I opened the gate and walked up the drive-in. To be on the safe side, I rang the bell, although I knew there was no one in the place. After waiting a few minutes I fished up the key and opened the door. I stepped into the small hall and paused to listen. There was no sound except the busy ticking of a clock somewhere in the bungalow and the drip-drip-drip of a faulty tap in the kitchen.
The lounge was to my right. A short passage to my left led to the bedrooms.
I walked down the passage, opened a door and glanced into a room. This would be Vasari’s dressing-room. A pair of slacks were neatly folded on a chair and an electric shaver lay on the dressing-table. I didn’t go in, but moved to the next door, opened it and stepped inside.
There was a double bed by the window and the dressing-table was loaded with cosmetics. A green silk wrap hung behind the door.
This was the room I wanted. I half closed the door, then went over to the chest of drawers and began going through the contents quickly, being careful not to disturb anything.
Rima had been on a buying spree with my money. The drawers were crammed with nylon underwear, scarves, handkerchiefs, stockings and so on. I didn’t find the gun.
I turned my attention to the closet. A dozen or so dresses hung on hangers, and on the floor of the closet was a number of pairs of shoes. On the top shelf I saw a cardboard box tied with string. I took it down, slid off the string and opened the box. It contained letters and a number of photographs, most of them of Rima with her silver hair, taken at the film studios.
A letter on the top of the pile caught my attention. It was dated three days ago. I picked it from the box and read it.
234 Castle Arms,
Ashby Avenue,
San Francisco.
Dear Rima,
Last night I ran into Wilbur. He is out on parole and he is looking for you. He is on the stuff again and he is dangerous. He told me if he finds you he’ll kill you. So watch out. I told him I thought you were in New York. He is still here, but I am hoping he will go off to New York. If he does so, I’ll let you know.
Anyway, you keep clear of here. He gives me the creeps and he means what he says about fixing you.
In a rush to catch the mail.
I had completely forgotten Wilbur’s existence.
My mind flashed back to Rusty’s bar. I saw again the door slamming open and the sudden appearance of the small nightmare figure. Dangerous? An understatement. Then he had been as deadly as a rattlesnake as he had moved to where Rima had been crouching, the flick knife in his hand.
So he was out of jail after thirteen years, and he was looking for Rima.
When he found her he would kill her.
A tremendous surge of relief ran through me. This might be my way out: the solution to my problem.
I copied the woman Clare’s address into my pocket diary and replaced the letter in the box and the box in the cupboard.
Then I continued my search for the gun, my mind busy.
It was by chance I found the gun. It was hanging by a string inside one of Rima’s dresses. It was only because I impatiently pushed aside the row of dresses to look behind them that I felt it.
I untied the string and lifted the gun clear.
It was a .38 Police Special, and it was loaded. I slid the gun into my hip pocket, shut the cupboard and looked around the room to make sure I had left no signs of my search, then satisfied, I crossed the room to the door.
As I opened the door I heard a car pull up outside the bungalow.
I jumped to the window, my heart beginning to thump. I was in time to see Rima getting out of the Pontiac. She ran up the drive-in and I heard her fumbling for the key.
As the key grated in the lock I moved silently and swiftly out of the bedroom. I paused for a split second in the passage, then stepped into Vasari’s dressing-room. I pushed the door to as the front door opened.
Rima walked quickly past the dressing-room and into her bedroom.
I stood against the wall so that if Vasari opened the door it would conceal me as it swung back. I was tense and scared, and my heart was pounding.
I heard Vasari come heavily into the hall. There was a pause, then I heard him walk into the lounge.
After a few minutes Rima left her bedroom and joined him in the lounge.
‘Look, baby,’ he said in a complaining voice, ‘can’t you lay off the stuff? For the love of Mike? We no sooner go somewhere when you have to come rushing back for a shot.’
‘Oh, shut up!’ Rima’s voice sounded vicious and harsh. ‘I do what I like here and don’t you forget it!’
‘Oh, sure, but why the hell don’t you carry the stuff around with you if you’ve got to have it? You’ve balled up the whole day now.’
‘I told you to shut up, didn’t I?’
‘I heard you. You’re always telling me to shut up. I’m getting sick of it.’
She laughed.
‘That’s a joke! What are you going to do about it, then?’
There was a long pause, then he said, ‘Who’s this guy you’re getting money from? He worries me.
What’s he to you?’
‘He’s nothing to me. He owes me money and he pays me. Will you shut up about him?’
‘How comes he owes you money, baby?’
‘Look, if you don’t stop this you can get out. You hear me?’
‘Now, wait a minute.’ His voice hardened. ‘I’m in enough trouble as it is. I tel you this guy worries me. I think you’re blackmailing him, and that’s something I don’t go for.’
‘Don’t you?’ Her voice was sneering. ‘But you don’t mind stealing, do you? You don’t mind knocking some old guy on the head and taking his roll, do you?’
‘Cut that out! If they caught me I’d go away for a year, but blackmail… hell! They give you ten years for that!’
‘Who says anything about blackmail? I told you: he owes me money.’
‘If I thought you were blackmailing him, baby, I’d leave you.’
‘You? Leave me? That’s a laugh. You watch your step, Ed. Two can make threats. What’s to stop me telephoning the cops and telling them where you are? Oh, no, you won’t leave me.’
There was a long pause.
In the silence I could hear the clock ticking.
Then Vasari said uneasily, ‘You always talk crazy after a shot. Forget it. So long as you know what you are doing. You wouldn’t touch blackmail, baby, would you?’
‘I’m not talking crazy!’ she snapped. ‘If you don’t like the way I live, you can get out! I can get on without you, but I’m damn sure that you can’t get on without me!’
‘This guy has me worried, Rima.’ His voice was now hesitant. ‘He’s giving you plenty, isn’t he? How comes he owes you all this dough?’
‘Shut up about him! You heard what I said: do you want to get out or do you want to stay?’
‘I don’t want to get out, baby, I love you. Just so long as I know you’re not cooking trouble for us, I don’t mind.’
‘There’s going to be no trouble. Come here and kiss me.’
‘You’re sure about the trouble? This guy wouldn’t…’
‘Come here and kiss me.’
I opened the door silently and stepped into the passage. I heard Rima moan softly as I moved down the passage and into the kitchen. I unlocked the door that led out onto the veranda, and then shutting it silently behind
