living in a pipe-dream.
“I’ll drive you back. We won’t be ten minutes.”
We got into the car. My mouth had dried up and the back of my throat ached, and my heart
was going like a steam-hammer. She must have guessed something was wrong, but she didn’t
ask questions. She drove fast. We reached the casino gates in seven minutes. I knew that
because I kept my eyes glued to the clock on the dashboard.
I got out of the car. My knees were shaking. Reisner, Della and the lion pit were now as
real as the warm wind against my cold, sweating face.
“So long, and thanks,” I said, and my voice croaked. I wanted to say something else, make
a date, let her know how wonderful I thought she was, but the words wouldn’t come.
“Are you in trouble, Johnny?” she asked anxiously.
“No. It’s all right. I’ll look out for you.”
I left her sitting in the car, wide-eyed and startled, and I walked towards the gates of the
casino.
The guards opened them. The one with the green eyes gaped at me, and caught his breath
sharply, but I walked on past him and headed up the long, green-lit carriageway.
IV
I pushed open the door of the cabin and walked in. The radio was playing muted swing, and
every light in the room was on.
Della was lying on the divan, a cigarette between her lips, her face as expressionless as a
china mask, and as hard. She still had on the blue wrap, and her hands were clasped behind
her head.
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My eyes flickered from her to where he had been lying, but he wasn’t there, and I felt my
heart contract.
“Where is he?”
“In there.” She pointed to the bathroom. “Where have you been?”
“Killing time. Did anyone …?”
“I told you to keep them away from here, didn’t I?” There was suppressed fury in her voice.
“I did.”
“They phoned three times, and Louis came rapping on the door. Do you call that keeping
them away?”
“I told them you weren’t to be disturbed.”
“That was at half-past three. When you left here. What happened after that? At six o’clock
they really began to look for him. That’s when you should have been around. Where were
you?”
I was more scared of her than I was of the dead body in the bathroom. I knew instinctively
she must never find out about Ginny.
“I got lost. I went down to the beach.” The words ran out of my mouth in a blurred stream.
“I took the wrong turning. I got snarled up in a forest.”
She studied me, and I couldn’t meet her eyes.
“You tried to run away, Johnny.”
I didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say.
“You’re lucky I told the guards to stop you. You’d be under arrest by now.”
“I wasn’t trying to get away,” I said. “I was going for a ride. I went instead for a hell of a
long walk, but I came back.”
She stared at me for a moment or so, then shrugged.
“Well, they’re still looking for him. I had to tell them he left me at six. I said I thought he
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