another burst of gunfire came from the television set, he gave the door a sudden shove forward. He heard the bolt drop onto the tiled floor as the door jerked open. He moved quickly into the bathroom.
He paused, his right hand, holding the cosh, half swinging up, his heart suddenly skipping a beat.
Kit stood with her back against the far wall, some twelve feet from Calvin. She held a loofa in her left hand which dripped water. Calvin guessed at once that she had been using the loofa to disturb the bath water, leading him to believe she was in the bath.
In her right hand, she held a .38 automatic, its blunt nose pointing directly at Calvin. She was still wearing her polka-dot nylon wrap and there was a fixed little smile on her white face that sent a sudden chill up Calvin’s spine. He had an instinctive feeling that she was about to shoot him.
‘Don’t be a fool!’ he rapped out. ‘You’ll never touch the money if you shoot!’
They were the right words. The awful little smile slipped from her mouth and her brown, glittering eyes suddenly lost their mad blank stare.
For a long tense moment, they stared at each other. The gun remained pointing at him, but he knew the danger for the moment was over.
Then she said, ‘Yes… I was forgetting. You clever devil! You just saved your beastly life by saying the right thing at absolutely the right moment. You follow a pattern, don’t you? You use women and then you get rid of them, but you’re not getting rid of me!’
Calvin was eyeing the gun in her hand. The sight of the gun shocked him. His great strength against her feeble strength was useless in the face of the gun. He measured the distance between them. He might just possibly reach her and smash the gun out of her hand, but he was sure he couldn’t prevent her firing the gun before he did reach her. Even above the racket the television was making, the old couple would hear the shot.
‘It was a mistake,’ he said, keeping the snarl out of his voice with an effort. ‘You scare me, Kit, with your drinking. I acted on impulse.’
‘Don’t act on another impulse,’ she said, staring fixedly at him. ‘I’ll kill you if I have to, so don’t do anything stupid.’
‘I’m not going to do anything. It’s all right.’
‘Didn’t you think I knew what you were planning?’ she went on. ‘Couldn’t you see how obvious it was to me. I help you get the money, then I go the way Alice went and you have all the money, but that’s not how it’s going to work out, Dave. I knew sooner or later you would try to murder me. I set a trap for you and you walked into it. I didn’t drink your whisky. I poured it down the sink. I’m not such a drunk as you imagine. Then when I saw you had loosened the bolt on the door, I knew you would be in here to murder me. Well, you’re not murdering me. You’re not as smart as you think you are. And another thing, Iris isn’t working for you. You’re going to keep your filthy hands off her. Do you understand?’
Calvin switched on his charm.
‘Don’t let’s quarrel. Kit,’ he said. ‘I’ve already explained…’
‘You’re in for a surprise,’ Kit broke in. ‘Up to now you have handled this, but from now on, I’m handling it and you’ll do what I tell you.’
‘You can’t handle it,’ Calvin said. ‘You’re in no condition to handle anything. You’re a drunk. You’ve got to face it. You’ve got to leave this to me.’
Slowly, she lowered the gun.
‘You’d be happy if I were dead, wouldn’t you, but I’m not going to die. While you were being so clever arranging to steal all that money, I too have been arranging how to protect myself. If I die, Dave, you’ll go to the gas chamber. I’ve fixed it for you.’ She put the gun down on top of the toilet seat. ‘If you think I am bluffing, go ahead and hit me over the head with your cosh and then drown me. Then see where it gets you.’
Calvin studied her, feeling hot sweat running down his back, aware his heart was thumping and there was a dry, sour taste in his mouth.
They stared at each other for a long moment, then he slowly backed out of the bathroom. Leaving the gun where it was, she followed him. He moved into his bedroom and she came in after him, closing the door.
He had her now. She was defenceless and he could see she was half drunk. He gripped the sock between his thick fingers. A quick movement and she would be lying at his feet. The bath was already filled. All he had to do…
But he knew by the mocking way she was staring at him that she had beaten him and with a sudden vicious movement, he threw the sock of golf balls across the room.
She leaned against the door, folding her arms across her breasts and she suddenly laughed: a hard, dry, mirthless sound.
‘That’s right, Dave. Now you’re showing some sense at last. When you were at the bank this morning, I wrote a letter. It was a long, complicated letter and it took me nearly all the morning. In it I set down everything you and I
