There’s Always A Price Tag

Chapter Five

After Solly had gone, I went down to clean the car, and while I worked I thought over what he had told me.

If she was kidding herself that she could handle the National Fidelity as she had the other company she was in for a surprise. The National Fidelity would put her on the ball of its thumb and make a smear of her on a wall.

It seemed to me now that I should have to be content with the two thousand six hundred dollars that Dester had given me and write the insurance money off as an impossible risk.

My mind was still working on the problem when I took the car over to the house.

Dester came down the steps. He paused to light a cigarette before getting into the car.

‘Well, this is it, kid,’ he said. ‘There’ll be no rain check for today. This is my last trip.’

I didn’t say anything: there wasn’t anything to say.

He got into the car.

‘Let’s have the top down. We’ll go in there with the flag flying. I may as well show them I don’t give a damn.’

I put the hood down.

As I drove along the crowded streets towards the Studios, people stared at Dester. The blue-and-cream Rolls was a familiar landmark, and they knew who was in it. They knew too that this was his last day at the Studios. The gossip columns had been full of it this morning. I could see him in the driving mirror as he sat behind me and I handed it to him. He stared back at the staring eyes.

Maybe the guard sensed that this was an important occasion. Anyway, he had the gates open for us as we came up and when he saw Dester, sitting exposed to view, he saluted.

‘Front entrance today,’ Dester said, ‘and pick me up there tonight.’

I took him around to the front entrance and pulled up.

‘When you come back for me, bring a couple of suitcases with you,’ he said as he got out. ‘There’ll be some liquor to shift.’

‘Yes, sir.’

I watched him walk up the steps as if he owned the place and I admired his guts. The doorman hesitated, then opened the door for him, hesitated again, then touched his cap.

I turned the car and drove back to the house.

As I put the Rolls into the garage I saw the Cadillac was there, and that meant Helen was somewhere in the house. I suddenly decided it was time to have a talk with her.

I went up to the apartment above the garage and changed into my new suit. I didn’t intend to talk to her as a chauffeur: this morning’s conference was going to be on level terms.

I went over to the house.

I stood in the hall and listened, but I couldn’t hear a sound that told me where she was. I walked into the lounge. The cigarette-butts in the ashtrays and the used whisky glass on the bar told me she hadn’t been in there as yet. The time was twenty minutes to eleven. It was possible she was still upstairs. I left the lounge and walked up the stairs, taking care to make no noise. I paused outside her bedroom door and listened, then, hearing no sound, I turned the door handle gently and pushed open the door.

The bedclothes had been thrown back. On a chair by her dressing-table were her nylon underwear, her silk stockings and her girdle. The bathroom door was ajar. I could hear the shower going. I stepped into the bedroom, shut the door and walked over to one of the lounging chairs and sat down. I lit a cigarette, thinking that, two years ago, a guy with a weak heart had also sat in her bedroom waiting for her while she stood under a shower. She would find it a little harder to throw me out of a window if the idea entered her lovely head.

After five or six minutes of waiting, I heard the shower turn off. I could hear her moving about in the bathroom. Another five minutes dragged by, then she came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a yellow turkish towelling wrap.

We looked at each other.

She stood motionless, her hand on the door handle, her other hand holding the wrap in place. Her face, without make-up, was pale, but still beautiful. Her eyes were as hard and as cold as two pellets of ice.

‘Hello,’ I said and smiled at her.

‘What are you doing in here?’

‘I wanted to talk to you. It’s time we had a talk.’

‘Get out!’

‘I bet you didn’t say that to Van Tomlin when you came out of the bathroom.’

Her face remained expressionless, but her mouth tightened and that told me I had sunk one in that had shaken her.

She moved into the room, went over to the dressing-table and sat down. ‘You heard what I said — get out!’ She picked up a comb and began to comb her hair, her back half turned to me.

‘Not before I talk to you. We have a lot to talk about: your husband, the other night, your future plans, things like that.’

‘If you don’t get out I’ll telephone for the police.’

‘That’s fine. Go ahead and telephone them. They’ll be interested to hear how you tried to murder Dester the night before last. They get a big bang out of things like that.’

She laid down the comb, turned slowly and faced me. Her face now was chalk white. There was something half hidden behind the white flesh and the bone structure that sent a prickle up my spine.

‘What did you say?’

‘You heard me,’ I said. ‘That was a stupid move of yours. You should be grateful to me for stopping it. You should be very grateful.’

‘Are you drunk? What do you mean?’

‘You know what I mean. You don’t imagine I would have stopped it if I had been sure it was foolproof, do you? But it wasn’t foolproof.’

She continued to stare at me.

‘You must be drunk,’ she said. ‘Get out of here!’

‘I know Dester has insured his life for three-quarters of a million dollars, and you want to get your hands on the money,’ I said. ‘You want that money so badly, you tried to kill him the night before last.’

That jolted her. She stiffened, and her face turned the colour of bleached bones. ‘That’s a lie!’ she said in a voice scarcely above a whisper.

‘You know it’s the truth,’ I said, watching her. ‘The night before last you decided to get rid of him, but I was in the way as all the other servants you have had have been in the way. Don’t think you’ve kidded me. I know how you have got rid of them so you could be alone with Dester. You thought you would have one more attempt to fix him, but you had to be sure I was out of the way. You left me stranded at the Foothills Club as you thought, and came back here and found, as you thought, Dester drunk and incapable. You were going to launch him in the car into the traffic and hope for the best. Only I wasn’t stranded and Dester wasn’t drunk and, besides, the idea wasn’t watertight.’

She looked away, reached for her comb again and began to run it through her silky, copper-coloured hair.

‘I knew you were going to be a nuisance,’ she said as if speaking to herself. ‘I knew it the moment I saw you. Well, what are you going to do about it? Tell the police?’

‘No, I’m not going to tell them. I am on your side,’ I said. ‘If I wasn’t I should have let you drive him down to the gates. I didn’t know he was faking. If he had been drunk and had hit something, you would be in jail by now.’

‘Would I?’ She looked at herself in the mirror, then put down the comb, opened a silver cigarette-box that stood on the dressing-table and took out a cigarette. ‘Why?’

‘Because there was no guarantee that he would have been killed. He might have been hurt; he might have come out of it without a scratch. Suppose he had told the police you had put him in the car? Even if they didn’t slap an attempted murder rap on you, they would have tipped the insurance company and that would have been that.’

‘I still don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said, blowing smoke at the reflection of herself in the mirror.

‘You don’t fool me,’ I said, stubbing out my cigarette and lighting another, ‘but okay, if you want it in one syllable words here it is: when Dester dies he will be worth three-quarters of a million. You are his wife. Unless he has willed the money elsewhere, it will come to you. You don’t want to wait until he dies naturally. For all you know he might outlive you. You have decided to help him into his grave. That’s okay if you can do it, but you don’t seem to realize how tricky it is. You have only to make one slip and you’ll kiss that money good-bye for keeps. You’re dealing with the biggest and the most powerful insurance company in the country. You have already made one slip. You’ve shown your husband your hand.’

‘How have I done that?’ she asked.

‘He wasn’t drunk. As soon as you left the garage he came to. He told me he wanted to make sure you would murder him for the insurance money and now he is sure. He said he is going to take care you don’t ever get the money.’

She lifted her eyebrows. ‘Did he say that?’

‘Yes.’

She thought for a moment, then she shrugged her shoulders.

‘Well, that seems to be that then, doesn’t it?’ She looked at me. ‘It is very touching that you should tell me this. Why don’t you go to the police and tell them instead of me?’

‘Don’t be dumb,’ I said. ‘I told you I’m on your side.’

‘Why are you on my side?’

I grinned at her. ‘Take a look in the mirror: that should tell you. Besides, I was planning to take half of what you got from the insurance company.’

She studied me, her face expressionless.

‘What makes you think you would have got it?’

‘You’re not stupid. You would have figured it was better to have half a bun, than no bun at all. If you hadn’t shared with me, I would have blown the lid off your racket.’

‘You couldn’t have proved anything,’ she said.

‘No, but I could have created doubt. I’ve been digging into your past. After seeing the way you handled Dester when he was pretending to be drunk, I can see how easy it was for you to tip Van Tomlin out of the window.’

‘He fell out. I didn’t touch him.’ There was a wary look in her eyes that told me I had jolted her again.

‘That’s your story,’ I said. ‘If I went along to the National Fidelity and told them what I had seen in the garage on Wednesday night and jogged their memory about Van Tomlin, you wouldn’t have a hope in hell of ever collecting Dester’s insurance. They would stick their best dicks on to you. They would investigate Van Tomlin’s death. They would make you sue them for Dester’s insurance, and they would cast so many doubts, paint such a picture of your character that no judge would find for you. They might even hang a murder rap on you. I’ve had some experience with big insurance companies, and you’d be surprised at the antics they get up to so they don’t have to settle a claim.’

She continued to stare at me. ‘So you imagine you’re in a nice, safe position to blackmail me?’

I laughed.

‘I was in a nice, safe position to blackmail you, but you’ve handled it so badly there won’t be any insurance money now for you: nor for me. Dester’s on to you, and he’s going to make sure you don’t get the money. You’ve got to face it.’

‘Have you finished?’ she asked, stubbing out her cigarette.

‘Yes, I’ve finished. I just wanted you to know where you stood. Don’t make plans to knock Dester off. Your only chance is to wait now until he dies of drink. Maybe he’ll have a change of heart and leave you the money in his will, providing you are nice to him. Why not try it? It can’t hurt you. Play ball with him. Win him over. He can’t last much longer at the rate he’s swallowing the stuff.’

‘When I want your advice I’ll ask for it. Now, get out!’ She stood up, facing me.

‘He said you were as cold as an iceberg,’ I said, getting up. ‘I don’t believe it. I’m tempted to find out just how cold you are.’

She didn’t move, but the colour of her eyes darkened.

‘We’re alone here,’ I went on, moving towards her. ‘Do you see any reason why we shouldn’t use this opportunity?’ I got within a foot of her, then reached out, putting my hands on her shoulders. Her hand flashed up towards my face, but I was expecting such a move. I caught her wrist, jerked her to me, twisted her arm behind her and crushed my mouth down on hers. For a long moment she remained rigid, not fighting me off, but her lips hard and unyielding, then she suddenly relaxed against me, her arms slid up and around my neck.

Around twenty minutes past one, I went into her bathroom and took a shower. I was feeling pretty good. My forecast had been accurate. She was no iceberg, and I wished now I had had a bet with Solly when I told him I could thaw her out.

I dressed in the bathroom and returned to the bedroom. She was lying on the bed, covered by the yellow wrap, her hair spread out on the pillow, her eyes closed, her breathing gentle and steady. Her face was flushed. She looked younger and more lovely than I had ever seen her before. I stood at the foot of the bed and looked down at her. Like a relaxed cat, she stretched, opened her eyes and stared up at me.

‘So you really think I’ve got no hope of getting that money?’ she said.

‘Is that all you can think about?’ I said, suddenly irritated that the first words she could speak to me had to be about the money. Up to this moment, she had not spoken a word since I had taken her in my arms.

‘Why not? It’s important, isn’t it? Three-quarters of a million! Think what we could do with all that money.’

Well, at least, she was now including me in the financial scene. I sat on the bed, close to her.

‘He said he was going to make sure you didn’t get it,’ I said. ‘Yesterday he flew up to San Francisco. It’s my bet he’s talked with the insurance people. No, I think you can kiss it good-bye.’

‘His contract runs out today,’ she said, reaching for a cigarette. She put it between her red lips and waited for me to light it. She went on, ‘He’ll stay here night and day, drinking. He’ll have no more credit. They’ll take everything. I might as well pack and get out now.’

‘And where do you think you’ll go?’

She shrugged. ‘I’ve a little money put by. I’ll find someone else. There’s always some fool with money to be found. I think I’ll go to Miami.’

‘Don’t be in too much of a rush,’ I said, lighting a cigarette. ‘Stick with him until the smash. You never know. He might borrow on the policy and square his debts. Three-quarters of a million is quite a piece of money.’

‘He won’t give me any of it. No, I’m going to clear out. I’ve wasted too much time already. I can look after myself.’

‘I’m not so sure that you can,’ I said, looking at her. ‘You may be smart at hooking a guy, but you’re not all that hot when it comes to landing him. You lost thirteen thousand on the Van Tomlin deal. You’ve made a complete mess of the Dester deal. Tell me, did you push Van Tomlin out of the window?’

She stared up at me, her green eyes suddenly empty.

‘No. He fell out. I could have saved him perhaps if I had caught hold of him, but I didn’t. But I didn’t push him out.’

I had an idea she was lying, but I knew it was a waste of time to press her. She had no intention of telling me what really happened.

‘Well, don’t be in too much of a rush. Don’t go today. Wait and see what he’s planning to do when he gets back,’ I said. ‘You never know. Why don’t you have a change of heart? When he comes back, be kind to him. He might part with something. It’s worth trying.’

She grimaced. ‘It’s too late now,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t bear him to touch me. No, I’m going to clear out.’

‘Wait until he comes back,’ I said.

She shrugged. ‘All right, but I shall go tomorrow.’

‘Alone?’

She looked at me. ‘Of course. You don’t imagine I’d want you with me, do you?’

‘You might do worse,’ I said. ‘You and I might work a deluxe badger game. I’m not saying we could pick up three-quarters of a million: that’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but we could pick up quite a lot of spare change. You need a guy like me to handle the financial side of the business. With your looks and my brains we could make a packet of money.’

She smiled. ‘Have you any brains?’

‘You’d be surprised. Look, suppose we both go to Miami. Your job would be to look beautiful and handle the suckers. My job would be to step in at the right moment and milk them. You can’t do that. You may think you can, but it doesn’t work. You need a guy to do it.’

Her expression was thoughtful while she stared out of the window. ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said.

I stood up. ‘Well, don’t leave today. I’ll talk to you again tomorrow. I’m going to get some lunch. Want to come with me?’

She shook her head. ‘No, thank you.’

I stared down at her. She was once more remote and cold; the ice had come back. I didn’t care. Just so long as I could thaw her out when I felt like it, why should I worry how she was in the intervals?

‘I’m picking him up around four. We’ll be back before six.’

‘Yes.’ She was looking beyond me. I wondered what her mind was working at. I bent over her and made to kiss her, but she turned her head with a little grimace. ‘Leave me alone,’ she said sharply. ‘Go away.’

‘The thing I like about you is your endearing nature,’ I said, straightening. ‘Well, okay, please yourself. It’s no skin off my nose.’

‘Do go away,’ she said impatiently. ‘You don’t have to be a bore, do you?’

I wanted then to slap her face. It suddenly dawned on me I had made as much impression on her as a rubber hammer makes on a rock.

I went out of the room and slammed the door behind me.

At four o’clock sharp, I rapped on Dester’s office door, turned the handle and walked in.

He was writing at his desk. He looked up and nodded to me. For the first time I had been in this room, he was sober.

‘Get the bottles packed, kid,’ he said, waving to the cupboard. ‘I won’t be a minute.’

I had brought with me two suitcases. By the time I had packed the bottles, he had finished his letter. He took out an envelope, slid the letter into it and sealed it. He put the letter in his wallet.

‘I guess that’s about everything,’ he said, getting to his feet. ‘Okay, let’s get out of here.’

As he was moving to the door, there was a knock and the door opened.

A girl stood in the doorway: she was tall and thin and as flat as a board. Her hair was scraped back and she wore horn-rimmed spectacles. She was the kind of girl who would never marry and who would finish up in a back bed-sitting room with a couple of cats for company.

She had a bunch of long-stemmed red roses, done up in a tissue-paper sheaf that she held awkwardly and which she offered to Dester.

‘I... I just wanted to say I’m sorry you are going, Mr. Dester,’ she said. ‘There are a lot of us who will miss you. I and they wish you luck.’

Dester stared at her: under his raw, red skin, I could see he had turned white, giving him a horrible, mottled look. He took the roses and held them against his chest. He started to say something, but the words wouldn’t come. For a long moment the girl and he stood looking at each other, then she put her hands to her eyes and began to cry.

He walked around her, still holding the roses and made for the door. There was a look on his face I’ll never forget. I went after him. We walked down the passage, through the reception hall, where everyone stared, and down the steps to the car.

He got into the car and laid the roses on the seat beside him.

‘Get me home,’ he said hoarsely, ‘but first put up this damned hood.’

I pulled up the hood.

By the time I reached the house, he seemed to have recovered, although his face was still blotchy. He got out of the car, carrying the roses and he gave me a stiff, tight smile.

‘It’s a funny thing, but the most unlikely people remember one. That girl — she had some small job at the Studio. I can’t even remember her name.’ He looked at the roses. ‘Nice of her.’ He stood staring at the flowers for a long moment, then with an effort, he snapped out of his depression. ‘Get the liquor up to my bedroom. I want you to come over to the house at eight o’clock tonight. I have a job for you — probably your last job, kid.’

Wondering what it was all about, I said I’d be there.

He turned away, then stopped, his hand going to his breast pocket.

‘Oh, damn it! I meant you to stop so I could mail this letter.’ He took the letter from his wallet. ‘Be a good kid and mail it now for me, will you? Take the car. It’s important.’

‘Yes, sir,’ I said, taking the letter. I slid it into my pocket. Then I picked up the suitcases and hauled them upstairs while I wondered what he wanted to see me about at eight o’clock this evening.

There were thirty bottles of Scotch in the cases. I put them in three neat rows on the top shelf of his wardrobe. Then I went downstairs, and completely forgetting about the letter he had asked me to mail, I put the Rolls away. It was only when I was changing that I found it. I looked at it curiously. It was addressed to: Mr. Edwin Burnett, Holt & Burnett, Attorneys-at-Law, 28th Street, Los Angeles. The nearest post box was a quarter of a mile down the road, and I thought the hell with it. I planned to go out after I had been over to the house and I would post it then.

At five minutes to eight I went over to the house. The clock in the hall was striking the hour when I rapped on Dester’s study door.

‘Come in,’ he called.

I opened the door and went in.

He was sitting behind his big desk, a bottle of Scotch and a glass half full of whisky in front of him. The ashtray was crammed with cigarette-butts. He had been drinking. I could tell that by the sweat beads on his face and the curious glitter in his eyes.

‘Come in and sit down,’ he said. ‘Take that chair over there.’

I wondered what it was all about. I went to the chair and sat down.

He nodded to a box of cigarettes on the desk.

‘Help yourself. Do you want a drink?’

‘No, thank you,’ I said and reached for a cigarette.

‘Did you post that letter?’

‘Yes, sir,’ I said, without batting an eyelid.

‘Thank you.’ He took a long drink, then splashed more whisky into his glass before saying, ‘The reason why I’ve asked you here, kid, is because I want you to be a witness to a conversation I’m going to have with my wife. You might have to give evidence about this conversation before a court of law, so keep your wits about you and try to remember what is said.’

That jolted me. I stared at him.

‘Just sit quiet and say nothing,’ he went on, getting to his feet. He crossed to the door, lurching slightly, opened it and, raising his voice, he called, ‘Helen! Will you come down, please?’

Then he returned to his chair and sat down.

There was a long, heavy silence, then I heard Helen coming down the stairs. A moment later, she entered. She looked at Dester, then at me and she paused.

‘What is it?’ she asked sharply.

‘Come in and sit down,’ Dester said, getting to his feet. ‘I want to talk to you.’

‘What’s he doing here?’ she demanded, not moving.

‘Please, Helen, come in and sit down. I have asked him to be here as an independent witness to what I have to say to you.’

She shrugged, moved to a chair near the desk and sat down. He pushed the cigarette-box towards her.

‘Please smoke if you want to,’ he said.

‘I don’t want to,’ she snapped. ‘What is this?’

He sat down, studied her for a long moment, then lit a cigarette himself. She looked contemptuously at him, then looked pointedly away.

He turned to me.

‘I’m sorry if I’m going to embarrass you, kid,’ he said, ‘but there are a few details you must hear before you will be able to follow what comes after.’ He spoke rapidly, and I could see he was making an effort to keep his voice steady. ‘I married my wife a year ago. When I first met her I thought she was the most wonderful woman in the world. I was crazy about her. I was even worried that something might happen to me and she’d be left without funds. I was so besotted that I insured my life for three-quarters of a million dollars and willed it to her. I told her what I had done because I wanted her to know she would be secure if anything happened to me. I can see her now when I told her. When it sank in that I was worth more to her dead than alive, she couldn’t hide her real feelings for me. She turned frigid. I’m not going to elaborate on that. It sickened her to such an extent to know that I was between her and all that money that she couldn’t bear me to touch her. You have only to look at her, put yourself in my place and think what it means to have a woman like her turn frigid on you, and you can guess how I felt. I was fool enough to start hitting the bottle, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. I began to slip badly in my work. I couldn’t concentrate. I spent money recklessly when I was drunk. Because of her, I’ve ruined myself.’

‘You poor fool,’ Helen broke in. ‘Do you imagine he’s interested in all this drivel? For heaven’s sake, come to the point, if there is a point.’

‘Yes, I’ll come to the point,’ he said, ‘but you won’t like it when I do. Never mind, you have had your run and now you must expect to take what’s coming to you.’ He looked over at me. ‘She wanted the money so badly that she decided to get rid of me. It won’t be necessary to go into details, but I have satisfied myself that she is prepared to murder me for the money. She has already made three futile attempts: one of them you witnessed on Wednesday night. She thought I was drunk enough to take out the Buick and she hoped I would get involved in a smash. She isn’t a clever murderess, and her attempts haven’t succeeded.’

‘You’re drunk,’ she said contemptuously. ‘You don’t know what you’re saying.’

‘I may be drunk, but I do know what I’m saying.’ He took a drink from his glass and went on, ‘But we won’t argue about it. Nash saw what happened on Wednesday night: he is intelligent enough to judge for himself.’ He turned away from me and addressed himself to Helen. ‘Your attempts to get rid of me have been strangely uninspired. Didn’t it ever occur to you that the safest and simplest way was to wait until I was asleep, then shoot me through the head, and leave the gun by my side? Will it surprise you to hear half the movie people here expect me to shoot myself? I have the motive to finish my life. I am a drunk. I’m unhappily married. I have no money and a lot of debts. It would come as no surprise if I did shoot myself. Why didn’t you think of doing that?’

She stared at him. ‘I wanted the money,’ she said. ‘If they thought you had shot yourself, they wouldn’t pay out.’

‘My dear girl, how stupid you are. You had the chance to read the policy. I gave it to you if you remember. If the assured dies by his own hand after the policy has been in force for a year, the company does pay out.’

The look of hatred she gave him sent a creepy sensation up my spine.

‘But don’t imagine you can get away with that now,’ he went on, leaning back in his chair. ‘I have fixed it that in the event of my killing myself there will be no payout. Yesterday, I flew up to San Francisco and met the man in charge of the claims department of the National Fidelity: a man named Maddux. I must say he impressed me. He has a big reputation in the insurance world. He is smart, tough and extremely efficient. It is said of him that he knows instinctively when a claim is a fake or not. He has been with the National Fidelity for fifteen years, and during that time he has sent a large number of people to jail, and eighteen people to the death cell.’

He paused while he took a drink, then he topped up the glass with more whisky.

‘I went to see this man with the intention of cancelling the policy. But on the way up I had an idea. I am probably being vindictive, but after all you ruined my life and the setup that came to me is the kind that would make a good movie — you mustn’t forget I’ve been a good movie maker in my time. Since you have tried to murder me and you have never showed me any kindness, it occurred to me that you should be punished.’

She stiffened, her hands closing into fists.

‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said, watching her. ‘Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t take police action against you. I have no proof. And I don’t want to punish you myself. I’ve thought of a way to give you the opportunity to punish yourself.’

‘I’m not going to listen to much more of this nonsense,’ she said angrily.

‘You should listen because you still have a chance of getting your pretty claws on all that money: not much of a chance, but still a chance.’

It was now my turn to stiffen to attention.

‘Let me tell you about my interview with Maddux,’ Dester went on. ‘When I got this idea about you punishing yourself, I realized I couldn’t tell him the truth. I was anxious to get the suicide clause altered because that would make things too easy for you if I didn’t. So I told him I was an alcoholic with suicidal tendencies, and as I was most anxious that you should come in for the insurance money and that I was also anxious in my sober moments not to kill myself, I thought it would act as a curb if the clause covering payment on suicide was cancelled. I don’t think he believed this explanation, but he was quick enough to cancel the clause.’ He paused to take another drink, and I noticed his hand was very unsteady.

‘So the position is now that if I kill myself or if you murder me and make it look like suicide the company won’t pay out. Do you understand that?’

She didn’t say anything. She was staring at the opposite wall, her brows creased in a frown: but she was listening.

‘Some weeks ago,’ he went on, ‘I decided that when my contract ran out I would shoot myself.’

She reacted to this as I did. She looked quickly at him.

‘I realized once my contract ran out, I would have no future,’ he went on calmly. ‘I should be without funds and heavily in debt. I shrank from the idea of bankruptcy. Well, my contract has run out, there is no money and I am still very much in debt, so sometime tonight I am going to end my life.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ Helen said, her voice harsh. ‘Anyway, do you think I care what you do?’

‘No, I don’t think you do,’ he returned. ‘That is not the point. Very soon now I shall shoot myself in this room. It is unlikely that anyone except you and Nash will hear the shot. Now listen to this very carefully: you will have a few hours — not more — to turn this suicide into murder. You won’t be able to turn it into an accident: people don’t accidentally shoot themselves through the head.’

She was staring at him now as if she had thought he had gone crazy.

‘If the police say I have killed myself, the insurance company won’t pay out. But if the police say I have been murdered, then the insurance company will have to pay out. Are you following all this? Can you see the trap I am setting for you? Now do you see what I mean when I told you I am giving you the opportunity of punishing yourself? The bait in the trap is worth three-quarters of a million. You have only to fake clues, tell enough lies to turn my suicide into a murder, and then — if you have been very clever and you haven’t made any mistakes — you will get the money.’

Something cold dropped on to my hand. I found I was sweating. Looking across at Helen, I saw her face was white and she was as rigid as a statue.

‘I don’t know what happens when one dies,’ Dester went on, ‘but odd things can happen. It may be I shall be able to watch you after I am dead. I hope so for it will be amusing.’ He lit another cigarette while he stared at Helen. ‘I have an idea you won’t be able to resist the bait. You will try to turn my suicide into murder. I don’t think you are clever enough to pull it off, not against a man of Maddux’s brains. It is only fair to warn you that he is exceptional. You could so easily make a mistake and you might then find yourself charged with my murder, which would be rather funny considering you have already tried to murder me, wouldn’t it? I have made it still more complicated for you by asking Nash here to listen to all this. But he may not be impossibly difficult. You have a way with men, and it is possible you may persuade him to keep his mouth shut or even help you. After all, three-quarters of a million is a very large sum, and in return for a share in the money, he might be persuaded to help you.’

Helen jumped to her feet

‘I’m not listening to any more of this!’ she exclaimed. ‘You drunken fool! You wouldn’t have the nerve to kill yourself. Keep your rotten money! I don’t want it! There are plenty of other fish in the sea besides you! Go to hell and stay there!’

She flung back the door and stormed out into the hall. I watched her run up the stairs, and a moment later, a door slammed violently.

I got up. I was sweating and shaking.

‘And I guess I don’t want to hear any more either,’ I said, and without looking at him I walked into the hall, jerked open the front door and walked down the steps.

I was halfway to the garage when I heard the sound of a shot. The bans rattled the windows of the house and stopped me as if I had walked into a wall.

For a long moment I stood motionless, then turning, I ran back to the house and up the steps and into the hall.

At the head of the stairs, white-faced, her eyes wide, was Helen.

I looked up at her.

‘Go and see,’ she said in a hoarse whisper. I braced myself, then crossed the hall and opened the study door.