Lawrence Block - Enough Rope

She hoped that would soak in. She could only give the phony descriptions if she were left alive, and she hoped that much penetrated.

It was aroundthree-thirty in the morning when Howie left for the ransom. “I should be about an hour,” he said. “If I’m not back in that time, then things are bad. Then we’ve got trouble.”

“What do I do then?” Ray asked.

“You know what to do.”

“I mean, how do I get out of here? We’ve only got the one car, and you’ll be in it.”

“So beat it on foot, or stay right where you are. You don’t have to worry about me cracking. The only way they’ll get me is dead, and if I’m dead you won’t have to worry about them finding out where we’ve got her tucked away. Just take care of the chick and get out on foot.”

“Nothing’s going to go wrong.”

“I think you’re right. I think this is smooth as silk, but anything to be sure. You got your gun?”

“On the table.”

“Ought to keep it on you.”

“Well, maybe.”

“Remember,” Howie said, “you can figure on me getting back in an hour at the outside. Probably be no more than half of that, but an hour is tops. So long.”

“Good luck,” Carole called after him.

Howie stopped and looked at her. He had a very strange expression on his face. “Yeah,” he said finally. “Luck. Sure, thanks.”

When Howie was gone, Ray said, “You never should have made the phone call. I mean, I think it was a good idea and all, but that way Howie tied you up, see, and he tied you tight. Me, I would have tied you loose, see, but he doesn’t think the same way.” He considered things. “In a way,” he went on, “Howie is what you might call a funny guy. Everything has to go just right, know what I mean? He doesn’t like to leave a thing to chance.”

“Could you untie me?”

“Well, I don’t know if I should.”

“At least make this looser? It’s got my fingers numb already. It hurts pretty bad, Ray. Please?”

“Well, I suppose so.” He untied her. As soon as she was loose he moved to the table, scooped up the gun, wedged it beneath the waistband of his trousers.

He likes me, she thought. He even wants me to be comfortable and he doesn’t particularly want to kill me, but he doesn’t trust me. He’s too nervous to trust anybody.

“Could I have a cigarette?” she asked.

“Huh? Oh, sure.” He gave her one, lit it for her. They smoked together for several minutes in silence. It isn’t going to work, she thought, not the way things are going. She had him believing her, but that didn’t seem to be enough. Howie was the brains and the boss, and what Howie said went, and Howie would say to kill her. She wondered which one of them would use the gun on her.

“Uh, Carole—”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. Just forget it.”

He wanted her to bring it up, she knew. So she said, “Listen, Ray, let me tell you something. I like you a lot, but to tell you the truth I’m scared of Howie.”

“You are?”

“I’ve been playing it straight with you, and I think you’ve been straight with me. Ray, you’ve got the brains to realize you’ll be much better off if you let me go.” He doesn’t, she thought, have any brains at all, but flattery never hurt. “But Howie is different from you and me. He’s not — well, normal. I know he wants to kill me.”

“Oh, now—”

“I mean it, Ray.” She clutched his arm. “If I live, Dad won’t report it. He can’t afford to. But if you kill me—”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Suppose you let me go.”

“Afterward?”

She shook her head. “No, now, before Howie comes back. He won’t care by then, he’ll have the money. You can just let me go, and then the two of you will take the money and get out of town. Nobody will ever know a thing. I’ll tell Dad the two of you released me and he’ll be so glad to get me back and so scared of the tax men he’ll never say a word. You could let me go, Ray, couldn’t you? Before Howie gets back?”

He thought it over for a long time, and she could see he wanted to. But he said, “I don’t know, Howie would take me apart—”

“Say I grabbed something and hit you, and managed to knock you out. Tell him he tied the ropes wrong and I slipped loose and got you from behind. He’ll be mad, maybe, but what will he care? As long as you have the money—”

“He won’t believe you hit me.”

“Suppose I did hit you? Not hard, but enough to leave a mark so you could point to it for proof.”

He grinned suddenly. “Sure, Carole, you’ve been good to me. The first time, when he made that first phone call, you were real good. I’ll tell you something, the idea of killing you bothers me. And you’re right about Howie. Here, belt me one behind the ear. Make it a good one, but not too hard, okay?” And he handed her the gun.

He looked completely astonished when she shot him. He just didn’t believe it. She reversed the gun in her hand, curled her index finger around the trigger, and pointed the gun straight at his heart. His eyes bugged out and his mouth dropped open, and he just stared at her, not saying anything at all. She shot him twice in the center of the chest and watched him fall slowly, incredibly, to the floor, dead.

When Howie’s carpulled up she was ready. She crouched by the doorway, gun in hand, waiting. The car door flew open and she heard his footsteps on the gravel path. He pulled the door open, calling out jubilantly that it had gone like clockwork, just like clockwork, then he caught sight of Ray’s corpse on the floor and did a fantastic double take. When he saw her and the gun, he started to say something, but she emptied the gun into him, four bullets, one after the other, and all of them hit him and they worked; he fell; he died.

She got the bag of money out of his hand before he could bleed on it.

The rest wasn’t too difficult. She took the rope with which she’d been tied and rubbed it back and forth on the chair leg until it finally frayed through. Behind the cabin she found a toolshed. She used a shovel, dug a shallow pit, dropped the money into it, filled in the hole. She carried the gun down to the water’s edge, wiped it free of fingerprints, and heaved it into the creek.

Finally, when just the right amount of time had passed, she walked out to the highway and kept going until she found a telephone, a highway emergency booth.

“Just stay right where you are,” her father said. “Don’t call the police. I’ll come for you.”

“Hurry. Daddy. I’m so scared.”

He picked herup. She was shaking, and he held her in his arms and soothed her.

“I was so frightened,” she said. “And then when the one man came back with the ransom money, the other man took out a gun and shot him and the third man, and then the man who did the shooting, he and the woman ran away in their other car. I was sure they were going to kill me but the man said not to bother, the gun was empty and it didn’t matter now. The woman wanted to kill me with the knife but she didn’t. I was sure she would. Oh, Daddy—”

“It’s all right now,” he said. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

She showed him the cabin and the two dead men and the rope. “It took me forever to get out of it,” she said. “But I saw in the movies how you can work your way out, and I wasn’t tied too tight, so I managed to do it.”

“You’re a brave girl, Carole.”

On the way home he said, “I’m not going to call the police, Carole. I don’t want to subject you to a lot of horrible questioning. Sooner or later they’ll find those two in the cabin, but that has nothing to do with us. They’ll just find two dead criminals, and the world’s better off without them.” He thought for a moment. “Besides,” he added, “I’m sure I’d have a hard time explaining where I got that money.”