The Narrow Corner (25 page)

“When I got there she shook hands with me as if we were just friends. She asked me if I’d like some tea. I said I’d had it before I came. She said she wouldn’t keep me a minute because she was going to the pictures. She
was all dressed up. I asked her what was the matter with Pat, and she said it wasn’t really very serious, only he’d heard that I’d been at the pictures with her, and he didn’t much like it. She’d said it was just an accident. Once I’d seen her sitting by herself and come over and sat by her, and another time we’d met in the vestibule, and as she was alone I’d paid for her seat and we’d gone in together. She said she didn’t think Pat would mention it, but if he did, she wanted me to back her up. Of course I said I would. She mentioned the two times he was asking about, so that I should know, and then she began talking about her journey. She knew New Zealand well and she started talking about it. I’d never been there. It sounded fine. She was going to stay with friends and she made me laugh telling me about them. She could be jolly nice when she liked. She was awfully good company when she was in a good temper, I must admit that, and I never realised that time was passing. She was just like what she was when I first knew her. At last she got up and said she’d better be going. I suppose I’d been there about half an hour, may be three-quarters. She gave me her hand and she looked at me half laughing.

“ ‘It wouldn’t really hurt you to kiss me good-bye, would it?’ she said.

“She said it chaffingly, and I laughed.

“ ‘No, I don’t suppose it would,’ I said.

“I bent down and kissed her. Or rather she kissed me. She put her arms round my neck and when I tried to break away she wouldn’t let me go. She just clung to me like a vine. And then she said, as she was going away to-morrow, wouldn’t I have her just once more. I said she’d promised she wouldn’t make a nuisance of herself, and she said she didn’t mean to, but seeing me, she couldn’t help herself, and she swore it would be the last time. After all, she was going away, and it couldn’t matter just once. And all the time she was kissing me and stroking my face. She said she didn’t blame me for anything, and she was just a foolish woman and wouldn’t I be kind to her? Well, it had all gone off so well and I was so relieved that she seemed to accept the situation; I didn’t want to be a brute. If she’d been staying I’d have refused at any price, but as she was going away I thought I might just as well send her away happy.

“ ‘All right,’ I said, ‘let’s go upstairs.’

“It was a little two-storey house, and the bedroom and spare-room were on the first floor. They’ve been building a lot of them round Sydney lately.

“ ‘No,’ she said. ‘The whole place is in a mess.’

“She drew me towards the sofa. It was one of those Chesterfields, and there was lots of room to cuddle up in it.

“ ‘I love you, I love you,’ she kept on saying.

“Suddenly the door opened. I sprang up and there was Hudson. For a minute he was just as startled as I was. Then he shouted at me, I don’t know what he said, and jumped. He let out his fist, but I dodged it; I’m pretty quick on my feet, and I’ve done a bit of boxing; and then he just chucked himself at me. We grappled. He was a big, powerful chap, bigger than me, but I’m pretty strong. He was trying to get me down, but I wasn’t going to let him do that if I could help it. We were struggling all over the room. He hit me when he could, and I hit him back. Once I got away from him, but he charged me like a bull and I staggered. We knocked down chairs and tables. We had a hell of a fight. I tried to get away from him again, but I couldn’t. He wanted to trip me up. It didn’t take me long to find out he was a lot stronger than me. But I was more active. He’d got his coat on and I hadn’t got anything but my undies. Then he got me down; I don’t know if I slipped, or if he just forced me, but we were rolling over on the floor like a couple of madmen. He got on top of me and began hitting my face; there was nothing I could do then, and I just tried to protect it with my arm. Suddenly I thought he was going to kill me. God, I was scared. I made a hell of an effort and slipped away, but he was on me again like a flash of lightning. I felt my strength giving out; he put his knee on my windpipe and I knew I’d choke. I tried to shout, but
I couldn’t. I threw out my right arm and suddenly I felt a revolver put in my hand; I swear I didn’t know what I was doing, it all happened in a second, I twisted my arm and fired. He gave a cry and started back. I fired again. He gave a great groan and rolled off me on to the floor. I slid away and jumped to my feet.

“I was trembling like a leaf.”

Fred threw himself back in his chair and closed his eyes, so that Dr. Saunders thought he was going to faint. He was as white as a sheet and great beads of sweat stood on his forehead. He took a long breath.

“I was in a sort of daze. I saw Florrie kneel down, and though you wouldn’t believe it I noticed that she was careful about it so that she shouldn’t get any blood on her. She felt his pulse and she pulled down his eyelid. She got up.

“ ‘I think it’s all right,’ she said. ‘He’s dead.’ She gave me a funny look. ‘It wouldn’t have been very nice if we’d had to polish him off.’

“I was horror-struck. I suppose I couldn’t have been all there or I wouldn’t have said anything so stupid as I did.

“ ‘I thought he was at Newcastle,’ I said.

“ ‘No, he didn’t go,’ she said. ‘He had a telephone message.’

“ ‘What telephone message?’ I said. Somehow I
couldn’t understand what she was talking about. ‘Who sent it?’

“D’you know that she almost laughed?

“ ‘I did,’ she said.

“ ‘What for?’ I said. Then it suddenly flashed across me. ‘You don’t mean to say it was a put-up job?’

“ ‘Don’t be silly,’ she said. ‘What you’ve got to do now is to keep your head. You go home and have supper quite quietly with the family. I’m going to the pictures like I said I would.’

“ ‘You’re crazy,’ I said.

“ ‘No, I’m not,’ she said. ‘I know what I’m doing. You’ll be all right if you do what I say. You just behave as if nothing had happened and leave it all to me. Don’t forget that if it comes out you’ll hang.’

“I expect I nearly jumped out of my skin when she said that, because she laughed. My God, the nerve that woman had got!

“ ‘You’ve got nothing to be afraid of,’ she said. ‘I won’t let them touch a hair of your head. You’re my property, and I know how to look after what belongs to me. I love you and I want you, and when it’s all over and forgotten we’ll be married. What a fool you were to think I was ever going to give you up.’

“I swear to you that I felt my blood run icy in my veins. I was in a trap and there was no getting out of it.
I stared at her and I hadn’t a thing to say. I shall never forget the look on her face. Suddenly she looked at my undervest. I hadn’t got anything on but that and my drawers.

“ ‘Oh, look,’ she said.

“I looked at myself and saw that on one side it was just dripping with blood. I was just going to touch it, I don’t know why, when she caught hold of my hand.

“ ‘Don’t do that,’ she said. ‘Wait a minute.’

“She got a newspaper and began rubbing it.

“ ‘Hold your head down,’ she said. ‘I’ll take it off.’

“I bent my head and she skinned me.

“ ‘Have you got any blood anywhere else?’ she said. ‘Damned lucky for you you hadn’t got your trousers on.’

“My drawers were all right. I dressed myself as quick as I could. She took the vest.

“ ‘I’ll burn it and I’ll burn the paper,’ she said. ‘I’ve got a fire in the kitchen. It’s my washing day.’

“I looked at Hudson. He was dead all right. It made me feel rather sick to look at him. There was a great pool of blood on the carpet.

“ ‘Are you ready?’ she said.

“ ‘Yes,’ I said.

“She came out in the passage with me and just before she opened the door she put her arms round my neck and kissed me as if she wanted to eat me alive.

“ ‘My darling,’ she said. ‘Darling. Darling.’

“She opened the door and I slipped out. It was pitch dark.

“I seemed to walk in a dream. I walked pretty quick. As a matter of fact, I had all I could do not to run. I had my hat as far down as it would go and my collar turned up, but I hardly passed anybody and no one could have recognised me. I went a long way round, as she’d said I was to, and took the tram from right away in the neighbourhood of Chester Avenue.

“They were just going to sit down to dinner when I got home. We always had late dinner and I ran upstairs to wash my hands. I looked at myself in the glass, and d’you know, I was absolutely astonished because I looked just the same as usual. But when I sat down and mother said, ‘Tired, Fred? You’re looking very white,’ I went as red as a turkey-cock. I didn’t manage to eat very much. Luckily I didn’t have to talk, we never talked much when we were alone, and after dinner father started to read some reports and mother looked at the evening paper. I was feeling awful.”

“Half a minute,” said the doctor. “You said you suddenly felt a revolver in your hand. I don’t quite understand.”

“Florrie put it there.”

“How did she get it?”

“How should I know? She took it out of Pat’s pocket
when he was on the top of me or else she had it there. I only fired in self-defence.”

“Go on.”

“Suddenly mother said, ‘What’s the matter, Fred?’ It came so unexpectedly and her voice was so—gentle, it just broke me. I tried to control myself; I couldn’t, I just burst out crying. ‘Hullo, what’s this?’ said father. Mother put her arms round me and rocked me as if I was a baby. She kept on asking me what was the matter, and at first I wouldn’t say. At last I had to. I pulled myself together. I made a clean breast of the whole thing. Mother was frightfully upset, and started weeping, but father shut her up. She began reproaching me, but he wouldn’t let her do that either. ‘All that doesn’t matter now,’ he said. His face was like thunder. If the earth could have opened and swallowed me on a word of his, he’d have said the word. I told them everything. Father had always said the only chance a criminal has is to be absolutely frank with his lawyer, and that a lawyer couldn’t do a thing unless he knew every single fact.

“I finished. Mother and I looked at father. He’d stared at me all the time I was speaking, but now he looked down. You could see he was thinking like hell. You know, in some ways father’s an extraordinary man. He’s always been very keen on culture. He’s one of the trustees of the Art Gallery and he’s on the committee that gets up the symphony concerts and all that. He’s
gentlemanly and rather quiet. Mother used to say he looked very distinguished. He was always very mild and amiable and polite. You’d have thought he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was everything he seemed, but there was a lot more in him than that. After all, he’d got the biggest lawyer’s business in Sydney, and there was nothing he didn’t know about people. Of course he was highly respected, but everyone knew it wasn’t much good trying on any hanky-panky with him. And it was the same in politics. He ran the party and old Barnes never did a thing without consulting him. He could have been premier himself if he’d wanted to, but he didn’t, he was quite satisfied just to be in the government and manage the whole shooting match behind the scenes.

“ ‘You mustn’t blame the boy too much, Jim,’ mother said.

“He made a sort of impatient movement with his hand. I almost thought he wasn’t thinking about me at all. It sent a chill down my spine. He spoke at last.

“ ‘It looks very much like a put-up job between those two,’ he said. ‘Hudson has been rather difficult lately. I shouldn’t be surprised if there was blackmail behind it. And she double-crossed him.’

“ ‘What’s Fred to do?’ said mother.

“Father looked at me. You know, he looked just as mild as always and his voice had the same rather pleasant note in it. ‘If he’s caught, he’ll hang,’ he said.
Mother gave a shriek and father frowned a little. ‘Oh, I’m not going to let him hang,’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid. He can escape that by going out now and shooting himself.’ ‘Jim, d’you want to kill me?’ said mother. ‘Unfortunately that wouldn’t help us much,’ he said. ‘What?’ I asked. ‘Your shooting yourself,’ he said. ‘The thing’s got to be hushed up. We can’t afford a scandal. We’re going to have a stiff fight at the election, and with me out of it and all this we shouldn’t have much chance.’ ‘Father, I’m so awfully sorry,’ I said. ‘I don’t doubt that,’ he said. ‘Fools and blackguards generally are when they have to take the consequences of their actions.’

“We were all silent for a bit and then I said, ‘I’m not sure if it wouldn’t be the best thing if I went and shot myself.’ ‘Don’t be so stupid,’ he said, ‘that would only make things worse. D’you think the newspapers are such fools that they wouldn’t put two and two together? Don’t talk. Let me think.’ We sat like mutes. Mother was holding my hand. ‘There’s the woman to deal with, too,’ he said at last. ‘We’re in her clutches all right. Nice to have her as a daughter-in-law.’ Mother didn’t dare say a word. Father leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. A little smile came into his eyes. ‘Fortunately we live in the most democratic country in the world,’ he said. ‘Nobody is above corruption.’ He liked saying that. He looked at us for a minute or two.
He had a way of thrusting out his jaw when he’d made up his mind to do something and meant to put it through that I knew as well as mother did. ‘I suppose it’ll be in the paper to-morrow,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and see Mrs. Hudson. I think I know what she’s going to say. If she sticks to her story, barring accidents I don’t think anyone can prove anything. It looks to me as if she’d worked it all out pretty thoroughly. The police will question her, but I’ll see they don’t interview her without my being present.’ ‘And what about Fred?’ said mother. Father smiled again. You’d have sworn butter couldn’t melt in his mouth. ‘Fred’ll go to bed and stay there,’ he said. ‘By a merciful interposition of providence there’s a lot of scarlet fever about, an epidemic practically; to-morrow or the next day we’ll rush him off to the fever hospital.’ ‘But why?’ asked mother. ‘What’s the use of that?’ ‘My dear,’ said father, ‘it’s the best way I know of keeping someone out of the way for a few weeks with perfect security.’ ‘But supposing he catches it?’ said mother. ‘He’d be acting natural,’ he said.