I wanted to pray for her, but the words wouldn’t come.
I got into bed, but I didn’t turn off the light. Darkness has a way of sharpening one’s conscience.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I
Soon after six o’clock the next morning I drove down to the site of the bridge.
Already men were working and I had a brief word with the foreman. Jack had made tremendous progress since I had been away. The ground had been cleared either side of the river. A number of piles had already been sunk.
I prowled around, watching the men work for ten minutes or so, then I saw Jack’s black and white Thunderbird coming fast down the hill. He pulled up near me, got out of the car and came over, his good-natured face split in a wide grin of welcome.
‘Hi, Jeff! Good to see you. All fixed up?’
I shook his hand.
‘Yes, all fixed up, and I have a surprise for you. I can get all the steel we want at two per cent under the best estimate we’ve already had.’
He stared at me.
‘Do you mean you’ve been working while you’ve been away? I thought you had gone on some private business.’
‘I’m always working,’ I said. ‘How do you like it, Jack? We make a saving of twenty five thousand.’
‘I like it fine! Tell me about it.’
We talked business for the next twenty minutes, then he said, ‘We’d better talk to our contractors, Jeff. This is good news. Look, I have a couple of jobs here to do, then I’ll be back at the office. See you then.’
He walked over to my car with me.
‘And Sarita?’ he asked.
‘The news is good,’ I said. ‘I’m seeing Zimmerman tomorrow morning.’
I told him about Zimmerman wanting to perform a second operation.
He listened sympathetically, but I could see the bridge was foremost in his mind, and I understood.
‘That’s fine, Jeff,’ he said. ‘Well, I guess…’
‘Sure,’ I said. ‘I’ll get over to the office. How is Weston shaping?’
‘He’s okay, but you’re back in time, Jeff. He wants help, and I haven’t time to give it to him.’
‘I’ll take care of him.’
‘Fine. Okay, see you around eleven,’ and he went off, shouting to the foreman to come on over.
As I drove back to the office I looked at the clock on the dashboard. The time was seven forty five a.m. In another quarter of an hour Wilbur would get my letter. What would he do? I was aware that there was sudden sweat on my hands.
I parked the car, went up to the office where I found Ted Weston and Clara already at work.
They greeted me and then Clara gave me a pile of letters and documents, estimates and files.
I sat down and started in to work.
It wasn’t until ten o’clock as I paused to light a cigarette that I suddenly remembered Wilbur. There was a train to Santa Barba at ten minutes past ten. Had he taken it? I had a sudden urge to find out.
I had already made a number of notes for Jack, and I pinned them together, then tossed them onto Weston’s desk.
‘Be a pal and take those down to Jack,’ I said. ‘He’ll want them. I’ll hold down this end.’
‘Why, sure, Mr. Halliday.’
I looked at him.
He was a nice-looking kid, eager and right on the ball. The kind of youngster I wish I had been. I watched him pick up the notes and hurry out of the office. I watched him enviously. I wished I had been like him. With any luck at all, he wouldn’t get a lump of red hot shrapnel in his face and spend months in a plastic surgery ward, listening to the groans and screams of those patients who just hadn’t what it takes to accept a new face. He wouldn’t tangle with a silver-headed, golden-voiced junky who could kill a man without blinking an eyelid. He wouldn’t live under the threat of blackmail nor would he plan a murder… one of the lucky ones, and I envied him.
As soon as he had gone, I picked up the telephone receiver and asked Clara to give me an outside line. When I got it, I called ‘Long Distance’ and gave the girl the number of the Anderson Hotel. She told me the lines to San Francisco were busy, but she would call me back.
I sat smoking and sweating. I had to wait ten long, nerve-wracking minutes before I got through.
The same girl’s indifferent voice demanded, ‘Yeah? What is it?’
‘I want to talk to Wilbur,’ I said.
‘Well, you can’t. He’s checked out’
My heart gave a little lurch.
‘You mean he’s left?’
‘What else do you think I mean?’
‘Do you know where he has gone?’
‘No, and I don’t care either,’ and she hung up.
I put down the receiver and taking my handkerchief from my pocket I wiped my face and hands.
So he had gone, but had he gone to Santa Barba? If he had, he couldn’t get there until after two in the afternoon. I was in a sudden panic to stop this thing. All I had to do was to call Rima and warn her he was coming.
I very nearly did it, but at that moment the door jerked open and Jack, Weston and two contractors came in.
As I greeted the contractors I looked at my desk clock. The time was fifteen minutes past eleven. I still had time to warn Rima during the lunch hour.
But it so happened the session with the contractors became so involved that Jack suggested we should all lunch together and try to straighten out our problem while we eat.
‘Look, you boys go on ahead,’ I said. ‘I have a telephone call to make, then I’ll be with you.’
When they had gone, I lit a cigarette and stared at the telephone. If I warned Rima that Wilbur was coming she would vanish. I would probably never find her again. She would continue to blackmail me, and if I didn’t pay I would go to jail, but the thought of Wilbur, sitting in the train, getting nearer and nearer to her, turned my blood cold.
This cock-eyed murder plan was like the toss of a coin. Heads – she died. Tails – I went to jail. Why not decide it that way right now?
I took a coin out of my pocket, then flicked it high into the air. I heard it fall on the floor by my side.
For several moments I sat there, not looking down, then with an effort I leaned forward and looked at the coin.
It lay heads up!
Well, there it was. I could wash my hands of the responsibility. I could let events take their course. I got to my feet, stubbed out my cigarette and started for the door.
Then I stopped.
Into my mind came the memories of Rusty’s bar. I saw Wilbur again with the knife in his hand. I saw Rima crouching in the booth, her mouth open, and I heard again her scream of terror. I heard too the sound of her nails scratching on the wall.
I couldn’t do this thing to her. I had to warn her.
