into his neck. Stella could see the silver handle protruding, and she pressed her hands against her mouth in horror.
Blood began to flow over Denny’s white shirt and run on to the carpet. He touched the handle with his hand as if he couldn’t believe that this had happened to him. He said in a very low, choked voice, “Did you do it?” to Gerda.
Gerda didn’t say anything. She was watching the red ribbon running on to the cream carpet.
“Couldn’t you have left me alone?” Denny said. “My God, I was a fool to have had anything to do with you two. It was the money, I suppose. I didn’t think you were as bad as that. Do you think it will do you any good? Don’t stand there looking at me. Get me a doctor. Do you want me to bleed to death?”
“Yes,” Stella said wildly, “get him a doctor, for God’s sake!”
Gerda just said, “Shut up!” and drew away from Denny with a little grimace of disgust.
“Do you want me to die?” Denny said, panic coming into his eyes. “Help me! Don’t stand staring. Help me, you bitch! Can’t you see I’m bleeding to death?”
Stella threw herself on the settee and began to scream wildly. Outside, the wind continued to roar and the rain drummed on the roof.
Gerda took a quick step forward and struck Stella across her face. Stella fell back, her mouth open, but silent. “I said shut up,” Gerda said harshly. “Do you understand?”
Making a terrific effort, Denny crawled on to his knees and then levered himself upright. He stood holding on to the back of a chair, making a sobbing noise in his throat. “Help me, Stella,” he gasped. “Don’t let me die, Stella —help me.”
He put his hand on the knife and tried to pull it out, but the sudden wave of pain was too much, and he fell on to his knees.
Stella scrambled off the settee and ran out of the room. She came back a moment later with a towel. “Here,” she said frantically to Gerda, “stop him bleeding.”
Gerda snatched the towel from her savagely and went over to Denny. She took hold of the hilt of the knife and jerked it out of the wound. Denny gave a high-pitched cry like the whinnying of a horse. Blood welled out of him in a scarlet stream. He fell forward on his face and clawed at the stained carpet. He writhed for a moment, then relaxed limply. Blood continued to gush from the wound until eventually it ceased.
The two girls stood watching him. Stella, in horror, unable to move or to take her eyes from him, and Gerda hard, inscrutable and cold.
She said: “He’s dead now. You’d better go into the kitchen.”
Stella ran to her. “You mustn’t. I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to take that money. You killed him for it, didn’t you?”
“It’s no use to him now,” Gerda said. “Go into the other room, or I shall be angry with you.”
Stella hid her face in her hands and stumbled out of the room. The noise of the hurricane rose to a terrific crescendo as she slammed the door behind her.
Gerda didn’t hesitate. She stepped round Denny very carefully, avoiding the blood on the carpet, and pulled the wallet from his hip pocket. She took the eight-thousand bills and the rest of the small notes and put the wallet back in his pocket. She stood for a moment looking at the notes, then she closed her fingers over them tightly and heaved a great sigh. At last, she thought, I am free. Nothing matters now. I can live as I want to live. She didn’t think of the dead man for one moment.
She found Stella in the kitchen, sobbing quietly and shivering with shock. She took no notice of her but began to dress in her half-dried clothes. She put the roll of notes in her trouser pocket, pulled on her damp black sweater with a little grimace and then turned her attention to Stella.
“Get dressed at once,” she said. “Stop that snivelling; it won’t get you anywhere.”
Stella took no notice of her, and Gerda, losing patience, jerked her out of her chair and shook her.
“Get dressed, you fool!” she shouted. “Do you hear?”
Stella looked at her blankly and began to wring her hands.
Gerda pulled off her wrap and began pushing her into her clothes. Stella stood quite still, sobbing the whole time like an hysterical child, and let Gerda dress her. When at last she was ready, Gerda shook her again, but she could see that Stella was going to be utterly useless to help her in the work she had to do.
She pushed Stella into the chair again. “Stay here,” she said. “And don’t move until I come for you.”
She went out and opened the front door. The rain still came down heavily, but the wind had dropped somewhat. She ventured out and found that she could walk without much difficulty.
She went back to the house and collected Denny’s clothes. She took them and the suit-case to the car. Then, picking up a large rug from the back seat, she went back to the lounge. She dropped the rug over Denny, rolled him into it and then dragged him out of the house into the pouring rain. She opened the back door of the Lincoln and dragged him into the car. It took her a long time, but eventually she did it.
She was wet through and her clothes stuck to her body, as if they were painted on her. She was feeling completely exhausted after the struggle to get Denny into the car, and she poured herself out a stiff shot of whisky. She felt better for that.
So far so good, she told herself, looking round the disordered room. She dare not leave it like that. There was only one quick way to destroy that sort of evidence. She remembered seeing a spare can of gasoline on the running-board of the Lincoln and she went out and got it. She left the can in the lounge and walked into the kitchen.
Stella was still sitting where she had left her. She had stopped crying, but her limbs continued to shiver and tremble.
“We’re getting out of here,” Gerda said. “Come on, pull yourself together for God’s sake.”
Stella gave a little shudder at the sound of her voice. “Go away,” she said, “I don’t ever want to see you again. Oh, God, whatever shall I do? Look what you’ve got me into.”
Gerda stood very still. “What do you mean?” she said softly. “You’re to blame as much as I.”
Stella sprang to her feet. She looked a little insane. “I knew you’d say that,” she screamed. “But I didn’t kill him. I never wanted to kill him. I didn’t want him to make love to me—you made me! Do you hear? You made me!”
Gerda said: “Pull yourself together. If you want to get away with this you’ve got to use your head and help me.”
“Leave me—go away! He said you were bad, and I didn’t believe him. He warned me against you. Oh, how could you do such a thing?” She buried her head in her arms and began sobbing again wildly.
A sudden expression crossed Gerda’s face, making her look old and ugly. She said: “Don’t you see it was as much for you as for me? We can be rich now, Stella. We won’t have to pinch and scrape any more. You won’t have to lie with any more men. We’ve got all that behind us. Isn’t that worth something?”
“How can you talk like that?” Stella demanded, confronting her. “Does his death mean nothing to you? Are you so hard and callous that you’re not frightened by the awful thing you’ve done?”
Gerda shrugged. “Oh, very well,” she said. “What shall we do? Call the cops?”
Stella beat on the table with her fists. “There’s nothing we can do,” she cried. “We can’t bring him back. You’ve finished us both!”
“I’ve got him in the car,” Gerda said. “We can dump him and the car in the river. It is very deep. He may never be found. Then we can get another ride into Miami. With the money, we’ll be safe and we’ll be happy.”
Stella stopped crying and stared at her. “Is that what you’re going to do?” she said. “What about the house and the bloodstains? Do you think we can get rid of them?”
“I’m going to set fire to the house. They’ll think it’s the lightning.”
Stella went very white. “Then he was right. You are utterly bad. You have no feelings for anything but yourself. Go on, do what you’ve planned. I can’t stop you. But I’m not going with you. I’d rather go on the streets than go with you. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
Gerda looked at her thoughtfully. “But I couldn’t let you do that,” she said reasonably, “you might talk. I’m very fond of you, Stella, but you mustn’t try my patience too much.” Her voice was toneless and her eyes shone strangely.
Stella shook her head. “I shan’t talk,” she said; “you needn’t be afraid of that. I’m going right out of this house and I hope I shall never see you again.”
