James Chase - Shock Treatment

She went back into the lounge.

I heard her say “Good night.”

“There was something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Delaney said. “What’s happened to your lover? You haven’t been sneaking out at night recently. I’ve been watching for you. Has he got tired of you already?”

“I’m going to bed. Good night.”

“I’m in the mood for some diversion tonight,” Delaney said. “After all you divert your lover — why not your husband?”

“You’re drunk,” she said, her tone contemptuous. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

I heard her move to the door, then there was a sudden scuffling noise and I heard her scream.

I jerked open the storeroom door and stepped out into the passage. From where I stood I could see into the lounge.

Delaney had caught hold of Gilda by her wrist and had dragged her close to his chair. His face was congested and his eyes vicious.

“You’re forgetting I’m your husband, aren’t you?” he rasped. “You have certain duties that you seem to be forgetting. If your lover is allowed to have his fun with you, why shouldn’t I also have my fun?”

“Let go of me, you beast!”

He hooked his fingers in the neck of her blouse and ripped it open, then he gave her a sudden push that sent her sprawling.

He sat in his chair and cursed her.

I stood there, sweat on my face, murder in my heart, listening and watching. If I hadn’t known that by tomorrow morning he would be dead I would have walked into the lounge and beaten him to death.

Gilda got to her feet and staggered away from him, her face white and her eyes glittering.

“I’ve had enough of you,” she said. “I’m going to leave you!”

“Leave me?” He laughed. “Go ahead and see where it lands you. You won’t get my money when I die. You won’t get a damn thing! If you want to leave, then get out!”

She walked unsteadily to the door and I ducked back out of sight.

I heard her go into her bedroom and shut and lock the door.

This ugly scene had left me shaking.

After a few minutes I heard Delaney turn the light off in the lounge and trundle himself down the passage and into his room. He slammed the door viciously behind him.

After witnessing this scene I had no hesitation now in going ahead with my plan. Gilda had to be freed from this man.

It wasn’t until the hands of my watch stood at two o’clock that I decided it was safe to make a move.

I had been sitting in the hot stuffy darkness now for close on four hours. I was glad at last to become active. Turning on my flashlight and picking up my tool kit, I opened the storeroom door and listened.

The cabin was silent except for the faint hum from the refrigerator in the kitchen and the ticking of a clock in the lounge.

I walked silently down the passage, and into the lounge.

Very gently, I closed the door behind me, then I crossed over to the TV set.

Working quickly, I disconnected the leads to the main and took the back panel oil the set. I disconnected the remote control unit’s lead from the set and reconnected the lead in such a way that the boosted current would go directly to the control knobs of the remote control unit.

I then cut the mains lead and connected the two wires to the time-switch clock. I put the clock in a space in the back of the TV set.

I carefully checked what I had done. The setup was simple enough. Until the hands of the time-switch clock reached twenty minutes to ten, the mains current couldn’t reach the set. At twenty minutes to ten the clock would switch on the mains current and the remote control would then become lethal. When Delaney touched the unit at that time, he would receive the full shock of the boosted current coming through the valves of the TV set.

The time-switch clock safeguarded Gilda. The remote control unit couldn’t come alive until twenty minutes to ten. By that time she would be on her way to Glyn Camp. If she didn’t go to Glyn Camp, I still had time to get to Blue Jay cabin and make the control unit safe.

When I was certain I had made no mistake, I put the back of the set on again.

The stage was set. The success of the plan now depended on whether Gilda left for Glyn Camp in the morning.

I collected my tools, checked once more to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, then, moving silently, I went over to the lounge window and slipped the catch back.

I pushed open the window, climbed out into the darkness of the verandah and then gently closed the window behind me.

At half-past eight the following morning I called the girl at Glyn Camp who relayed my telephone messages when I was out on my rounds.

“I’ll be leaving in a few minutes, Doris,” I said to her. “My first call will be at Mr Hamish’s place. I’ll be there around nine-thirty. If anything comes in between then and quarter-past ten, call me there, will you?”

She said she would.

It was essential to my plan that Doris should know I was with Hamish at nine-thirty. I was pretty sure that Delaney would try to turn on the TV set before the Dempsey film began. As the time-switch clock prevented the current getting into the set, the set wouldn’t work. He would think it had packed up, and he was certain to yell for me.

Doris, the telephone girl, would get the message and would pass it on to me while I was with Hamish. I would tell Hamish that Delaney wanted me to call on him. I would thus establish the reason why I had gone to Blue Jay cabin and why I happened to be the first to find his body. It was essential that I should be the first there as I had to set the scene before I called Doc Mallard and the Sheriff.

I had a cold empty feeling inside me as I locked up the cabin and got into the truck.

I drove fast down the mountain road until I reached the spot where I could see Delaney’s cabin in the far distance.

The time was now ten minutes to nine. I lit a cigarette with hands that were far from steady, and I stared down at the distant cabin.

There was no sign of any life out there, although the garage doors stood open, which was a hopeful sign. Would Gilda go to Glyn Camp? Would I have to make a mad race down to the cabin to make the remote control unit safe? It would take me about seven minutes to reach the cabin. I could wait until twenty minutes past nine, but no longer.

The next ten minutes were the longest I have ever lived through. I sat in the truck, my hands like ice, sweat on my face and my heart thumping.

I kept looking at my watch, wondering what was happening in the cabin, wondering if Gilda was getting ready to go down to Glyn Camp or if she had decided not to go.

Then suddenly I saw Gilda moving across to the garage.

I jumped to my feet.

She was going to Glyn Camp!

After a long pause, the Buick came out of the garage and drove down the tarmac to the gate. There, I lost sight of it, but I had no doubt that she was on her way to Glyn Camp as she usually did on a Friday morning, and she wouldn’t return before midday.

I looked towards the cabin. There was no sign of Delaney. I looked at my watch. The time was now a quarter-past nine. In less than half an hour, he would be dead.

On the way up to Hamish’s cabin, I tried not to think of Delaney, but I kept wondering what he was doing: if he had discovered yet that his set wasn’t working; if he was already talking to Doris on the telephone, telling her to get me over to his place right away.

I reached Hamish’s cabin at two minutes to half-past nine.

Mrs Hamish told me to go on in. She said I would find her husband in his workroom.

I went to his workroom which was at the rear of the cabin.

Hamish, a big man with a red jovial face, was sitting on the edge of his desk, the telephone receiver against his ear.