looking at her, Calvin was shocked at the sight of her. She looked old and ugly. Her eyes had sunk into her head. Her skin was the colour of tallow: even her lips were white.

He caught hold of her arm, his fingers digging into her flesh and hurried her up the steps and into the hall. He rushed her across the hall to the foot of the stairs and gave her a push forward, starting her up the stairs as Major Hardy appeared in the doorway of the lounge.

Calvin began taking off his coat, ignoring the major, watching Kit stumbling up the stairs. Then when she reached the head of the stairs and was out of sight, he called after her, ‘Alice I think you should go to bed. I’ll tell Kit to come up to you.’

He waited for the rehearsed ‘yes’, but it didn’t come. He listened to her stumbling up the other flight of stairs to her room.

‘Something wrong?’ the major asked.

Before turning, Calvin composed his expression The effort he had to make to appear relaxed brought sweat out on his hands.

‘She’s a bit under the weather,’ he said. ‘She has a bad headache and so on… one of these women’s things.’

The major, who was a bachelor, looked wise.

‘It happens to them all, the poor things,’ he said. ‘Best in bed.’

‘Yes.’

Calvin went up to his room. He hurriedly washed his sweating face and hands, then he went into Kit’s room.

She was lying face down on her bed, breathing heavily. He stood over her, aware that in less than half an hour she would have an important role to play and aware that at the moment she was incapable of playing it. She was still drunk. He had to get her sober. He wanted to grab her by her hair and slap her face until she sobered up, but he realised his hand would leave tell-tale marks which the old couple couldn’t fail to see.

He moved closer, then putting his hand on the back of her head, he pressed her face into the pillow. He began to spank her, viciously and violently until his hand felt burning and bruised. He muffled her screams by keeping her face forced into the pillow, and finally, after he had beaten her until his arm began to tire, he released her, dragging her over on her back and standing over her, his eyes glittering, as he stared down at her.

She lay motionless, her face contorted with pain, but her eyes clear and sober.

‘Are you all right now?’ Calvin demanded, breathing heavily. ‘Have you sobered up?’

She drew in a long shuddering breath, then she closed her eyes, nodding.

‘Okay. Now get up and put some make-up on. You look like hell. I’m going down. You know what to do and say. We’ve gone over it enough times.’ He leaned over her, his expression vicious. ‘Do you know what to do?’

Opening her eyes, she suddenly spat in his face. The hatred in her eyes startled him. His hand swung back to slap her, but he controlled himself. Instead, he wiped his face with the back of his hand and grinned at her. His grip was vicious and confident.

‘If you still have the guts to do that after that beating, you can go through with this,’ he said. ‘Three hundred thousand dollars! Remember that! Three hundred thousand dollars!’

He left her and went downstairs into the lounge.

The major was reading the newly arrived Reader’s Digest. Miss Pearson was knitting a blue and white scarf she had promised the major for his birthday. They both looked up inquiringly as Calvin came in.

‘Is Alice unwell?’ Miss Pearson asked.

‘A headache,’ Calvin said. ‘She has gone to bed. She’ll be all right tomorrow. Does anyone know what’s for dinner?’ With an effort he switched on his charm. ‘I’m hungry.’

The major smiled with the smug satisfaction of someone who has access to important inside information.

‘I asked Flo… it’s pot roast.’

While they were finishing dinner, Kit came in. Calvin looked sharply at her. Although she looked tired, there was now nothing about her appearance to attract unwanted attention. She said Alice was sleeping. She had given her a sleeping tablet. She was sure she would be all right in the morning.

Calvin broke in by saying there was a good play on television. The old couple went into the television-room. Calvin paused before he followed them.

‘I’ll be up at eleven,’ he said to Kit ‘Keep away from the bottle… hear me?’

He left her and joined the old couple in the already darkened room. His mind was busy as the play ran its course.

There’s no turning back now, he said to himself. So far it’s working out all right. The only real danger now is if someone happens to try the back door of the bank and finds it unlocked. If that happens I’m really cooked. But why should anyone try the door? The whole town knows it is never used.

He reminded himself he would have to take a swab back with him. He made a grimace in the semi-darkness. Blood had come from Alice’s nose and mouth onto his hands: he had been lucky none of it had got onto his clothes. He shrank from the thought that he would have to carry her body from the vault to the car. Grimacing, he tried to concentrate on the play. At eleven o’clock, he said good night to the old couple, saying he was going to bed, and he went upstairs. The light was on in Kit’s room and he walked in.

She was lying on the bed, smoking and staring up at the ceiling. She didn’t look at him as he came in.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked, pausing at the foot of the bed.

‘You’ve nearly crippled me, you devil,’ she said, still not looking at him. ‘I can scarcely walk.’

‘You’ve got to walk to the bank,’ he said. ‘Don’t lie there. Move around or your muscles will get stiff.’

She didn’t move.

‘Leave me alone.’

‘There’s no turning back now. We’re both in this thing up to our necks. I’m going to change. Get off the bed and move around.’

He went into his room and sitting before the dressing-table mirror, he carefully began to gum the black crepe sideboards to his face. Ten minutes later, his disguise complete, he went into Kit’s room again. She was still lying on the bed. He stood over her.

‘Leave here at twelve,’ he said. ‘Be careful. If you see any car coming, get off the road. When you get to the car park, drive the Lincoln to the back of the bank entrance and wait. Don’t get out of the car… just wait. Do you understand?’

She stared at him, her face wooden.

‘Do you think I’m an idiot? Of course, I understand.’

‘All right. I’ll get off. Everything now depends on you… so watch it. And keep off the bottle.’

He left her and paused for a long moment at the head of the stairs, listening. There was no sound in the darkened house, and satisfied both Miss Pearson and the major were in bed, he silently descended the stairs and let himself out the back way.

It was a fine clear night: no moon and dark. He walked with long, swinging strides, his eyes searching the road ahead, his ears cocked for the sound of any approaching car.

He reached the back entrance to the bank a few minutes after midnight, sure no one had seen him during the long walk from the rooming-house. He pushed open the door and paused to listen. He heard nothing, entered the dark bank, closed and bolted the door.

There were ten electric light bulbs to remove. He set about removing them quickly and efficiently. The ceiling lamp caused him some difficulty. The opaque white cover was only just within his reach when he stood on the counter and the fixing screws had rusted in. He had brought tools with him and he wrestled with the screws, humming tunelessly under his breath.

From where he stood, he could look through the bank window at the lighted windows of the Sheriff’s office. From time to time he saw Travers pass the windows as he paced slowly to and fro. Finally, Calvin got the cover off and removed the lamp. He had been working in semi-darkness. A faint light came in from the street lamp some twenty yards away. He counted the lamps, making sure he had removed them all, then he turned on the light switch. He knew a light had come on in the vault.

He went down into the vault, entered, quickly closing the door. For some moments, he stood looking down at Alice’s dead body that lay on its side, blood by her nose and mouth.

Calvin took hold of one of her ankles and dragged her body away from the vault door. He had already taken her key of the vault from her handbag. He had brought with him a tyre lever. With this, he attacked the locks on one of the wooden boxes. In less than ten minutes, he had broken open both boxes. He had already found a deed box that contained only a few papers. Into this box, he packed the neat bundles of money, until the box was full. He then put the deed box against the wall and stacked on top of it the other boxes.

He looked at his watch. It was now a quarter to one. He went upstairs and groped his way into the washroom. He soaked the swab in hot water and then returned to the vault and got rid of the bloodstains on the floor. He returned to the washroom and washed out the swab which he stuffed into his hip pocket. Going back to the vault once again, he shut the door and turned both keys in the locks. Then he picked up Alice’s body and carried it up the stairs and laid it on the floor by the back entrance.

Once more he returned to the vault and looked around to make sure he had left nothing behind, satisfied, he turned off the light and went up the stairs to wait for Kit.