There’s Always A Price Tag

Chapter Eight

On Monday afternoon, Edwin Burnett arrived. He was short, plump, suave and immaculate.

Helen handled him beautifully. From my vantage point at the head of the stairs I could hear the scarcely conquered tears in her voice as she told him how Dester was so much worse and was now having hallucinations.

Burnett seemed pretty shocked.

‘You can’t remain in the same house with him if he is like that. He should be in a home.’

That gave her her opening. She told him Dester had agreed to go to the Belle View sanatorium. He was so ashamed of himself he had begged her not to tell anyone that he was going. Then she got around to the rumour and his creditors.

I gave her full marks. She almost convinced me. Burnett agreed that there was no point in letting anyone know that Dester was going into the sanatorium. If they were fools enough to believe rumours then that was their lookout. But he went on to warn Helen that it was unlikely Dester would ever be in a position to pay his debts.

‘It might be possible, to arrange some kind of settlement for you before the crash comes,’ he went on. ‘That is if you would be willing to divorce him. There should be a few thousand left, and I think I could get it for you.’

‘I couldn’t desert him, Edwin,’ Helen said. ‘It is now he really needs me. I know we haven’t got on well together in the past. He has been so exasperating, but now that he is really down, I couldn’t leave him.’

They went on like this for half an hour, then she brought the subject around to me. She told Burnett how I had saved Dester’s life, how he had engaged me as his chauffeur and how I had looked after him.

‘He really is useful, Edwin. In fact I don’t know what I should do without him. Erle is violent sometimes and Nash is so good with him.’

She called me down and when I got into the lounge, Burnett looked me over. His steel grey eyes lost their expression of charm and compassion, and I saw only the eyes a criminal in the dock would see.

Helen introduced us and I was pretty deferential. We talked of this and that for a few moments, then Helen did a nothing-up-my-sleeve, nothing-in-my-hand act when she said, ‘Mr. Nash sleeps in the apartment over the garage. I have Marian with me in the house. If I hear Erle in the night, I phone across to Mr. Nash. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that he is looking after Erle, but he can’t go on having interrupted nights. It’s time Erle went to the sanatorium.’

‘I don’t mind,’ I said. ‘I like him. We get on all right.’

‘Well, is there anything I can do? Would you like me to go up and talk to him?’ Burnett asked, after sneaking a quick look at his watch.

‘I don’t think he feels like seeing anyone,’ Helen said. ‘I am taking him to the Belle View next Sunday. I’m hoping when he comes out, he’ll be all right again. I can’t believe he won’t ever make any more pictures. I’ve suggested we go to New York. He might start again there.’

Burnett shrugged. ‘Don’t rely on it, Helen. I think you’d be a lot wiser to divorce him. He’s always going to be in trouble from now on.’

‘You know about his affairs better than I do,’ she said as I moved away so as to let them talk. ‘Is there really some money left, Edwin?’

‘Not much I’m afraid; a few thousands, but once his creditors move in, there won’t be anything left. He’ll have to sell up. Have you any idea how much he owes?’

‘Mr. Nash probably knows.’ She turned to me. ‘You can tell Mr. Burnett how much he owes, can’t you?’

‘I haven’t got exact figures,’ I said, ‘but it must be something like twenty-five thousand.’

Burnett shrugged.

‘Well, if he can’t pay, he’ll have to go bankrupt. This isn’t going to be nice for you, Helen.’

Then she said something that turned me as cold as a splinter of ice. She said, ‘He’s not insured, I suppose? Nothing he could borrow money on?’

‘There’s a life policy I believe,’ Burnett returned. ‘I know he mentioned taking one out soon after he married you, but he didn’t tell me what it is worth. Of course, if it is for a substantial amount he could borrow on it.’

‘Well, that’s something.’ She smiled. ‘I’ll have to talk to him about it. Better to borrow on it than go bankrupt.’

‘I don’t know.’ Burnett scratched the end of his fat nose. ‘After all, at the rate he is going, Helen, he won’t last very long. I don’t want to distress you, but drinking the way he does could finish him off quicker than you think. The money would then come to you. If he borrows on the policy there won’t be much left when he dies and you’ve got to think of yourself.’

‘Oh, no. I can always look after myself.’ She lifted her head proudly. It was a good act and I saw now why she had dragged in the policy. ‘I would much rather him borrow the money on the policy than for him to go bankrupt.’

Burnett looked approvingly at her.

‘It does you credit, Helen. Damn it! It really does. Well, it may not come to that. Let me know how he gets on and if I can do anything. You have only to call me.’

He shook hands cordially enough with me, and then Helen saw him to the door. They stood talking for a few moments, then he got into his chauffeur-driven car and was driven off.

She came back and we looked at each other.

‘Pretty smart: the ever-loving, ever-sacrificing wife,’ I said. ‘For a moment you gave me a heart attack when you mentioned the policy.’

She lifted her shoulders. ‘It was the way to do it.’

‘Yes. Well, that’s the first hurdle taken care of. He’s on our side now and we’ll need him. Where’s Marian?’

‘In the garden.’

‘Okay. I’ll get back to the garage. We don’t want to be alone together.’

Her full red lips twisted into a sneer.

‘She’s weeding the rose bed,’ she said. ‘You don’t fool me. I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at her. Can’t you leave any woman alone?’

I felt the blood mount to my face. I had to hold on to myself or I would have crossed the room and slapped her.

‘It’s your rotten mind,’ I said angrily. ‘I don’t go for kids like her.’

‘Tell that to the marines,’ she said, and moving past me, she went up the stairs.

I walked into the garden to cool off. I had no wrong feelings about Marian. Okay, the kid interested me. I liked to watch her. She was young and graceful and quick and pretty. I liked to talk to her too. She had more in her head than any other girl I had ever met. There hadn’t been much to do in the house that morning and we had had time to talk. The kid just interested me. Helen’s rotten insinuation made me feel sick.

The next day, some of the newspapers carried stories about Dester, hinting that he was moving into television. One columnist, who had obviously been talking to Hammerstock, said Dester would soon be among the highest-paid producers in television. And that was just the story I wanted to see printed.

I was so elated I took the paper over to the house with the intention of showing it to Helen, but she was in her bath so I wandered down the long passage into the kitchen where Marian was sitting on a stool at the kitchen table, cleaning the silver.

She looked cute in a blue-and-white overall, and she glanced up as I came in and gave me a smile.

I’ve had a lot of experience with women, and that smile made my heart skip a beat. It wasn’t a come-on smile: nothing like that, but there was a hint of shyness in it I hadn’t seen before that told me I interested her as much as she interested me, and to my surprise I got a bang out of it.

‘Hello there,’ I said, sitting on the edge of the table. ‘Let me give you a hand. I’m good at silver.’

She passed me the polishing cloth. I talked of this and that for twenty minutes or so while we polished the silver, then I got around to the new movie that was showing that night at the Casino theatre.

‘I wouldn’t mind seeing it,’ I said. ‘I go for Bogart. How about you coming with me?’

She looked up, her eyes eager. ‘I’d love to, but perhaps Mrs. Dester can’t spare me.’

‘Oh, sure. You don’t have to work twenty-four hours a day. That’ll be okay. I’ll tell her. I’ll meet you at the gate at seven. Okay?’

‘Thanks. I’d love to. I think Bogart’s keen myself. If you’re sure.’

I found myself staring beyond her at the deep-freeze cabinet that stood against the wall. It gave me a sudden sick feeling as I visualized how Dester had looked the last time I had lifted the lid. I looked at the neat stack of bottles on the top of the cabinet, then I dragged my eyes away.

But there was something wrong. I couldn’t make up my mind what it was, but there was something.

Then suddenly it jelled. I knew what was wrong! It hit me with the force of a sledge hammer.

The motor of the cabinet was no longer running!

‘Is there anything the matter?’

Marian’s voice came to me from out of a long, dark tunnel. Somehow I dragged my eyes from the deep-freeze cabinet and looked at her.

‘What did you say?’ I asked stupidly.

She pushed back the stool and stood up. Her face was startled; fear was rising in her eyes. ‘What is it?’

I got hold of myself. I was in such a panic I could have thrown up.

‘What’s the matter, Mr. Nash? Aren’t you well?’

I grinned at her. My mouth felt frozen.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I feel pretty bad. Something maybe that’s disagreed with me. Don’t look so scared. I’ll be all right.’

She came quickly to me and put a cool hand on my forehead. I suddenly wanted to let her hold me, shut me out of the nightmare of Dester, the deep-freeze and what I had got myself into.

‘You’d better lie down.’

I made a bigger effort, pulled away from her and patted her shoulder.

‘I’m all right. Will you go into the lounge and get me a big whisky? I’ll be fine after a drink.’

She went quickly out of the kitchen and I heard her running down the passage towards the lounge. Slowly, I went over to the freezer. The switch that controlled the motor was fixed to the wall just by the cabinet. Someone had turned it off. Gently, with a shaking hand, I turned the switch down and heard the motor rumble into life. How long had it been off? What effect had it had on Dester? The temperature in the freezer was such that if the motor failed or was turned off, there would be no change in the contents of the freezer for at least four hours. Had it been off longer than that? Had this mysterious turn-off ruined my plan?

I turned off the switch and was moving away from the cabinet when Marian returned, a glass of neat whisky in her hand. I took it from her and tipped the contents down my throat. Then I set down the glass and smiled at her.

‘I’m okay now. I’m sorry if I scared you. I must have eaten something.’ I let it hang in the air.

‘Are you sure you are all right?’

She stood close to me, looking up at me, her Wedgwood-blue eyes anxious. I think that was the moment when I fell in love with her, although it had been coming on now for the past hours. But I think this was the moment when I became aware of it. I didn’t want to grab her: not that kind of love. I wanted her to put her arms around me and make me feel cared for and safe.

‘I’m fine now,’ I said, moving away from her because I didn’t trust myself that close to her. It was an experience I had never known before — to back away from a girl, and it shook me. ‘I don’t know what got hold of me.’ I looked across at the deep-freeze cabinet again. ‘Sounds as if the motor’s off.’

‘Shouldn’t it be? I turned it off.’

I passed my tongue over my dry lips.

‘When did you do that?’

‘Oh, about twenty minutes ago. Mrs. Dester said it was empty. It seemed odd to me to leave the motor running. I’m like that, I hate waste.’ She smiled. ‘So I turned it off.’

I crossed the room and flicked down the switch.

‘Maybe you’ve never seen the inside of one of these things,’ I said. ‘After they’ve been in use some time they get a heavy coating of frost. If you turn off the motor, the frost thaws and the cabinet gets a lining of water. That’s not good for it. So we keep the motor running because we never know when we’re going to put something in the freezer.’

My voice sounded strange to my ears, but the story seemed to go down all right.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I won’t touch it again.’

‘No harm done. The frost stays as it is for four hours or so after the motor’s turned off.’ I started for the door. ‘Well, I’ve got to be moving along. I’ll see you tonight. You won’t forget?’

She said she wouldn’t forget.

It took me most of the day to get over the shock, but I got over it, and I didn’t tell Helen.

We went to the movie that night. We went dancing on Wednesday night. On Thursday night I arranged to take her to the Foothills Club.

While all the evening activity between Marian and me was going on, Helen and I were working on the plan during the day. She would give Marian some task to keep her busy, and then slip across to the garage apartment and we’d get down to the details of the plan. There was a lot to work out: we had to have our stories pat. I found she was every bit as good at inventing as I was.

On this Thursday evening, she had been with me since three o’clock. We had nearly got the background of the plan worked out. It was now getting on for twenty minutes to seven, and I had promised to meet Marian at the gates at seven. Helen showed no signs of going and I was getting restless.

‘Well, okay, we needn’t drive it into the ground,’ I said. ‘We’ve got nearly everything lined up and we’ve still got until Sunday. I’m going to change now. I’m going out.’

She sat in a lounging chair, watching me, a jeering expression in her eyes.

‘I thought tonight we might go out together, Glyn,’ she said. ‘I’ve been neglecting you.’

I looked at her and it gave me a shock to realize how my feelings towards her had changed. At one time, just to look at that beautiful lush body and into those hard, glittering eyes, would have turned me into a pot of mush, but not now. I could see beyond the beauty. I knew what that cold, lovely mask of her face hid. I had learned better.

‘It’s not safe for us to be seen together, Helen. You know that.’

‘All right. Then let’s make a night of it here. I’m in the mood tonight.’

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a date.’

She crossed one shapely leg over the other and smiled at me. ‘May I ask who with?’

‘That’s my affair.’

‘I hope it’s not with Marian, because she’s doing a job for me that’ll keep her busy until her bedtime.’

I looked at her, feeling the blood rise to my face.

‘She’s coming out with me tonight.’

‘I’ve already told her she is not to go out. After all, Glyn, I engaged her. She is my servant and she takes her orders from me.’ She got slowly to her feet. ‘You mustn’t forget you’re only the hired help yourself: the unofficial nursemaid to a dead man. Don’t forget that, Glyn.’

‘Marian and I are going out tonight,’ I said evenly. ‘Tell her you don’t want her. Do you hear?’

She laughed. ‘Don’t be a fool. A girl like that is no use to you, and you are no use to her. You’d better stop this before it goes too far. You and I are linked together: not you and she.’

‘She’s going out with me tonight.’

‘All right, if you want to make a fool of yourself, go and tell her. She won’t go with you, and she’ll wonder why the hired help thinks he can countermand an order from me.’

She had me.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Then get out of here.’

She stared at me, lifting her beautiful eyebrows.

‘I said I was in the mood, Glyn.’

‘Get the hell out of here!’ I said, glaring at her. ‘I don’t give a damn what mood you’re in.’

‘So you are in love with her, you poor fool,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t have believed it.’

She turned and went out of the room and down the stairs, leaving me hating her as I had never hated any other woman before.

I spent the rest of the evening sitting in an armchair, a bottle of Scotch within reach, while I thought of what I could have been doing if Helen hadn’t shoved in her oar, and cursing her.

I wondered how Marian was feeling about it, and I had an idea that although she would be disappointed, she wouldn’t be surprised. Each night she had gone out with me, she seemed to wonder why Helen didn’t want her.

Around ten-thirty I got fed up with my own company. I got to my feet, turned off the light and went over to the house. The lights were on in the lounge. I didn’t go in, but moved around the path until I could see through the window.

Helen was reading and smoking. Marian was sitting away from her, busily sewing some white silk thing that probably Helen had given her. The gramophone was playing. I stood out in the darkness watching Marian, listening to the music until the record finished, then as she got up to turn off the gramophone, I walked back to my apartment, undressed and got into bed. I lit a cigarette and lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

I knew now that I was in love with Marian. I knew too that I wanted to marry her. This was the first time I had ever wanted to marry a girl, and the thought gave me a queer feeling of excitement. She and I, I told myself, could go to Rome together. She could go on with her studies, and I’d be around to love her, to listen to her talk, to see the things with her that she wanted to see in Rome.

I wondered then if I should go ahead with this plan of mine to get hold of the insurance money. Suppose Marian found out what I was planning to do? I didn’t have to wonder how she would react. It would be the finish between us. But if I didn’t go ahead where was the money to come from to marry her and take her to Rome?

I lay thinking and smoking until well past two getting nowhere. I was half inclined now to chuck the plan, but I kept thinking of the dollars. This was my one chance of laying my hands on real money. If I didn’t go ahead, I would have to start working again and I knew what that meant. Thirty bucks a week, liquor, talk, and plodding from office to office; that wasn’t the kind of life I would want to share with Marian.

Sick of my thoughts, I swung my legs off the bed and got up. I decided to take a bath in the hope I’d go to sleep when I returned to my bed, and as I moved over to the bathroom, I happened to look out of the window that overlooked the west side of the house. I stopped, standing motionless, feeling my heart skip a beat. I could see the kitchen window with the moonlight reflecting on the glass. I saw a flicker of a light from behind the window as if someone had turned on a flashlight for a moment and then turned it off.

With shaking hands I pushed open my window and leaned out, staring towards the kitchen window. I saw the light again, then suddenly the lights in the kitchen went on.

What was happening? Who was in the kitchen? Was it Helen or Marian or some sneak thief?

I turned, grabbed up my dressing gown, flung it on and went out of the apartment and down the stairs as fast as I could travel. I raced across the closely cut lawn and reached the kitchen window, my breath whistling between my clenched teeth and my heart pounding.

Cautiously, I looked through the uncurtained window, and what I saw going on in the kitchen made the hair on the back of my neck lift into bristles.

Marian was standing by the deep-freeze cabinet. She was wearing a pair of pale blue nylon pyjamas and her feet were bare. She was removing the bottles of whisky from the top of the cabinet. As I watched her, I realized she must have been in the kitchen some minutes, for there were only six more bottles to come off the top before she had stripped it clear.

Fifteen yards from where I was standing was the back door that opened on to a short passage that led to the kitchen. I left the window and darted to the door, turned the handle and pushed, but the door was locked and bolted. I wasted three precious minutes while I tried to force the door open by putting my shoulder against the panels and shoving with all my strength. I might just as well have tried to push over the Empire State Building for all the reaction I got.

I was in the worst panic I’d ever been in: so scared I couldn’t think. When it dawned on me that I couldn’t get in by the door, I blundered back to the window with the intention of hammering on the glass to stop her opening the cabinet, but when I got back to the window, I saw I was too late. She had cleared off the last bottle, and even as I looked through the window, my breath rattling against the back of my throat, my heart racing, I saw her lift the lid and look inside.

Her back was turned to me so I couldn’t see her face. I expected her to drop the lid, start back and begin to scream loud enough to take the roof off, but she didn’t. She stood absolutely motionless, her hands holding up the lid of the cabinet, her dark, glossy head inclined forward as she looked into the cabinet.

It was then that my mind began to function, and I saw that the window-latch hadn’t been fastened. I got my fingernails under the window-frame and pushed it up. As I did so, she slowly shut the lid. Then she turned, and for the first time since I had arrived at the window, I could see her face. It was completely expressionless, and her big, blue eyes were as vacant and empty as the eyes of the dead.

I realized with a sense of shock that jarred me down to my heels that she was walking in her sleep.

Then, just as I was getting over that shock, I ran into another for, looking across the kitchen to the half-open door, I saw Helen standing in the doorway, her cold, beautiful face set and white and her green eyes glittering. I saw she had a .25 automatic in her hand which she was pointing at Marian.

‘Wait!’ I said in a forced whisper. ‘Don’t move.’

She looked across at me, then at Marian who was now methodically putting the bottles back on the top of the cabinet.

I swung my leg over the window-sill and slid into the kitchen. ‘She’s walking in her sleep,’ I said. ‘Don’t wake her.’

Helen lowered her gun hand. She drew in a long, slow breath. I could see her breasts rising and falling under the oyster-coloured wrap.

I circled the room until I reached her.

‘She’s seen inside,’ she said softly.

‘She’s asleep.’

‘I don’t care. We’ve got to get rid of her!’

‘Keep your voice down. We mustn’t wake her.’

We stood away from the door and watched Marian replace the bottles. It took her some time, but finally she put the last bottle in place. She had put the bottles back exactly as she had found them. If I hadn’t seen her move them, I wouldn’t have known they had been touched.

Then she turned and walked slowly to the door, turned off the light, switched on her flashlight and went down the passage. We stood in the darkness, listening. We heard her mount the stairs. A few seconds later, we heard a door close quietly.

I reached out and put on the light.

‘She saw him!’ Helen said fiercely. ‘She’ll remember. We’ll have to silence her.’

There was a vicious, murderous expression in her green eyes that shocked me.

‘She was sleepwalking,’ I said. ‘She won’t remember. She didn’t even see him. She went through the motions of opening the cabinet, but she wouldn’t know what was in it.’

‘How do you know? It would be safer if she met with an accident.’

‘Are you crazy?’ I faced her. ‘That’s the last thing that’s going to happen. If there’s a death here before they find Dester, we’ll be in trouble.’

‘Not the way I’d arrange it. I’d take her up on the roof and push her off. We could always say she was walking in her sleep.’

Her cold-blooded, matter-of-fact tone chilled me.

‘I said no, and I mean no. She won’t remember. I’m sure she won’t.’

She studied me, her face had a scraped bony look to it that made it seem as if it were chiselled out of stone.

‘You want to keep her alive because you’re in love with her,’ she said. ‘Well, I’m not going to endanger our plan because you’ve happened to fall in love with the little fool. I’m going to silence her.’

I reached out and grabbed hold of her shoulders, forcing her against the wall.

‘I warn you: if you touch her I’ll tell the police where he is! I mean it! You leave her alone or you’ll never get the money!’

She wrenched free from my grip, her face white, her eyes on fire.

‘All right, if you must act like a fool, then act like one, but you’ll be sorry!’

She side-stepped me and went quickly out of the kitchen and up the stairs. For a long moment I stood looking after her then, when I heard her bedroom door click to, I went up to Marian’s room. I listened outside the door then, hearing nothing, I gently eased the door open and looked in.

The moonlight fell directly across the bed. I could see Marian as she lay with her head on the pillow. Moving quietly into the room, I stood at the foot of the bed, looking down at her.

She slept restlessly, murmuring and moving her head to and fro. Then suddenly she opened her eyes and lifted her head. She stared at me, catching her breath in a soft, strangled scream.

‘It’s all right,’ I said quickly. ‘It’s only me.’

She sat up, pulling the bedclothes up in front of her, her eyes alarmed.

‘I just wanted to see if you were all right,’ I went on. ‘You’ve been walking in your sleep.’

‘Have I? You frightened me,’ she said, and relaxed back on the pillow. ‘I’ve been walking in my sleep?’

‘Yes. I saw a light on in the kitchen. I came over. You were taking all those bottles off the top of the deep-freeze.’

I watched her closely as I was speaking, but her face showed only surprise and bewilderment.

‘I did dream about the cabinet. I was worried about the water in it. You said because I turned off the motor.’

I drew in a long, deep breath. It was all right. She hadn’t seen him. She couldn’t speak like this if she had.

‘You silly kid, there was nothing to worry about. I told you it doesn’t thaw out for at least four hours. You gave me a scare. I thought it was a burglar.’

‘I’m sorry. I haven’t walked in my sleep for months.’

‘Well, don’t do it again. I didn’t mean to frighten you, but I wanted to see if you were all right.’

She looked up at me, her eyes bright, a faint flush on her face.

‘I’m all right.’

I came around the side of the bed. She smiled up at me and held out her hand. I took it, then I bent and kissed her. For a long moment our lips remained together, then I drew back.

‘Go to sleep, kid.’

‘All right. Good night, Glyn.’

I went out of the room and closed the door. As I walked down the passage, I felt I was treading on air.