"Well, okay. Maybe you"re right." He still looked worried. "I guess I"ll turn in. We"re all clear now, aren"t we?"
"Everything"s fine," I said. "Goodnight, Mr. Jenson."
"Goodnight, Jack."
I watched him cross to the bungalow. The light in her room was on, but it snapped out as he opened the front door. The light in his room, which was next to hers, went on.
I came out onto the lunch room veranda and sat down in one of the basket chairs. I was feeling scared, worried sick and tired. I lit a cigarette and settled down to wait. I knew she wouldn"t come out here for some time: I had a long wait ahead of me.
I imagined her in her dark bedroom, waiting for Jenson to go to sleep. I wondered what she was thinking about and what she was planning.
If I had had my money, instead of giving it to Jenson to take care of, I would have cleared out now. I would have bribed the first trucker to come in for gas to take me into Tropica Springs. But without money, I was sunk.
So I sat in the darkness, watching the bungalow and waiting for her to come.
chapter six.
I.
The hands of my wrist.w.a.tch showed one-forty. For the past half-hour there had been no trucks coming through. I had been sweating it out for over three hoursa"waiting for her.
Then suddenly I saw her come out of the bungalow. She moved languidly. She was wearing a white shirt and a full, light-coloured skirt. Tight at the waist and flowing out over her hips. She was certainly dressed for the occasion.
I was sitting in the basket chair in the shadows and I watched her come, my heart thumping. I had a cigarette between my lips. So she could tell where I was, I drew on the cigarette, making a little red spark in the darkness.
She came slowly up the steps and sat down in a basket chair near mine.
"Give me a cigarette," she said.
I handed her my pack and my lighter. I couldn"t bring myself to light her cigarette. I wasn"t going to be that much of a slave to her.
She lit her cigarette, then returned me the pack and the lighter. Her fingers brushed mine. They felt hot and dry.
"You puzzled me," she said. "I was sure you were a phoney, but I didn"t guess you were the escaped safe robber. You"re quite a celebrity."
"What"s it to you who I am so long as I do my job and make money for your husband? Why should you care?"
"I have to think of myself." She stretched out her long legs, sinking deeper into the basket chair. "I could get into trouble with the police unless I tell them you"re here."
"Are you going to tell them?"
"I haven"t decided yet." She drew on the cigarette. After a long pause, she went on, "It depends on you. They said in the newspaper that you worked for Lawrence Safes."
I looked in her direction. I couldn"t see her face. She was sitting in the shadows.
"What"s that got to do with it?"
"Everything so far as I"m concerned. Carl has a Lawrence safe. I want you to open it."
So Ricks had been right. She was after Jenson"s money.
"Is there something in it that you want?" I said. "Why don"t you ask him for it?"
"Don"t be funny!" She moved irritably. "Remember what I said this afternoon: from now on, you"re going to do what I say or else . . ."
"Doesn"t he give you enough? What do you want to steal his money for?"
"If you don"t open the safe, you"ll go back to Farnworth." She crossed her legs, adjusting her skirt. "I"ve heard about that jail. They"re tough there. They"ll know what to do with you once they get their hands on you. Are you going to open the safe or are you going back to Farnworth?"
"So Ricks was right. You are a tramp and you are after your husband"s money."
"Never mind what Ricks said. Are you going to open the safe?"
"Suppose I do open ita"what happens then?"
"I"ll give you a thousand dollars and a twenty-four hour start to get away."
She had certainly dreamed up a nice little plot. I opened the safe. She collected a hundred thousand dollars. She gave me a thousand and I went on the run. Jenson would find the safe empty and I would be missing. The finger would point to me. Once the police had my description, they would know I had opened the safe and they would automatically jump to the conclusion that I had the money. It would never occur to anyone to suspect her. All she would have to do was to hide the money somewhere and wait. If they caught me and I told them she had forced me to open the safe and she had the money, it would be my word against hers. Jenson was too crazy about her to believe me. When the uproar had quietened down, she would take the money and disappear. It was a sweet little plot, and it could succeed.
"Do you know what he plans to do with the money you want to steal?" I said, looking towards her. I couldn"t see much of her: just two hostile voices talking in the dark. "He plans to go on a trip around the world. It"s something he has been saving for for thirty years and he plans to take you with him: everything first cla.s.s. Don"t you want to go on a trip around the world?"
"With him? With that fat, old fool?" The note in her voice was vicious. "I don"t even want to go to Wentworth with him."
"But he loves you. Did you marry him only for what you could steal from him?"
"Oh, shut up! How long will it take you to open the safe?"
"I don"t know. Maybe I won"t be able to open it. Those safes are tough. Without the combination, it"s practically impossible open them."
"You"d better open this one, Carson!"
I was talking to gain time. She had me over a barrel. There wasn"t a Lawrence safe made that I couldn"t open. But I hated the thought of Jenson losing his money. I hated the thought, too, that for the rest of his days he would believe I had taken it. He was my friend. He was the only friend I had. I couldn"t do that to him after what he had done for me, but unless I did I would go back to Farnworth and that was something I just couldn"t face. I had to think of a way to get out of this: there had to be a way.
With my mind still busy, I asked, "Where"s the safe?"
"In the sitting room in the bungalow."
"How do you expect me to open it without him hearing me?"
"He"s going to a Legion meeting on Sat.u.r.day. That"s when you"ll do it."
I flicked the b.u.t.t of my cigarette out into the hot night. As I lit another, I said, "And what are you supposed to be doing while I"m busting open the safea"watching me?"
"It"s my night shift. I"ll be in the kitchen, baking pies. I"ll be so busy I won"t hear you leave. I won"t even know you have gone until he gets back."
Then I saw how I could fix her. It was easy. There was nothing to it, except I would be on the run again and I would be out of a good job, but at least I wouldn"t have let Jenson down, and that was something pretty important to me.
"What time does he leave and what time will he be back?"
"He leaves at seven and gets back around two o"clock."
All right, you b.i.t.c.h, I said to myself, now I"ve got it fixed. You are in for a surprise. Okay, I"ll open the safe. Then when you walk in to collect, you"ll walk into a clip on the jaw. I"ll take money. By the time you"ve come to, I"ll be halfway over the mountain. I"ll take care you can"t use the telephone and I"ll make sure you can"t raise the alarm until he gets back and finds you. Then when I"m far away, I"ll write to him and tell him the whole story and I"ll send him back his money: every cent of it. If I do that, he"ll believe me. He"ll have to believe me if I do that and he"ll know what a treacherous b.i.t.c.h he"s married to.
Just to kid her along, I said, "I hate doing a thing like this him. He"s been pretty good to me."
"Never mind the sob talk," she said impatiently. "Are you going to open the safe or are you going back to Farnworth?"
"Well ..." I paused, then went on, "I"m not going back to Farnworth."
"Then Sat.u.r.day?"
I pretended to hesitate then shrugging my shoulders, I said, "I guess so. Okay, I"ll do it."
She got to her feet and flicked her cigarette away into the darkness.
"Don"t imagine I"m bluffing, Mr. Chet Carson. If you don"t open that safe, you"re going back to Farnworth."
"You don"t have to drive it into the ground," I said, looking up at her. "I said I"d d do it, didn"t I ?"
"You"d better do it!" she said, and walked down the steps across the moonlit sand towards the bungalow.
I watched her go.
Well, the cards were face up on the table. It depended now on who outsmarted who.
I was pretty confident I had the four aces against her four kings.
II.
On the following morning, while I was clearing up after the lunch-hour and when Jenson was minding the pumps, I said to Lola, "Get me the number of the safe. I"ve got to have it before I can handle it."
She looked sideways at me out of her hard green eyes. "I"ll get it."
Later in the day, when Jenson was out of the way, she gave me a slip of paper.
The safe number told me Jenson had been sold an obsolete model which was now off the market. It hadn"t been a success because when the safe door was shut it locked automatically. Most safe users preferred to lock the door with a key, and besides, this model had proved to be one of the easiest safes to break into.
It suited me. It wouldn"t take me ten minutes to open, and time was an important factor in this set-up.
On Thursday, when Jenson and I were working together in the garage, he said, "I"ve to go to Wentworth on Sat.u.r.day night: there"s a Legion meeting on. Lola is on night shift. I"ll be glad if you"ll keep an eye open just in case she runs into a trucker who doesn"t know his manners."
I got a tight feeling in my chest.
Jenson trusted me. He was leaving his wife here alone with me and he wanted me to look after her in case some trucker got fresh. It didn"t cross his mind that, being alone with her, I might get the same idea.
"I"ll watch it, Mr. Jenson" I said. "You don"t have to worry."
He grinned at me.
"I know that, Jack. When it comes to men, I don"t make mistakes. You"re all right."
Friday was my day off. I asked Jenson if I could borrow the Mercury.
"I thought I"d take a look at Tropica Springs."
"You go ahead: sure, take the car."
"I could do with some money. Let me have a hundred, will you, Mr. Jenson?"
"I"ll get it right away." I could see he was a little surprised. I was asking for so much, and again I cursed myself for letting him handle my savings.
He went off to the bungalow, and after a while he came back with the money.
I asked him if there was anything I could get him in Tropica Springs. He said no, and then gave me a nudge in the ribs.
"Keep away from the cat houses, Jack, and don"t come home drunk."
As I drove off, I saw Lola watching me from the kitchen.
You would look a d.a.m.n sight more sulky, you chippy, I thought; if you knew what I was cooking up for you.
The road over the mountain was tricky with a lot of hairpin bends, and although I kept pressing, it took me close on four hours to reach Tropica Springs, That worried me. It cut my escape time down.
I had my escape plan pretty well organised. I had decided against taking a plane. The airport would be the first place the police would check, and besides, it was unlikely there would be a plane to New York at that hour of the morning.
Parking the car, I went to a travel bureau and inquired the time of trains leaving for New York. I was told there was one leaving Tropica Springs at 12.30 a.m.
As Jenson was leaving for Wentworth at seven, I could get the safe open and the money packed by seven-thirty and could be on my way to Tropica Springs by seven-forty-five. It would only take me a few minutes to fix Lola. That gave me three-quarters of an hour to get the train.