James Chase: You Find Him, I'll Fix Him

the game for good.

“No,” I said aloud as I turned off the light. “She can go to Sorrento by herself. I’m not going. She can find some other sucker. I’ll go to Ischia.”

But two days later I was on the local train from Naples to Sorrento. I was still telling myself that I was a fool and crazy in the head, but no matter how much I talked to myself, telling myself not to go ahead with this, it made no difference. I was on my way. The train couldn’t move fast enough for me!

Before I caught the train to Naples, I had looked in at the office around ten o’clock for a final check and to see if there were any personal letters for me.

Maxwell was out, but I found Gina sorting through a stack of cables.

“Anything for me?” I asked, sitting on the edge of her desk.

“No personal letters. Mr. Maxwell can handle all this,” she said, flicking the cables with a carefully manicured fingernail. “Shouldn’t you be on your way? I thought you wanted to leave early.”

“I’ve lots of time.”

My train to Naples didn’t leave until noon. I had told Gina I was going to Venice and I had had trouble in preventing her booking a seat for me on the Rome-Venice express.

The telephone-bell rang at this moment and Gina picked up the receiver. I leaned forward and began to look idly at the cables.

“Who is that speaking?” Gina said. “Mrs. — who? Will you hold on a moment? I’m not sure if he is in.” She looked at me, frowning, and I could see a puzzled expression in her eyes. “A Mrs. Douglas Sherrard is asking for you.”

I was about to say I had never heard of her and didn’t want to speak to her when the slightly familiar sounding name suddenly rang a clear alarm-bell in my mind. Mrs. Douglas Sherrard! That was the name Helen had said she used when renting the villa at Sorrento. Surely this couldn’t be Helen on the line? Surely she couldn’t be so reckless as to call me here?

Trying not to show my consternation, I reached forward and took the receiver from Gina’s hand. Half-turning my back so she couldn’t watch my face, I said cautiously, “Hello? Who is that?”

“Hello, Ed,” It was Helen all right. “I know I shouldn’t be calling you at the office, but I tried your apartment and there was no answer.”

I wanted to tell her she was crazy to call me here. I wanted to hang up, but I knew Gina would wonder what it was all about. “What is it?” I asked sharply.

“Is there someone listening?”

“Yes.”

To make things more complicated, the office door jerked open and Jack Maxwell breezed in.

“Good grief! You still around?” he exclaimed when he saw me. “I thought you were on your way to Venice by now.”

I waved him to silence, said into the mouthpiece: “Is there something I can do?”

“Yes, please. Would you mind bringing me down a Wratten number eight filter for my camera? I find I need it and I can’t get it in Sorrento.”

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll do that.”

“Thanks, darling. I’m so impatient for you to get here. The scenery is too marvelous….”

I was afraid her low, clear voice might reach Maxwell’s ear. He was obviously listening. I cut in on her.

“I’ll fix it. Good-bye for now,” and I hung up.

Maxwell stared inquisitively at me.

“Do you always treat your lady callers like that?” he asked as he glanced through the cables on the desk. “That was a trifle abrupt, wasn’t it?”

I tried not to show how rattled I was, but I was aware that Gina was looking at me, puzzled, and as I moved away from the desk, Maxwell was also staring at me.

“I just dropped in to see if there were any personal letters for me,” I said to him, lighting a cigarette in the effort to hide my confusion. “I guess I’ll get off now.”

“You want to learn to relax,” Maxwell said. “If you weren’t such a stolid, well-behaved newspaper man, I’d say from your furtive expression that you were up to some form of mischief. Are you?”

“Oh, don’t talk crap!” I said, not being able to restrain the snap in my voice.

“Hey! You’re a bit sour this morning, aren’t you? I was only kidding.” As I said nothing, he went on, “Are you taking your car?”

“No. I’m travelling by train.”

“You’re not travelling alone?” he asked, looking slyly at me. “I hope you’ve got some nice blonde laid on to console you if it rains.”

“I’m travelling alone,” I said, trying not to look as hot as I felt.

“I bet! I know what I’d do if I were going on a month’s vacation.”

“Maybe we don’t happen to think alike,” I said, going over to Gina. “Look after this guy,” I said to her. “Don’t let him make too many mistakes, and don’t work too hard yourself. Be seeing you on the 29th.”

“Have a good time, Ed,” she said quietly. She didn’t smile. This worried me. Something had upset her. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be all right.”

“I’m sure you will.” I turned to Maxwell. “So long and good hunting.”

“Better hunting to you, brother,” he said, shaking hands.

I left them and, going down in the elevator to the street level, I called a taxi and told the driver to take me to the Barberini. There I bought the photographic filter Helen had asked me for, then I took another taxi back to my apartment. I completed packing, made sure everything was locked up, and took a taxi to the station.

I regretted not having my car, but Helen was taking hers and there was no point in having two cars in Sorrento. I wasn’t looking forward to the train journey from Rome to Naples. After I had paid off my taxi, I waved a porter aside who wanted to grab my suitcase, and hurried into the vast station.

I bought a ticket for Naples, checked that the train wasn’t in yet, and went over to the newspaper kiosk where I bought a bunch of newspapers and magazines. All the time I was keeping my eyes open for any familiar face.

I was acutely aware that I had too many friends in Rome for my peace of mind. At any moment someone I knew might appear. I didn’t want tales to get back to Maxwell that instead of catching the eleven o’clock train to Venice, I had been seen boarding the noon train to Naples.

As I had ten minutes to wait, I went over to one of the benches, away in a corner and sat down. I read a newspaper, sheltering behind its open pages. Those ten minutes were fidgety ones. When I finally made .my way to the platform, I hadn’t as yet run into anyone I knew. I got a seat on the train with some difficulty, and settled down again behind my newspaper.

It was only when the train moved out of the station that I began to relax.

So far all was going well, I told myself. From now on I could consider myself safely launched on my vacation.

I still felt uneasy. I wished Helen hadn’t called up. I wished Gina hadn’t heard the name of Mrs. Douglas Sherrard. I wished I was strong-minded enough not to be so infatuated with this blonde, exciting girl. Now I knew a little about her past history, I realized she couldn’t be my type. A girl who fooled around with a man like Menotti just couldn’t be my type. I told myself this was just a physical thing. I was being a sensual, dumb fool to be infatuated with her.

All this reasoning didn’t get me anywhere. I knew if there was one thing I wanted more than anything else in the world, it was to spend a month in her company.

This was just another way of saying as far as Helen was concerned, I was a dead duck.

The local train arrived at Sorrento station twenty minutes late. The train was pretty crowded, and it was some minutes before I could work my way past the barrier and out into the station approach where a line of taxis and horse-drawn cabs waited to be hired.