I went back to the desk, picked up the telephone and called ‘Long Distance.’ I gave the girl Rima’s telephone number.
I waited, listening to the humming over the open line.
The girl said, ‘There’s no reply. Should there be one?’
‘I guess so. Call them again, will you, please?’
There was another long wait, then the girl said, ‘I’m sorry, your party’s not answering.’
I thanked her and hung up.
The obvious thing had happened: Vasari had bolted, and Rima had gone with him.
II
But I didn’t leave it like that. There was the chance, of course, that Rima had been out and would return later. Three times during the day, when Weston was out of the office, I called the bungalow, but there was still no answer.
Finally, I decided she had gone and this cock-eyed murder plan of mine to get rid of her by remote control had failed.
I was glad and relieved. Now, I would have to prepare for trouble. In six days’ time Rima would be expecting thirty thousand dollars to be paid into her bank. I wasn’t going to pay. What would she do? Go to the police? I couldn’t take any chances. I had to assume she would go to the police, and very shortly I would be arrested for murder.
I now had to make arrangements for Sarita’s future. I called Mayor Mathison and asked him if I could come around to his place after dinner.
He wanted me to come to dinner, but I made an excuse. I wasn’t in the mood for that kind of an outing.
I found Helen and Mathison sitting before the fire and they welcomed me. I told them about the coming operation.
Mathison said at once, ‘How are you fixed for money, Jeff? This could be an expensive business. You know how we both feel about Sarita. We look on her as our own daughter.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘The money’s not the trouble. I can take care of that, but it certainly looks as if she will have to have a lot of care and attention for years. She has no one except me to rely on. If anything happened to me she would be alone.’
‘Of course she wouldn’t,’ Mathison said. ‘Didn’t I just say we looked on her as a daughter. If anything happened to you, she would come here to live. Anyway, what’s all this? What is likely to happen to you?’
‘I know how he feels,’ Helen broke in. ‘One never knows. He’s right to be worried.’ She smiled at me. ‘We’ll look after her, Jeff: that’s a promise.’
That was a tremendous burden off my mind. As I drove home I felt for the first time, since Rima had started to blackmail me, at ease in my mind.
The following morning I went to the sanatorium. Zimmerman told me Sarita was still making progress.
‘I don’t want to raise your hopes too much, Mr. Halliday,’ he said, ‘but there is a chance – not much of one – but a chance that if we have any luck she will walk again.’
He took me to see Sarita. She looked very pale and small in the hospital bed. She was conscious and she recognised me, but she hadn’t the strength to speak to me.
I was allowed to stand by her bed, looking at her for a couple of minutes, and in those minutes everything she meant to me came into sharp focus.
I was glad my plan to get rid of Rima had failed. I knew I couldn’t have looked at Sarita the way I was looking at her now if I had been guilty of murder.
Jack and I spent the whole of Sunday and Monday on the bridge site. We had run into a snag of shifting soil, and we had to work out a way to handle it.
By Tuesday evening we had solved the problem. Wednesday and Thursday were days of hard slogging work at the office. I managed to get over to the sanatorium every evening to exchange smiles with Sarita. She still couldn’t talk, but at least she recognised me.
On Friday, the day I should pay the money to Rima, Zimmerman called me around ten o’clock. He said Goodyear was with him and they had examined Sarita.
‘We have decided not to wait, Mr. Halliday. We are operating tomorrow morning.’
I said I would be there. I called Mayor Mathison and told him. He said it wouldn’t be possible for him to get over to the sanatorium, but Helen would join me.
I went out in the evening to see Sarita, and for the first time she managed to say a few words.
‘They’re going to fix you up tomorrow, darling,’ I said to her. ‘You’re going to be fine in a little while.’
‘Yes, Jeff… I do want to get home.’
On my way back to the apartment I thought by now Rima would know the money wasn’t going to be paid. She would probably wait a couple of days to be sure – then what would she do? But right then I had too much on my mind to bother much about her.
The operation began at eleven o’clock the following morning and lasted four hours. Helen and I sat in the waiting-room, not speaking, but every now and then she would smile at me and pat my hand.
A little after two o’clock a nurse came in and said my office was calling me. She said the operation was nearly over, and there would be news for me in about half an hour.
The telephone was down the corridor. It was Clara on the line.
‘Oh, Mr. Halliday, I’m sorry to call you, but there is a Detective Sergeant Keary here. He says it is important he should talk to you.’
I felt my heart give a little bounce and then began to race.
‘He’ll have to wait,’ I said. ‘The operation will be over in half an hour. I can’t get back to the office before five. What’s he want?’
I knew what he wanted all right. So Rima had gone to the police!
‘If you’ll hold on, Mr. Halliday, I’ll ask him…’
Clara sounded slightly flustered.
There was a pause, then a man’s voice said, ‘This is Detective Sergeant Keary, Santa Barba City police. I would like to see you just as soon as I can.’
‘What is it?’ I said.
‘Police business,’ he said curtly. ‘I can’t talk on the telephone.’
‘Well, all right,’ I said, matching his tone. ‘You’ll have to wait. I’ll be back at five. I’ll see you then,’
and hung up.
I wiped my sweating hands on my handkerchief. Had he a warrant for my arrest? Had they already arrested Rima?
I saw Zimmerman coming down the corridor. He was smiling.
‘Dr. Goodyear will be with you in a moment,’ he said. ‘He’s just washing up. I have good news for you. We are practically certain the operation will be a success. Unless something goes very badly wrong, and we don’t anticipate this, in a few months your wife will be walking again.’
The next half hour was spent with Goodyear in a technical discussion that didn’t mean much to me, but I did gather that with careful nursing, patience and many months, Sarita would get back to normal.
While Goodyear talked, I kept thinking of Detective Sergeant Keary waiting for me. Goodyear said in couple of days I would be able to see Sarita, but not before. I thought in a couple of days I would be in the Los Angeles jail.
I left the sanatorium with Helen.
‘That talk we had yesterday about you and Ted taking care of Sarita if anything happens to me,’ I said as I drove her down town. ‘That still goes, doesn’t it?’
‘Why, of course, Jeff…’
‘I’m in a bit of a mess,’ I said, not looking at her. ‘I don’t want to go into details, but it could be I’ll be out of circulation for some time and I’m relying on you and Ted to stand by Sarita.’
‘Why not go into details, Jeff?’ she said quietly. ‘You know how Ted feels about you, and I feel that way too.
