Killing Cousins

Four

Having finished her fingers, she began on her toes. Bending forward from the hips, she applied herself earnestly to the meticulous work, and as she worked she considered carefully her problem and its possible solutions. Her mind was quite clear now, after several hours of sleep, and she did not feel, strangely enough, the least bit of urgency. When she had first wakened and remembered what had happened, she had been very frightened and had felt a necessity to do something immediately, no matter what, but then it had occurred to her that it all might be nothing more than a bad dream, which she sometimes had, and so she had gone into Howard’s bedroom to make sure, one way or the other, and it had turned out not to be a dream at all, for there Howard was on the floor.

Instead of increasing her fright and making her do something precipitate that might have turned out badly, the sight of him had worked just the opposite effect and had made her suddenly calm and thoughtful. She had thought first of Mrs. Tweedy, the woman who came in daily to clean and cook, but by a stroke of good luck Mrs. Tweedy had asked for the day off and would not be in, so nothing needed to be done about calling her and telling her not to come, or anything like that. This seemed to remove all the urgency from the matter, and Willie had returned to her own bedroom, where she now was, and had begun to do her nails, which she was still doing.

The disposal of Howard in a way that would not be prejudicial to her own interests would really be quite a difficult task, and she was prepared to admit that she probably couldn’t accomplish it alone. What she needed was help, and the one she kept thinking about as a helper was Quincy. Quincy was a brain, that was generally acknowledged, and no doubt, if consulted, he would be simply teeming with ideas about what to do. The question was, could he be trusted in a matter this delicate? He was no better than he ought to be, certainly, but she was not convinced that he had the necessary intestinal fortitude.

Nevertheless, there was no thinkable alternate. She must trust Quincy or no one, and by the time she had finished her toes she had resolved to call him and ask him to come over at once. Because it was Saturday, he would not be working at the bank, and it was almost certain, early as it was, that he was still in bed in the depressing little apartment he kept and in which she had been once or twice against her better judgment. Getting up, she went into the bathroom and put the little bottle of scarlet lacquer away neatly in the cabinet where she kept it. Then she went back through her bedroom and out into the hall to the telephone, an extension, and she was just reaching for it, thinking the digits in Quincy’s number, when it began to ring. She picked it up and answered, and she could tell at once from the voice, which was like no other voice in the entire world, that it was Howard’s mother.

“Is that you, Willie?” Howard’s mother said.

“Yes, it is,” Willie said. “It’s me.”

“How are you this morning, my dear?”

Mother Hogan always called Willie her dear, but it was more in patronage than in affection, a motherly tolerance of a son’s inexplicable mistake. Willie hated Mother Hogan’s insides, and she thought now that it was really a shame it wasn’t Mother Hogan who had to be disposed of, instead of Howard.

“I’m all right,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“Is Howard there?”

“He’s here, but I don’t think he can come to the phone.”

“Can’t come? Whyever not?”

“Well, he’s still sleeping.”

“No matter, my dear. Just wake him up.”

“I don’t believe I can do that.”

“My dear, you’re being particularly difficult, if you don’t mind my saying so. Of course you can wake him up. What’s to stop you?”

“As a matter of fact, he’s sick.”

“Sick? What’s the matter with him?”

“Well, he had too much to drink last night, and he’s got a bad headache and this terribly upset stomach.”

“Howard had too much to drink? Nonsense, my dear. Howard never has too much to drink.”

“Sometimes he does, and last night he did.”

“Have you called Dr. Wheeler?”

“It isn’t necessary to call a doctor for a hangover.”

“Hangover indeed! I’m positive Howard has no such thing. Really, Willie, you would probably let him lie right there and die of something serious and insist all the time that he’d only had too much to drink.”

“He doesn’t have anything serious, damn it. He only has a hangover.”

“You needn’t swear at me, Willie.”

“Did I swear? I’m sorry.”

“I’m coming right over and see how Howard is. I’ll be there immediately.”

“No, no. That’s not possible.”

“What?”

“You can’t come.”

“Are you being deliberately offensive, Willie?”

“Oh, well, I see that I may as well tell you the truth.”

“I should hope so.”

“The truth is, Howard’s not here.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. We had a quarrel last night after getting home from the Club, and he left.”

“That doesn’t sound like Howard at all. You must have driven him to it, Willie.”

“Well, anyhow, he left, and he’s not here.”

“It’s strange that he didn’t come home.”

“Perhaps he’ll come there later.”

“That’s true. He didn’t want to disturb me last night, of course. Probably he went to a hotel, or to a friend’s.”

“You needn’t worry about him, in any case. He’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself.”

“Willie, you’ve never understood Howard in the least, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for upsetting him so.”

“Do you think so? When it comes to that, I’m somewhat upset myself, and if you don’t mind, I don’t believe I care to continue this conversation any longer.”

She hung up and kept on standing there by the telephone, and it was obvious now that she must quit thinking and start doing something at once, for there was no telling who might come and cause all sorts of inconvenience, if not genuine trouble. Again she thought the digits of Quincy’s number, and after thinking them picked up the phone and dialed them. She could hear the bell ringing at the other end of the line. After three rings, Quincy came on.

“Quincy,” Willie said, “you can’t imagine how happy I am to find you in.”

“Are you? Since last night I’ve been thinking you might not be feeling so amiable toward me.”

“Whatever gave you such a fantastic idea? Why shouldn’t I be feeling amiable toward you?”

“Well, with old Howard cutting out the way he did, I had a notion you might be in for a bad time when you got home.”

“Howard was angry, all right, I’ll not deny that. He accused me of all sorts of things.”

“What sorts of things?”

“You know. Being unfaithful and all that.”

“I see. You mean he accused you of being what you were.”

“Are you trying to be unpleasantly funny about it, Quincy? If you are, I wish you wouldn’t.”

“Sorry, Cousin. Is old Howard actually on to us?”

“It’s my opinion he was just guessing and making assumptions and such.”

“That’s a relief. I thought maybe you were calling to warn me to get out of town.”

“Nothing of the sort. What I’ve called you for is to ask you to come over here as quickly as possible.”

“Over to your house?”

“Certainly.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Of course I’m not crazy. I’m thinking very clearly, as a matter of fact, and under the circumstances that’s quite exceptional.”

“Well, I’m not crazy either, Cousin, and I’m thinking just as clearly as you are, and what I’m clearly thinking is that your house is not at present one of the places I ought to come to.”

“You must, Quincy. It’s essential.”

“Look, Cousin, I’m just a little guy. I’m damned if I’m coming over there and get slammed around by a big slob like Howard.”

“You needn’t worry about that. Howard isn’t here.”

“He may come back.”

“No, he won’t. I promise you.”

“How do you know he won’t?”

“I just know, that’s all.”

“I don’t think I’ll take a chance on it.”

“Damn it, Quincy, please don’t be so contrary. Something has happened that I can’t tell you about on the telephone, and you must come right over.”

“You’re sure Howard won’t come back?”

“I’m sure. I promise he won’t, and he won’t.”

“In that case, I’ll come.”

He hung up abruptly, and Willie stood for a few seconds listening to the hum of the dead wire. Then she went back into her bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed and began waiting for Quincy.