murder.”
She sat on the divan and held out her hand to me.
“Come and sit down,” she said. “Don’t look at me like that. You love me, don’t you?”
I didn’t move.
“We’ll leave love out of it,” I said. “Look, maybe I am only a third-rate fighter, but I hope
I’m not a dope. You worked this out ten seconds after you found Wertham was dead, didn’t
you? You knew unless you could get rid of Reisner you were sunk. Someone had to kill him,
and you picked on me. You thought all you had to do was to show me this place, give me a
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car and throw yourself in as a make-weight, and I’d take murder in my stride. Well, you’re
wrong. I can only hope you don’t realize what it means to commit murder. It’s a thing you
live with for the rest of your life. Maybe you haven’t thought of it like that. I hope you
haven’t. Even if we could fix Hame, we have still ourselves to live with, and every now and
then the thought will drop into our minds we killed Reisner, and that thought will poison any
happiness we can get out of this place. We’ll never know if Hame will continue to keep his
mouth shut. He’ll have us on a spot for the rest of our days. He’ll want more money and more
power as he gets used to the idea. It won’t be long before he’ll want to run the casino himself.
He might even do a deal with you. He might pin the murder on me and take my place. Oh, no,
I’m not getting into a jam like that. I’m not all that crazy. Murder is out! I’m not doing it: not
for you nor the casino nor for all the money in Lincoln Beach!”
She sat still, watching me while I talked, her face expressionless, her eyes hot and intent.
“You don’t really believe that, Johnny,” she said, and got up. “It’s not true.” She came over
to me and put her hands on my arms, looking up at me. “I do love you. I didn’t give myself to
you for any other, reason except I love you. I couldn’t refuse you last night. I knew it was
dangerous. I knew we were taking a risk that could ruin my plans, but I couldn’t refuse you.”
Her arms went round my neck. “Oh, darling, I’m crazy about you. I’ve never felt like this
before about any man. You must believe me! I know you’re right about Nick. But what are
we to do ?” She was clinging to me now, her face pressed against mine. “If we don’t get rid
of him, he’ll get rid of us. Can’t you see that? We’ll have nothing. We’ll be lucky to get out
of here with our lives. It’s he or us, Johnny. You must see that!”
I started to say something, but her mouth covered mine, and I felt her breath against the
back of my throat. We stood like that for a long moment of time; my heart was hammering,
blood pounded in my head.
“Johnny …”
She pressed herself against me. Her eyes were closed. Only she and I mattered at this
moment; the rest of it, Reisner, the casino, the money and murder were a bad dream after you
had wakened up.
My fingers sank into the hard, firm flesh above her hips. She gave a soft little moan and her
mouth opened against mine.
“All right, break it up,” Reisner’s soft voice said from the doorway. “There’s a time and
place for everything.”
I felt her shudder and stiffen, and she tore herself away from me with a strangled scream.
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Her face had gone blue-white like the colour of ice. I turned.
Reisner was standing just inside the room. His mouth was fixed in a stiff little smile, and
the .45 automatic in his hand looked as big as a cannon.
“And don’t make any silly moves,” he went on, not raising his voice. He jerked the gun to
an armchair near me. “Sit down, Farrar. And you, Mrs. Wertham, sit on the divan. If either of
you make a move I’ll drill you and think up a reason for it after,”
Della collapsed on the divan. She looked as if she were going to faint. I sat in the armchair,
