“What you were,” Thelma Thatcher said, “was a fool.”
“If so,” Sid said, “he had lots of company.”
“I am finding this conversation exceedingly unpleasant,” Thelma Thatcher said, “and I would like to end it. Wilson, if you will kindly keep quiet, I’m sure I can relate what happened much more quickly and clearly than you would find possible.”
“Quickly and clearly is the way I want it,” Sid said, “whoever relates it.”
“Very well.” Thelma Thatcher drew smoke through her cigarette and detoured a little of it out through her nostrils, which gave her an effect, Sid thought, of angry belligerence, as if she were about to paw the carpet with her feet and suddenly charge someone. “I’ll tell you exactly what happened, regardless of what Wilson may have said in his ridiculous attempt to be heroic and sacrificial and divert suspicion to himself that was not yet directed toward anyone. This precious little bitch who was his first wife came to town, as you know, and one of the first things she did, apparently, was to call Wilson at his office and try to arrange a meeting with him, but he had the good sense to refuse to see her, fortunately, and I must admit that it was the only occasion in this whole affair when he showed any sense whatever. I doubt that she was greatly disappointed, however, for it was I she really wanted to see. She was shrewd enough in her way, and she was certain that she would be able to deal with me more easily and profitably than with Wilson. As a woman with a sense of shame and considerable pride, I would be almost certainly willing to pay handsomely to avoid being publicly humiliated and disgraced, whereas Wilson is reluctant to pay anything for any reason unless interest or dividends are assured.
“She came here to see me without even calling in advance, just as you have done, and there was no doubt that she was telling the truth about never having gotten the divorce, for she had all the details on the tip of her tongue and even invited me to check the records in the place where the divorce had supposedly been granted. She spoke as if it were all a kind of party game which everyone should accept in the best of humor, and then she said she only wanted twenty thousand dollars to go away. She promised to go somewhere and finally get a genuine divorce, after which Wilson and I could get quietly married again, and everything would be all right. She seemed to feel that she was making a very modest request as a special concession.”
“It wasn’t necessary to give her a cent,” Wilson said. “There wasn’t a thing she could have done that wouldn’t have been more unpleasant for her than for us.”
“Is that your opinion?” Thelma Thatcher said. “I’m sure it is, for I’ve heard it at least a hundred times before. And I’ve explained patiently at least as many times that I am naturally reluctant to be known publicly as an extra-legal concubine to a bigamist, and it would have been very little consolation or comfort merely to have a treacherous little bitch suffering her own consequences in her own way at the same time. I preferred to pay the money, and I did. At least five thousand dollars of it. I happened to have that much in the house for a particular reason that is not relevant, and I gave it to her with the promise that I would give her the rest that night. In return, she promised that she would go away the very next day and get a real divorce quietly as soon as possible, and odd as it may seem under the circumstances, I somehow believed her. She left then, and I went to the bank and got the fifteen thousand from my personal account. It may seem like a lot of money to give someone, especially with no guarantee that she wouldn’t be back for more, but I didn’t believe that she would. Anyhow, twenty thousand dollars isn’t really very much money to Wilson and me, however much it may be to some people. I’m sure that Wilson could have found some way to deduct most of it from his income tax as some kind of allowable expenditure. He’s very clever at such things.”
“I don’t think we’d better talk too much about that,” Wilson said.
“What I want to know,” Sid said, “is if she came back for the rest of the money.”
“No, she didn’t. I told her to come around nine, for I knew Wilson had a business meeting and wouldn’t be home at that time. I had the money, and I waited for her, but she didn’t come, and now, of course, it is apparent why she didn’t.”
“Is it?” Sid said. “Why didn’t she?”
“Because she was murdered and couldn’t.”
“It may be apparent to you, but it isn’t to me. I confess, in fact, that I am more than a little puzzled. She called Gid at nine-thirty, which was half an hour after she was supposed to have come here for the money, and I would like to know why the hell she was fooling around making a date with my husband and neglecting business in hand that was a lot more urgent and important.”
“I know nothing about that, but I do know that I’ve told the truth about my part in what happened here between me and her. Anything that Wilson said may be discounted as nonsense.”
“Well,” Wilson said, “after she was lolled and you told me about her being here, and for what reason, I admit I thought you might have lolled her yourself, and it was my duty as a husband to protect you at my own expense, if possible.”
He looked forlorn and sounded pathetic, as if he expected to be commended instead of criticized, but Sid and Thelma Thatcher, who were incompatible relative
