Recoil

credit side of the ledger. After what happened tonight this state's going to be as clean as a whistle.'

'Yes?'

'I think that's what you thought you were doing,' I said. 'What you persuaded yourself you were doing. Actually, I think you had another motive. You'd got all you could. You intended to make sure that nothing would be left for anyone else.'

Doc's fingers tightened on the package he was unwrapping. He stared down at it, blindly, and then he went on picking at the string. He didn't say anything.

Hardesty scowled at him angrily.

'Well, by God!' he said. And then he raised his shoulders in a shrug of helplessness. 'Pat, I'm sorry but-'

'I'm talking to Doc,' I said. 'Let's see if I've got things straight. You'd been wanting to break loose for a longtime, Doc. You knew that the next election was going to force you to. You needed to make one last big killing, and when you got my letter from Sandstone you saw a way of doing it with Madeline's and Hardesty's help. You insured yourself heavily in Madeline's-your wife's-favor, you got me out. To kill you, ostensibly, after a quarrel. Actually, of course, you won't get killed. It'll be made to look like! killed you and dumped you in the river where no one could find you. But it won't be that way. You'll clear out and go into hiding, and Hardesty will push the insurance claims through for Madeline. And after a year or so, when it's absolutely safe, she'll join you. Is that what you planned?'

'That,' said Doc, 'is what I'm going to do. Incidentally, Pat-'

'What about Lila?'

'Well, what about her? My wife wouldn't live with me, but she insisted on the protection of insurance. That's the story.'

'It looks to me like the insurance companies will claim fraud. No company would knowingly insure a man with such potentially dangerous living arrangements.'

'Correct,' Doc nodded. 'Too bad they didn't look into the matter more closely. As it is, they've accepted my premiums and Madeline's down as the beneficiary. It's a binding contract and they'll have to pay.'

'I see,' I said. 'How much are you going to have to live on the rest of your life? How much insurance have you got?'

'Well'-he hesitated for a second-'I guess there's no reason why! shouldn't tell you. Ten policies for ten thousand each. It'll come to a hundred thousand, double indemnity.'

'What's Hardesty's share?'

'Sixty-five thousand, roughly. A third.'

I shook my head. I couldn't think of anything to say for a moment. It seemed to me that everything had been said that needed to be, and it was time for Myrtle to-

'By the way, Pat. As I started to mention a moment ago…'

'Yes?' I said.

'It was a nice try-but I'm afraid Myrtle isn't going to be with us. I checked on her whereabouts just before our little soiree at the house. She's out of town.'

29

I swallowed, and my Adam's apple stuck in my throat. And I think I must have looked as sick as I felt.

Doc grinned sympathetically. 'You weren't going to tell me that you tipped off the police? They'd grab you on that Eggleston rap, and before you could get clear of it-'

'No,' I said, 'I didn't go to the police. I was just going to say that-that-How can you do it, Doc? You're sentencing me to death! Doesn't that bother you?'

'I suppose it should,' said Doc. 'But, no, it doesn't. Not much, Pat. You'd have died in Sandstone if I hadn't got you out. This way, at least, you have had a little fling.'

'That car Lila bought for me doesn't really mean anything?' I said. 'I'm going to be allowed to get away?'

'I'm afraid not, Pat. Not finding my body is one thing. Not finding the man who is supposed to have killed me is another. It would be more than would be swallowed comfortably. You'll have to be caught, I'm afraid, somewhere near the spot of our nominally fatal quarrel.'

'And you don't see any danger in my being caught?'

'You mean you'll talk?' He smiled faintly, shucking a pair of socks out of a paper bag. 'Who's going to believe a fantastic story such as you'll have to tell when all the evidence points to murder?'

'It isn't going to work, Doc,' I said.

'Oh, it'll work all right, Pat,' he grinned. 'It's just improbable enough to seem completely plausible. You're the best evidence of that yourself. You've had the puzzle in front of you for weeks yet you never arrived at the motive for my getting you out of Sandstone.'

'That isn't what I meant,' I said. 'I'm talking about the insurance companies. They're not going to make settlement on those policies.'

'They wouldn't, ordinarily,' he nodded. 'They wouldn't pay a death claim without positive proof of death-a body, in other words. But where the evidence is so clear cut-well…'

'What makes you so sure of that?' I said.

'Our friend, Hardesty, here.' Doc perked his head. 'One of our leading legal lights, regardless of what you may think of him on other grounds. Hardesty says they'll have to pay. If he says so, they will.'

That was true. Hardesty would know. But why, then, had he wanted me to-? Suddenly, it hit me. The last piece of the murderous puzzle fell into place. And I laughed.

I was caught, stuck in the middle no matter what I did. But I couldn't help laughing.

Hardesty re-crossed his legs, shifting nervously on the lounge. His right hand crept into the pocket of his coat and remained there.

'Doc,' I said. 'You're not very bright, Doc. Not about some things. I've had a feeling all along that you were into something beyond your depth, but I didn't think you were quite this simple.'

'No?' He grinned, but a tinge of red was creeping into his cheeks. 'Just how simple am I supposed to be, Pat?'

'Simple enough to believe a man who hates you and loves your wife. Simple enough to believe that he'd be content with a third of that two hundred thousand when he and she can take the whole pile. Sure, he knows what the insurance companies will and won't do. But there's a hell of a big difference between what he knows and what he's told you!'

'I-' Doc looked from Hardesty to Madeline and then back to me. 'I don't understand…'

'There's nothing to understand,' said Hardesty curtly. 'Don't pay any attention to him, Doc. He-'

'Think it over, Doc,' I said. 'And while you're doing it, Hardesty can make me his offer. I want you to see why you're going to be killed, but you'll have to think fast. I won't be able to play my part in this little drama if the police catch up with me.'

Doc stared at me silently, his eyes blinking behind the thick lenses. I nodded to Hardesty.

'All right,' I said. 'What's it going to be? Do I kill him and get away or do you do it and let me get caught?'

'Pat!' Madeline cried. 'Don't-'

But Hardesty's hand had already come out of his pocket. 'You do it,' he said, and he tossed the snub-nosed automatic to me. 'You do it and get away.'

I caught the gun, and motioned with it.