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.
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.
