“More pills?”
“No thanks. It doesn’t matter whether I sleep. I feel a lot better.”
“Did I hit right about that shot? It was just a crazy bit of acting?”
“More or less.” He turned his head away. “I guess I was light-headed.”
“Nobody can stop you from killing yourself, if you really want to. I realize that. So do you.”
“Yes.” He was still looking away. “Did you do what I asked you—that stuff in the typewriter?”
“Uh huh. I’m surprised you remember. It’s pretty crazy writing. Funny thing, it’s clearly typed.”
“I can always do that—drunk or sober—up to a point anyway.”
“Don’t worry about Candy,” I said. “You’re wrong about his not liking you. And I was wrong to say nobody did. I was trying to jar Eileen, make her mad.”
“Why?”
“She pulled one faint already tonight.”
He shook his head slightly. “Eileen never faints.”
“Then it was a phony.”
He didn’t like that either.
“What did you mean—a good man died for you?” I asked.
He frowned, thinking about it. “Just rubbish. I told you I had a dream—”
“I’m talking about that gaff you typed out.”
He looked at me now, turning his head on the pillow as if it had enormous weight. “Another dream.”
“I’ll try again. What’s Candy got on you?”
“Shove it, Jack,” he said, and closed his eyes.
I got up and closed the door. “You can’t run forever, Wade. Candy could be a blackmailer, sure. Easy. He could even be nice about it—like you and lift your dough at the same time. What is it—a woman?”
“You believe that fool, Loring,” he said with his eyes closed.
“Not exactly. What about the sister—the one that’s dead?”
It was a wild pitch in a sense but it happened to split the plate. His eyes snapped wide open. A bubble of saliva showed on his lips.
“Is that—why you’re here?” he asked slowly, and in a whispering voice.
“You know better. I was invited. You invited me.”
His head rolled back and forth on the pillow. In spite of the seconal he was eaten up by his nerves. His face was covered with sweat.
“I’m not the first loving husband who has been an adulterer. Leave me alone, damn you. Leave me alone.”
I went into the bathroom and got a face towel and wiped his face off. I grinned at him sneeringly. I was the heel to end all heels. Wait until the man is down, then kick him and kick him again. He’s weak. He can’t resist or kick back.
“One of these days we’ll get together on it,” I said.
“I’m not crazy,” he said.
“You just hope you’re not crazy.”
“I’ve been living in hell. ”
“Oh sure. That’s obvious. The interesting point is why. Here—take this.” I had another seconal out of the night table and another glass of water. He got up on one elbow and grabbed for the glass and missed it by a good four inches. I put it in his hand. He managed to drink and swallow his pill. Then he lay back flat and deflated, his face drained of emotion. His nose had that pinched look. He could almost have been a dead man. He wasn’t throwing anybody down any stairs tonight. Most likely not any night.
When his eyelids got heavy I went out of the room. The weight of the Webley was against my hip, dragging at my pocket. I started back downstairs again. Eileen’s door was open. Her room was dark but there was enough light from the moon to frame her standing just inside the door. She called out something that sounded like a name, but it wasn’t mine. I stepped close to her.
“Keep your voice down,” I said. “He’s gone back to sleep.”
“I always knew you would come back,” she said softly. “Even after ten years.”
I peered at her. One of us was goofy.
“Shut the door,” she said in the same caressing voice. “All these years I have kept myself for you.”
I turned and shut the door. It seemed like a good idea at the moment. When I faced her she was already falling towards me. So I caught her. I damn well had to. She pressed herself hard against me and her hair brushed my face. Her mouth came up to be kissed. She was trembling. Her lips opened and her teeth opened and her tongue darted. Then her hands dropped and jerked at something and the robe she was wearing came open and underneath it she was as naked as September Morn but a darn sight less coy.
“Put me on the bed,” she breathed.
