‘Stop asking questions!’ I slammed my clenched fists together. ‘Go and pack a bag! Get out of here!
Can’t you see I have enough on my mind without having to worry about you?’
‘Is she dead? She must be dead! Did you kill her?’
I went up to her, grabbed her by her arms and pulling her upright, I shook her.
‘Stop asking questions! You know nothing! Do you understand that? Nothing! Now get out and keep away until tomorrow.’
She pulled free and moved away from me, her hands to her face. Then suddenly she seemed to relax and she lowered her hands.
‘I’m not going,’ she said, her voice quiet and steady. ‘Stop shouting Harry, and sit down. We’re going to share this thing. Please tell me what has happened.’
‘Do you want me to hit you?’ I snarled at her. ‘Can’t you get it into your head you could go to prison for years if you know anything about this? Don’t you understand? I’m trying to save you. You’ve got to leave here and at once!’
She looked steadily at me, shaking her head.
‘The last time you were in trouble you kept me out of it and made me an outsider. You’re not doing that to me again. I’m going to help you in any way I can.’
‘I don’t want your help!’ I said violently. ‘Now get out!’
‘I’m not going, Harry.’
I started a swing, the flat of my hand aiming at her face, but I couldn’t hit her. My hand dropped to my side. I stared helplessly at her, feeling completely defeated.
‘Did you kill her, Harry?’
‘No.’
‘But she is in the trunk?’
‘Yes.’
‘Dead?’
‘Yes.’
Nina shuddered, and for a long moment the only sound in the bungalow was the steady ticking of the hall clock.
‘What are you going to do?’ she asked finally.
‘I’ll hire a car, and take her out to the Petrie silver mine.’
‘We haven’t the money to hire a car.’
I dropped wearily into a chair.
‘I have the ransom money.’
Nina got up and made two drinks. She gave me one and drank the other. Then she sat on the arm of my chair, her hand on mine.
‘Please tell me how it happened: right from the beginning.’
‘If the police catch up with me,’ I said, ‘and they find out you know about this, you’ll go to jail for ten years; maybe longer.’
‘Don’t let’s think about it.’ The touch of her fingers on my hand had a soothing effect. ‘Please start right from the beginning. I want to know what happened, and please tell me everything.’
So I told her. I held nothing back. I even told her that Odette and I had been lovers.
‘I couldn’t leave her in the cabin,’ I concluded. ‘I was going to hide her in the mine when the damn car broke down.’
Nina’s hand closed over mine and gripped it hard.
‘You poor darling. You must have had a dreadful time. I had a feeling something was wrong, but I never imagined it could be so terribly bad.’
Somehow, sharing this thing with her, made me feel better. I didn’t feel so scared. My mind, up to now frozen with panic, felt more able to cope with what lay ahead.
‘Well, now you know,’ I said. ‘I’ve no excuse to offer. I did it for the money. It was wrong, but that doesn’t help to know that now. If I had waited, this job would have come along, and we could have been happy. I didn’t wait and I’ve got myself into this mess. You must leave me, Nina. I mean it. I can handle it on my own. I don’t want you mixed up in it. If anything goes wrong and I’m caught, I couldn’t bear the thought of you getting caught too. That would be the last straw. Can’t you see that? You must keep out of it.’
She patted my hand, then slid off the arm of my chair and crossed to the window. She stood with her back to me for several seconds as she looked out into the dark street, then she turned.
‘We’re going to handle this thing together. Don’t let’s waste time arguing about it, Harry. When do you think it will be safe to move her?’
‘It’ll be less risky if I do it around two and three in the morning, but you’re not having anything to do with it…’
‘I’m helping you. Wouldn’t you help me if our positions were reversed. Wouldn’t I feel you had no real love for me if you let me handle such a thing alone?’
