I opened the door and let Professor Hermann in.
“I don’t see how you did it!” I shook my head and tried not to shake anything else.
“It was simple. The newspaper tells the story, does it not? A drunken driver, stalled on the tracks near the curve at La Placentia, just outside of town. The express hit the car, dragged it for a quarter of a mile. Michael Drayton, 31, husband of Imperial starlet Lorna Lewis. Wife hysterical at news of accidental death.” The Professor shrugged and put down the paper. “End of story.”
“Didn’t they find water in his lungs?”
“There was no water left, thanks to Miss Bauer’s work. I checked on that. Lorna’s story about smashing the station wagon gave me the idea of what to do. I told her it would cost her a car. She gave it to me without question. I bundled the body into the back and drove over in time to catch the train that comes through at 4:10 A.M. It was still dark and the side road was deserted. I got out, stalled the motor and propped Mike up in the front seat. Then there was nothing to do but wait for the express to come, and watch it hit. The car was smashed to bits, and I suppose that Mike—”
He saw my face and broke off without finishing the sentence. “I walked a few miles and caught a bus,” he concluded. “Then I phoned Lorna Lewis and told her what to say when she was notified. After that I went home to sleep. I slept until I knew it was time to get up and look at the newspapers.”
The Professor told it that way, without inflection, without emotion. I began to feel cold all over.
“You make it sound so simple,” I said. “But if you hadn’t figured it out, I’d be finished. The whole thing is like a nightmare, from the beginning. It was all an accident, you know. But I could never prove that. Maybe he was no damned good, maybe he had it coming—but I’m still to blame. And you saved me. I don’t quite know how to say it —”
He sat there, smiling at me. “Never mind. I understand. You can forget last night. It was just lucky that I happened to be there.”
The black hat came off. The bald head bobbed, an animated skull. I shuddered and lit a cigarette. He was right, better drop it. I was lucky, lucky he happened to be there.
“What’s the matter?” asked Professor Hermann.
“Nothing. I was just thinking. How come you didn’t give me any instructions for the party last night?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You remember, you were going to build me up with Lorna.”
“I did. I spent much time talking of you.”
“Yeah. But you didn’t tell me what to do with her. You left me alone, disappeared.”
“I saw that you were getting along all right. There was no need to stay.”
“But you came back.”
“I phoned you, from the filling station, after midnight. I got worried when there was no answer.”
“Didn’t you figure I might be keeping a date with the lady?”
“Yes, of course. But I wanted to check on you.” He smiled. “You know, I am very careful about everything I plan.”
“You must have been.”
“What do you mean?”
I stood up. “I mean, the whole thing looks funny to me now. How did you know where to find us when you returned? How did you know we weren’t in the house, upstairs? Yes, and Mike Drayton—he was supposed to have passed out, with a bottle. What made him come to the coach house and surprise us?”
The top of his head had the dull lustre of old ivory. I stared down at him.
“You’ve told me yourself that you never leave anything to luck. Things just don’t happen by chance when you have a hand in them. So it has to be this way. You went upstairs and woke Mike. You told him where we’d be. You sent him to us, knowing there’d be a quarrel, a fight. Perhaps you even planned on murder.”
“Sit down—you don’t know what you’re saying! You sound like Lorna Lewis, now.”
“Well, I’m not Lorna. I’m not a hysterical little fool. I know what I’m saying, and I know you. You did plan it this way, didn’t you? All of it, from the beginning?”
He looked up at me and smiled. His mouth smiled, but his eyes didn’t change. They looked blank, empty: just holes in an old ivory skull.
“Yes,” he murmured. “There is no reason why you shouldn’t know. I planned it this way.”
“But why—why would you do such a thing?”
“Relax. Keep your voice low. I’ll tell you. Better still, I’ll show you. Next month, on the first, when I get a check from Lorna Lewis for a thousand dollars. Consultation fee. There will be such a check, every month, from now on.”
“Blackmail.”
“I do not like that word.”
“I don’t like what you did. I don’t like the way you messed me up in this deal. Why did it have to be me?”
“It just worked out that way. It seemed—”
“Never mind how it seemed! Nothing just works out around you. You had a reason. I want to know.”
“Very well, my young friend. You will know. I’m sorry you forced me to say this, but perhaps it’s for the best.” The skull leaned forward. The eyes, dead no longer, bored through my scowl.
“I have plans for you, big plans. I have taught you many things and you will learn more. In a short time now, you will be Judson Roberts—a man with a reputation, with contacts. You’ll be meeting the public and I’ll be in the background, and the money will roll in. Just as I promised.
“And I know you. In a little while you’d start getting delusions of grandeur. You’d begin to wonder why you couldn’t run the show alone, why you must continue to play Trilby to my Svengali. And you’d try to dump me.
“Mind, I don’t say you’d succeed. But you’d try.” He nodded slowly, confidentially. “So to protect myself, I planned this. And it has worked. Now you won’t try to step out of line. Because you’re involved in a murder. You know it and Lorna Lewis knows it. But more important still, I know it. And I’m not afraid to talk if I must.”
I smirked. “I can just hear you talking, Professor! Why, you’re an accessory—”
“Perhaps. It might cost me a year or two in prison. But you’d get the book thrown at you. And, as you have so aptly remarked, I leave nothing to chance. That’s why I brought Miss Bauer along. She’s a good witness—an innocent bystander who saw it happen. She would testify as I wish.”
I knocked over the ashtray and swept my hand up, trying to keep the sweat on my forehead from blinding me. The skull bobbed up and down before me.
“So now you know, my friend,” murmured Professor Hermann. “And now you will never try to cross me. You will never attempt to take over. You will do just as I say and not plan anything rash, like running away.”
I stood up again. It was hard, this time, but when I reached my feet the power came back, surging through me. I needed that power, now.
“You think of everything,” I whispered. “But did you ever think that I might try to...kill you?”
I was lightning. I was thunder. I struck from the side. My hand went down, aiming for the fat crease in his neck—
But something was wrong. I stumbled. His foot was out. I was going down. And then there was a pressure in the back of my own neck, an intolerable pressure, crushing the spine up into my brain.
His voice found me in the darkness.
“You’re a fool! Don’t ever try that again. I warn you, I have powers you’ve never dreamed of! Now, get up—if you can.”
I dragged myself over to the chair. My head rested on a red-hot lance that bored through my backbone.
“I told you once before to forget everything that happened last night. That was good advice. You had better follow it. Forget today, too. Because we’re starting over again.”
He was still sitting there, perfectly calm. The skull still grinned.
“Yes, we’re starting,” he murmured. “The time has come. I’ve got the office lined up and the decorators hired. Next month we’ll be on our way, both of us—on our way to the top.
“That’s why you must forget all this. The past is dead, safely dead. Only the future is alive. I’m going to make
