we’re in it together. We have landed the biggest job the City can offer us. If we fall down on it, we’re cooked. Make no mistake about that. I don’t know what your trouble is, but I’m reminding you this job represents my future as well as yours. If you miss these appointments, we’ll lose five working days. There’s no two ways about that. If Mathison takes it into his head to telephone and finds you’re not at your desk, he’ll hit the ceiling. I’m making an issue of this, Jeff, because neither of us can nor should take a minute off for at least two months.’ He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. ‘Well, I’ve said my piece. It’s up to you what you do. If you take time off now, the bridge will be five days late, and we will have fallen down on the job, and we won’t get any more jobs like this one. I know it, and nothing you say will alter the facts.’
I knew he was right. I felt a murderous impulse go through me as I realised that Rima must have counted on this, had counted on me being chained to Holland City so she could hide herself away in her own time and with the confidence that once she was hidden, I could never find her.
I hesitated for a long moment, then I gave up. I had to think of Jack and the bridge even if it meant sacrificing myself. I would have to wait. It would make the hunt for Rima much more difficult and I stood to lose my second ten thousand dollars, but I had no alternative.
‘Okay, forget it,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry to have brought it up.’
‘Sorry — hell! You’ve got to stay here, Jeff, or we’ll be sunk! Now we have that little item off our chests, what’s the trouble? You and I are partners. I’m not that stupid I can’t see by looking at you that there is something badly wrong. It’s a good thing to share bad things: share this with me.’
I very nearly told him, but I stopped in time.
My only way out of this mess was to find and silence Rima. I couldn’t bring Jack into it. This was something I had to do on my own. I would be making him an accessory to murder.
‘It’s something I have to handle myself,’ I said, looking away from him. ‘Thanks all the same.’
‘That’s up to you,’ he said and I could see he was hurt and worried. ‘I won’t press it. I want to put on record that if you want help, financial or otherwise, I’m here. I’m your partner. What concerns you, concerns me. Understand?’
‘Thanks, Jack.’
We looked at each other, slightly embarrassed, then he got to his feet and began collecting his papers.
‘Well, I’ve got to get going. I have a couple of guys waiting for me right now.’
When he had gone, I took out my cheque book and wrote a cheque for ten thousand dollars in favour of Rima Marshall. I put the cheque in an envelope, addressed it to the Los Angeles bank and put it in my Out-tray. Then I ’phoned my bank and told them to sell my bonds.
I was caught, but I was still determined to find Rima if I could before I parted with any more money.
If I really got down to the job and worked practically non-stop, I could gain a few days breathing space.
I had three weeks in which to clear my desk, and to get so far ahead with my work I could afford a few days off: three weeks before the second payment was due.
I went to work.
I doubt if any man at any time has ever slaved harder than I did during the next two weeks. I worked like a crazy man.
I was at my desk at half-past five in the morning and I worked through until past midnight. During those two weeks, I scarcely said more than a dozen words to Sarita. I left her asleep, and on my return found her in bed. I drove my contractors nearly out of their minds. I turned poor Clara into a thin, sunken-eyed automaton. I got so far ahead with my work that Jack couldn’t keep pace with me.
‘For the love of Mike!’ he exploded after the twelfth day, ‘we’re not finishing this goddam bridge next week! Ease off, will you? My boys are going nuts under this pressure!’
‘Let them go nuts!’ I said. ‘I have everything buttoned up on my side, and I’m taking three days off from tomorrow. By the time I get back, you should have caught up. Have you any complaints if I take three days off?’
Jack lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender.
‘I’d welcome it! Seriously, Jeff, I’ve never seen anyone work the way you have worked these last two weeks. You have earned your days off. Okay, go wherever you want to, but there is just one thing: if you are in as bad a spot as I think you must be, I want to share it with you.’
‘I can handle it,’ I said. ‘Thanks all the same.’
I got home around eleven o’clock: the first time I had been reasonably early for two weeks. Sarita was preparing for bed as I walked into the apartment.
She had got over her disappointment about the cottage by now, and we were more or less on the usual terms: perhaps not quite, but close enough. I knew she had been watching the way I had been working, and it had been worrying her.
I was feeling pretty knocked out, but knowing that at last I was going on the hunt for Rima kept me going.
‘I’m leaving for New York tomorrow first thing,’ I said. ‘There are a number of things I have to take care of, and I’ll be away for three or four days. I’ve got to get a lower estimate for a bunch of items to do with the bridge, and New York is the only place where I’ll get what I want.’
She came to me and put her arms around me.
‘You’re killing yourself, Jeff. Surely you don’t have to work this hard?’
She looked up at me, her brown eyes worried.
‘It’ll ease off. It’s been tough, but I had to clear my desk before I could make this trip.’
‘Darling, could I go with you? I haven’t been to New York for years. I’d love it. We could meet after your business dates, and while you are tied up, I could look around the shops.’
Why I hadn’t thought that she would want to come with me I can’t imagine. It was the most obvious thing she would suggest. For a long, painful moment I stared at her, not able to think up an excuse to put her off. Maybe I said all I need to have said by looking at her like this. I saw the excitement die out of her eyes and her face fell.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said and turned away and began to straighten the cushions on the settee. ‘Of course you won’t want me around. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry I mentioned it.’
I drew in a long slow breath. I hated seeing her look like this. I hated to hurt her as I knew I had hurt her.
‘It just so happens, Sarita, I will be tied up morning, noon and night. I’m sorry, too, but I think it would be better if you stayed here this trip. Next trip will be different.’
‘Yes.’ She moved across the room. ‘Well, I guess we had better go to bed.’
It wasn’t until I had turned off the light and we were isolated in our twin beds that she said out of the darkness, ‘Jeff, what are we going to do with our money? Anything?’
If I didn’t find her and kill her, we were going to give our money to Rima, but I didn’t tell Sarita this.
‘We’re going to build a place of our own,’ I said, but there was no confidence in my voice. ‘We’re going to have some fun as soon as I get all this work behind me.’
‘Jack has bought a Thunderbird,’ Sarita said. ‘He has paid out twelve thousand dollars to redecorate and furnish his apartment. What have we done with our share of the money?’
‘Never mind about Jack. He’s a bachelor and he doesn’t have to worry about his future. I’ve got to be sure you are taken care of if anything happened to me.’
‘Does that mean I shall have to wait until you are dead or we are old before spending a dime of it?’
‘Now, look…’ The irritation in my voice sounded harsh even to me. ‘We’ll spend the money…’
‘I’m sorry. I was only asking. It seems odd that you should make sixty thousand dollars, and yet we still live the same way, still wear the same clothes, never go anywhere, never do anything, and I can’t even go to New York with you. I suppose I’m being unreasonable, but for the life of me I can’t see why you are working like a slave day in and night out and neither of us are having any fun out of it.’
I felt a hot rush of blood to my head. Goaded beyond endurance, I lost control of my temper.
‘For Heaven’s sake, Sarita,’ I yelled at her. ‘Stop this! I’m trying to build a bridge! I haven’t even got the money yet! We’ll spend it when I’ve got it!’
There was a pause, then she said in a cold, shocked voice, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to irritate you.’
