He watched the girl lean over the banister rail.
‘Toni! Toni!’ she cal ed sharply. ‘What’s happening?’
Baird stiffened. What was she up to? Why didn’t she get down stairs? The cops wouldn’t bother about her if there was any shooting.
‘Some killer loose,’ a man’s voice cal ed up to her. ‘The cops think he might be hiding in this house.
You got him under your bed, Anita?’ He laughed excitedly as if he had made the best joke in the world.
‘You bet,’ the girl said, and laughed. ‘I’ve got him right here. Want to come up and see him, Toni?’
‘I wil come up and see you, bambino.’
‘With the cops coming up, too?’
‘No cop stops me loving a girl,’ the man said, and laughed. ‘Not even a cop with a gun.’
‘That’s what you say,’ the girl said, and snapped her fingers. ‘You’re al talk, Toni.’
‘Yeah? This time I don’t talk. I come up.’
‘Bet er not,’ the girl jeered, ‘they’l take you away in their lit le black wagon.’
Baird heard quick, heavy footsteps on the stairs. He saw a fat, powerfully built fellow, going bald, with a blue- black growth of beard, come bounding on to the landing. He was wearing a soiled singlet and black trousers, and his face was shiny with sweat.
Laughing, he rushed at the girl, who avoided him. They dodged about on the landing. She was very quick, but she hadn’t much room to manoeuvre, and he finally trapped her in a corner.
‘No, Toni! I was only fooling,’ she said, trying to push him back as he crowded her, holding her arms and grinning like a mischievous monkey as she wrestled with him. ‘Not now. Some other night. Stop it!
They’l be coming up!’
‘It’s always some other night,’ the man said, giggling excitedly. ‘To hel with them! Al talk, you say.
I show you it’s not al talk!’
He grabbed her around the waist and under the knees and swung her off her feet.
‘Put me down, Toni!’ the girl said, keeping her voice low. She struggled to break away, but not so violently that he couldn’t handle her.
‘Not even a cop with a gun is going to stop me this time,’ he said, and there was a sudden change in his voice that made Baird stiffen.
‘No! Stop it, you fool!’
He ran with her across the landing, kicked open the door and blundered into the dark room. He kicked the door shut and stumbled over to the bed.
Invisible against the wall, Baird lifted the gun. He stood motionless, every nerve in his body tense, while he listened to the struggle going on on the bed.
‘You devil!’ he heard the girl gasp. ‘You mustn’t!’
‘Not even a cop with a gun!’ the man panted as he struggled with her. ‘You asked for it this time, bambino. You get it.’
Baird made a move towards the bed, then stiffened back as he heard a quick rush of feet on the stairs.
A voice shouted outside the door, ‘Open up!’
The door was flung open, catching Baird and pinning him behind it. The white light of a flashlight swept into the room and lit up the bed.
The man on the bed twisted his head around and glared along the beam of light. There was a savage, animal expression on his round, sweaty face.
‘Ain’t there any privacy in this goddamn world?’ he shouted violently. ‘Get the hell out of here!’
The two cops, one with a Thompson at his hip, the other with an automatic rifle, gaped at what they saw.
‘For crying out loud!’ one of them exclaimed, grinning. ‘If I’d known, mister, I’d’ve knocked.’
‘Get out!’ Toni shouted furiously. ‘Leave us alone!’
The two cops backed out of the room, laughing, pulled the door shut and Baird heard them clattering down the stairs.
‘You see,’ Toni said, ‘not even two goddamn cops with two goddamn guns!’
‘Let me go!’ the girl gasped. ‘Get out!’
‘Yeah?’ Toni said. ‘I go in a lit le while.’
Baird stood motionless, sweat running down his face, listening to the struggle going on in the darkness. He heard the girl catch her breath sharply. He slid the barrel of the gun into his hand, and took a step forward, but away from the support of the wall, his legs wouldn’t hold him, and he slithered down on hands and knees.
As he struggled to get back on his feet, Toni gave a sudden yell of pain.
‘You bitch!’ he shouted. ‘You’ve blinded me!’
‘Get out!’ the girl said, her voice low. ‘Let me go!’
