The Vengeful Virgin

somebody’s back yard.

The hell with it. I dug with both hands. I scraped out a hole about four feet deep in the sandy, mucky soil, jammed the blanket down there, and covered it. I littered the spot with dried pine needles and leaves and ruck from surrounding ground, then hiked it back to the road.

Once on the road again, I ran.

Ten

“He’s dead, Jack.”

She was like a hunk of marble. The only thing that gave away what was going on inside her was her eyes. I didn’t say anything. I went into the bedroom and looked at him, there on the bed.

His knees were buckled, with those big feet sticking out, and he was on his side. His hands were shaped into large claws, the tendons in shadowed relief. The hands were stretched out at arm’s length, toward the oxygen tanks. But his face really got me.

From the neck up, he was choked with a kind of rich purple, blotched with blues and grays. The eyes were bugged right out of his head. It looked as if you would have to punch them back in order to close the lids. The mouth was stretched open as if he were screaming like an animal, with the purple lips drawn back away from the teeth as if they’d been stapled into his jaws.

All that eagle-like arrogance was gone now.

“He died a few minutes before you came, Jack.”

Her voice was flat and there was fear.

Well, I thought. This is what you wanted.

The bright white light glared down on the room. The oxygen mask was on the bed. The TV set was still turned on with the sound off. A guy on the screen was sneaking down an alley. It was raining in the alley.

I knew then that I hadn’t really wanted Victor to die. Only it was too late.

Maybe it was all wrong. Maybe we’d gone too far. But I knew this, too—it couldn’t be undone. So now was the time to make it pay.

I heard Shirley say something. She grabbed me with both arms. “Oh, Jack....”

All I thought of was the money. I didn’t want it that way. Here she was, scared stiff, like a little kid, wanting me to comfort her, needing me, wanting me to say something to her so she wouldn’t feel so bad. And all I could think of was the money.

It was strange. There were bright little moments of realization, knowing what was really happening. And with those brief interims came a hopeless trapped feeling I’d never had before.

I thrust her away, holding her shoulders. Her face didn’t look too good.

“We’ve got to have everything absolutely straight,” I said. “Are the volume controls turned up on the outside speakers?”

“Jack. He kept crying for air. He lasted and lasted. I stood there and watched him. I taunted him, Jack. I was crazy—I must have been crazy. I just stood there. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move—just to see him die.”

For a moment I thought she was going to crack.

“Easy, now, Shirley.”

I remembered something: I went back into Victor’s bedroom and checked the intercom unit. Sure enough, it was turned off. He must have turned it off after it stopped working. I turned it back on and up to full-volume. His was a master control. I flipped open all the remotes.

I went back to the living room. She hadn’t moved.

“Your story, Shirley—can you make it all right?”

She stood there with one hand clamped over her mouth, the round eyes staring at me.

“Shirley,” I said. My voice cracked a little. “I’ve got to get out of here. Remember. You were out back, sitting by the Gulf. You didn’t hear anything.” I pulled her hand away from her face and said slowly and harshly, “Will you get everything straight?”

“Yes. Jack. Mayda—?”

“Never mind Mayda. Don’t even think about her. Forget she was ever around here. The less you know, the...”

“I’ve got to know.”

“Okay.” I told her about Mayda, thinking again how if she’d ever found out about Mayda and me, things wouldn’t even be this good. “Now, forget her.” I wanted to forget her.

She said, “It’s all wrong, Jack.”

“Don’t think it for a second, Shirley. Now’s when we need strength. We’re in it. There’s no backing out now.” I glanced at the bedroom. “Listen,” I said. “Already we’re wasting time. You’ve got to call Miraglia now.”

“I called him, Jack.”

“You what?”

“I called him maybe five minutes ago, before you came.”

I didn’t speak.

She said, “I knew I had to. It wouldn’t look right unless I called. I had to do what was right. I didn’t know when you’d get back. I knew if you came back when he was here, you’d see his car out front. It’s all right, Jack— don’t look like that!”

I still said nothing.

She said, “It’s all right, Jack. It’s all over. Say you love me.”

I stared at her. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

“I told the doctor what had happened, how I didn’t hear him. And when I came in, he was having a bad attack. I told him the oxygen didn’t seem to do any good. I gave him a nitroglycerin pill, for his heart—but it didn’t seem to do any good, either. I said Victor fought the oxygen when I tried to help him. He said he’d known something like this would happen—that he’d be right over.”

“Listen,” I said. “Don’t call me. On your life. Don’t try to contact me. I’ll contact you.” I took her in my arms, then, because I needed somebody to hang onto, too. Only I let go of her right away, because it didn’t do any good. It was as if I were in a dream, and none of this had happened. Only it had happened. I knew I hadn’t meant it to happen. Isn’t that what they always say afterward? The whole business tumbled down over me like a big black wet tent.

Her eyes were glassy.

“Jack, don’t go and leave me all alone. I couldn’t stand it.”

“You’ll have to stand it. Right now is when we’ll both have to stand everything. Listen, the big thing now is getting that money. You hear? There’s no telling what’ll happen now. It won’t be easy. It’s going to be close, believe me. Start on that money as soon as you can. I’ll reach you, somehow.”

“But we’ll have to wait for the money. There’s always a waiting period.”

“Yeah.” I wasn’t even thinking about what she said. “We’ve got to be careful.” I ceased talking. Things were happening too fast. A car had pulled up out front, and I heard the low moan of a distant siren. Almost immediately a car door slammed.

“I’m all alone, Jack. You’re leaving me with this all alone. I can’t stand it. I don’t know whether I can do it.”

“You’ve got to do it!”

Her face took on that stunned expression. I thought she might start bawling. I shook her, listening, and knowing I had to run for it.

“I’ll get in touch with you,” I said.

I turned and ran for the kitchen.

“Jack—please!”

She was nuts. There was the sound of another car out front. Maybe an ambulance. Voices. I went on through the kitchen. It looked clean. The carving knife was on the kitchen table. She called softly again. As I went across the back porch, somebody pounded on the front door.

I ran across the back lawn with the hounds of hell after me, thinking how she might crack. She couldn’t crack. She had to do it right, damn her. If she made even one mistake, it would be all they’d need.

I was sick and scared. I wished to God I’d never met Shirley Angela....