William Haggard - The New Black Mask (No 5)

“Yes.”

Abrams: “All right. You people can clear out. We’ll let you know when we want to see you again.”

The guests start to leave as if glad to go, especially a little group of men who have been herded into a comer by a couple of policemen, but this group is halted by one of the policemen, who says, “Take it easy, boys. We’ve got a special wagon outside for you. We been hunting for some of you for months.” They are led out between policemen.

Abrams, alone in the room with Nick and Nora, looks at Nick: “Well?”

Nick says, “Oh, sure,” and begins to mix drinks.

Abrams: “I didn't mean that exactly. I mean what do you make all this add up to? He’s killed coming to see you. He knows you two and Mrs. Charles’s relations, and that’s all we know he does know. What do you make of it?”

Nick, handing him a drink: “Maybe he was a fellow who didn’t get around much.”

[ Nick and Nora go to Aunt Katherine’s for dinner. The party is composed of stodgy, aged family members with the exception of Selma, who is morose. After dinner, Nick and the men stay at table; the women retire to the parlor, where Selma entertains them by playing the piano. Nora, seated next to Selma, asks her in a whisper what is wrong. When she starts to answer, Aunt Katherine demands that she continue to play. ]

Selma puts her hands to her face and runs from the room to the library beyond, while Aunt Katherine rises to her feet and the other women look wide-eyed and alarmed. Nora says, “Let me talk to her,” and goes out after Selma.

In the library, Selma is sobbing on a sofa. Nora sits down beside her, puts her arms around her, says, “Don’t, dear. Nick’ll find Robert for you. I’m sure he’s just—”

Selma sits up, pushing Nora’s arms away, crying hysterically: “Sometimes I hate you and Nick. You’re so happy together, and here Robert and I haven’t been married half as long and I’m so miserable. I wish he’d never come back. I wish he were dead. I don’t really love him. I never did, really. I was a fool to have married him instead of David.” She puts her head on Nora’s shoulder and begins to sob again.

Nora, stroking Selma’s hair: “Well then, dear, divorce him. Don’t let Aunt Katherine keep you from that. If you—”

Selma raises her head again: “But I’m such a fool. This is the first time he’s gone off like this without a word, without even telling me lies about where he’s going, but there have always been other women and I’ve always known it. But I’ve let him twist me around his little finger and made myself believe his lies even when I knew they were lies and — he doesn’t love me. He married me for my money. Yet he does horrible things to me, and then when I see him I let him smooth everything over and I want to think we love each other and everything will turn out all right. And it won’t, it won’t. It’s all lies and I’m a fool. Oh, why didn’t I marry David?” She bursts into tears again.

Meanwhile Aunt Katherine has come into the library and shut the door. Now she says coldly, “You are a fool, Selma, but you might have the decency not to scream so the servants will find out exactly what kind of fool you are.”

“Aunt Katherine!” Nora protests. “Selma’s not well. She—”

Aunt Katherine interrupts her, nodding her head grimly: “I know she’s not well. I know better than anyone else — except Doctor Kammer — how far from being well she really is.” Selma flinches. Aunt Katherine says to Nora, “Will you ask Nicholas to come in?” Nora hesitates as if about to say something, then goes out. Aunt Katherine says to Selma, “Fix yourself up. You look like Ophelia.” Selma flinches again and begins to fix her hair, dress, etc.

[ When Nora goes to the dining room to summon Nick, she finds him in mock conversation with the rest of the men, who are all snoring comically. As Nick leaves the table, he places a floral centerpiece in the hands of one of them. ]

Nick and Nora are going through the hallway. She is holding his arm and seems worried. She says, “Aunt Katherine wants to see you.”

Nick: “What have I done now?”

Nora: “Do you know why Robert wasn’t here tonight?”

Nick: “Because he’s smart.”

Nora: “I’m not fooling. He’s disappeared.”

Nick: “That’s swell. Now if we can get rid of—”

Nora: “Be nice to Selma, Nicky. She’s having such a tough time of it.”

Nick stops and turns Nora around to face him, looking at her with suspicion. He says, “Now come on, tell the old man. What are you getting him into?”

Nora, paying no attention to this: “And do try to be polite to Aunt Katherine. It’ll make it easier for Selma.”

Nick sighs deeply, and they go into the library.

[ Nick questions Selma under Aunt Katherine’s watchful gaze about her problem, and she tells him the circumstances of Robert’s disappearance. ]

Selma: “Our names might get in the papers. People might find out that I’m married to a drunken wastrel, a thief, a man who’s already cost me a small fortune getting him out of scrapes with women, a man who has never done a decent thing in—”

Aunt Katherine raps with her cane on the floor and says, “Selma, stop that nonsense!”

Selma puts her hands over her face and cries, “I don’t care what anybody knows, I don’t care what gets in the papers, if I can only be happy once again.”

Nora goes to her to soothe her.

Aunt Katherine, quietly: “We’ve kept our private affairs out of the public print up until now, and I hope we shall continue to do so.” She smiles at Nick as if conferring a favor on him. “I shall leave it in your hands, Nicholas. I know you’ll welcome a chance to help us, and I needn’t tell you how grateful we’ll be if you see that Robert returns home without any scandal.” She smiles at Nora, says, “If you’ll forgive me, I’ll go back to my guests. When you’ve quieted Selma, I think she’d better go off to bed.” She goes out calmly and majestically.

Nick, looking after her half-admiringly, half-disgustedly: “Katherine the Great!”

Selma comes over to Nick, holding out her hands: “I don’t know how to thank you, Nick.”

Nick takes her hands: “You mean you don’t know what to thank me for. What is all this fiddledeedee?”

Selma: “Robert hasn’t been home. I haven’t seen or heard from him for three days.”

Nick: “Where do you think he might be?”

Selma: “I don’t know. It’s some woman, of course. It gets worse and worse. Only last week some Chinese restaurant — Lichee or something — sent me a cigarette case they thought I’d left there, and I know it was some woman that was there with him, though he swore it wasn’t.”

Nick: “Well, you’re at least a cigarette case ahead — or wasn’t it worth keeping?”

Nora says, “Nick,” reprovingly, while Selma, not knowing he is kidding her, says, “I sent it back, of course, with a note saying it wasn’t mine, but I don’t—” She breaks off to look at the butler, who is standing in the doorway.

The butler says, “A — ah — gentleman from the police to see you, Mrs. Landis.”

Selma screams and faints.

Selma’s scream brings in Aunt Katherine, followed by the rest of the family. During the ensuing hubbub, while they are bringing her to, asking each other what happened, Lieutenant Abrams comes in. He nods at Nick, says, “I thought maybe you’d be here,” looks at Selma, and asks, “Is the lady in trouble Mrs. Selma Landis?”

Nick: “Yes.”

Abrams: “I thought maybe it was.” Then, to Nora, who is now looking at him: “Evening, Mrs. Charles.”

By this time the others have noticed him. Aunt Katherine looks inquiringly at him. Nick introduces them elaborately: “Miss Forrest, may I present Lieutenant Abrams of the Police Department homicide detail?”