Kill as Directed

Twenty

She sat with hands tightly clasped and knees tightly together, an eyelid twitching, her hair a copper pile, little ears exposed, unadorned. She was wearing a green silk suit over a white blouse, plunging deep. She wore no make-up except lipstick. She looked very young.

“Are you sure?” Harry asked quietly.

“I’m sure,” Karen whispered. “Business as usual tomorrow evening at the Starhurst.”

“Then that’s it. I’ll have a full five minutes? You’re absolutely certain of that?”

“Yes.”

“Six fifty-five to seven?”

“Yes.”

“Two minutes ought to do it.”

He got up from his desk and unlocked the cabinet and slid his hands into the thin gloves and brought out the revolver and the silencer. She followed his movements, fascinated. He unwrapped them and laid them on his desk. “Good old Uncle Joe,” he said dryly. “He sells a mean ash. To the tune of a thousand bucks.”

“Please, Harry, put them away. You... they scare me.”

He rewrapped the gun and the silencer and put them back in the cabinet along with the gloves. He locked the cabinet, pocketed the key, and sat down again at his desk and looked at her.

“Karen.”

“Yes, Harry.”

“You’re not directly involved. Will you remember that?”

“Yes.”

“I know you’re frightened. It’s natural. But you’ve got to get hold of yourself. You’ll have to put on an act. If you don’t think you can go through with it, now is the time to tell me.”

“I can. I will. It’s just—”

“I understand,” he said. “Now listen carefully.”

“Yes, darling.”

“The alibi. Not essential, just insurance. We’re all supposed to meet for dinner in that private room at Monique’s at seven o’clock. Correct?”

“Yes, darling.”

“With Kurt sending the limousine to Taugus to pick up the Stones, they’ll certainly be there early. Correct?”

“Yes. Kurt has trained the chauffeur himself. Just to be sure, I’ll tell him to get the Stones there by six forty-five.”

“And you’ll be sure to be there early, too?”

“Tony’s picking me up. I’ll see to it that we get there before the Stones.”

“Now as for me. I can’t possibly be on time. I have office hours until seven o’clock. Right?”

“Right.”

“I’m seeing to it that I have no office appointments for tomorrow past six o’clock, and I’ll send my evening receptionist home at that time. I’ll dress between six and six-thirty, at the office — my usual procedure when I’m going out. I’ll leave shortly after that, but nobody’s going to know that. Folow so far?”

“Yes.”

“At exactly two minutes to seven, you’ll excuse yourself and go to the phone booth at Monique’s and pretend to call me. Then you’ll rejoin the others and tell the Stones and Tony that I said I was shaving and changing my clothes, that I’d be leaving the office shortly. You’ve got that?”

“Yes, Harry.”

“By twenty past seven — it should be ample time — I’ll have got back to the office from the Starhurst. At twenty past seven you’ll be impatient about me and you’ll ask Dr. Stone to phone me. Tony may offer to do the phoning — if he does, let him; I’d rather it were Stone, but if you slough Tony off it may look queer. Anyway, whichever one does the calling, I’ll be there to take it. I’ll apologize and say I just got finished dressing and was about to leave. I will leave, and I’ll drive right down to Monique’s and join the party. For the rest of the evening, of course, I’ll be covered by events. Questions?”

“Yes.” Karen seemed less nervous now, as if talking about it had calmed her. “Between the time you slip out of the office and the time you get back, there’ll be no one here. Until seven o’clock, anyway, somebody — some passer-by — might try to get into the office to see you professionally. They’ll remember you weren’t here—”

“Before I go to the Starhurst, I’ll turn off the lights in the waiting room, and the street-door light. I’ll leave the light on in my back room. If the point should ever come up — and remember, Karen, this is all precautionary; there’s no reason why I should even be questioned — I’ll merely say I locked up early because of having to shave, shower and change for the evening. That, not wanting to be held up, I just didn’t answer the bell, or didn’t hear it. It’s probably an academic point, anyway. I rarely get transients.”

“Suppose a patient tries to phone you between the time you slip out and the time you get back?”

“I’ll have Dr. Lamper cover for me tomorrow evening; we have a reciprocal arrangement when either of us has an important social thing on. And I’ll instruct my answering service to transfer all professional calls to Lamper’s number beginning at five o’clock. Incidentally, when you pretend to call me at two minutes to seven, remember that it’s my private number you’re supposed to be calling; and when you ask Stone to phone me here at seven-twenty, be sure to give him the private number. That way we don’t get into complications with the answering service. Anything else?”

“The...” she moistened her lips “...gun.”

“I’m going to ditch it and the silencer where the police will find it. That’s the whole point, Karen. All identifying marks have been removed, and it will copper-rivet the professional look of the job. The gloves I’ll shove down the incinerator here when I get back — they may show traces of gun oil or gunpowder, and I can’t risk ‘that. So... that’s it.” He stared at her. “What do you think?”

“I love you,” Karen said.

He rose. “You’d better go home now.”

“I love you, Harry.”

“What time do you phone me?”

“Two minutes to seven. Private number.”

“Stone?”

“Twenty after. Same.”

“I love you,” Harry said.