Джеймс Чейз - Believe This... You’ll Believe Anything

‘Very considerate of you Dyer’ Vidal’s voice was angrily sarcastic. ‘You are getting as bad as Burden with this concern about Mrs. Vidal.’

‘I think you should see her, sir. She really sounds very bad,’ Dyer said and moved back into the corridor.

‘Goddamn it!’ Vidal exploded. I heard him push his chair back violently and he came bouncing out into the corridor, slamming his office door shut behind him. ‘I’m getting good and tired of Mrs. Vidal’s damned hysterics!’

Pushing Dyer aside, he ran quickly up the stairs. Dyer hesitated, then followed him up.

I moved forward and paused at the foot of the stairs, seeing Dyer standing at the head of the stairs.

Then above the noise of the storm, I could just hear Vidal’s angry shouting voice, but not what he was saying.

Then I heard a wild scream that made Dyer move forward.

I darted up the stairs as Dyer threw the beam of his torch down the corridor.

Val came bursting out of her room, her eyes wild, her hands groping forward.

I heard Vidal bellow, ‘Come back here! Do you hear me? Come back here!’

She paused for only a brief moment to look back into the room, then she darted up the narrow stairs that led to the attics.

Vidal appeared in the doorway. His face was livid with ugly rage.

‘Valerie! Come back!’

Then a great rush of wind came down the stairs, sending him staggering. I shoved Dyer aside and ran down the corridor. The violence of the wind caught me and threw me against the wall.

‘The goddamn lunatic!’ Vidal bawled. ‘She’s gone on the roof!’

He began to fight his way up the stairs. Clinging to the banister rail, hammered by the wind, I followed him to a broad landing.

Facing us was a doorway through which poured the wind and the rain. The door was slammed back against the wall.

‘She’s as good as dead!’ Vidal bawled. ‘No one could live out there!’

He struggled to the open doorway. Gripping the sides of the doorway, he peered out into the darkness while the wind and the rain lashed him. A vivid, blinding streak of lightning lit up the sky. The crash of thunder was deafening.

I tried to join him, but the wind slammed me to my knees. Vidal held on, his great strength defeating the pull of the wind.

Then I saw Dyer.

He came scrambling up the stairs on hands and knees, his eyes bolting out of his head, his mouth half open. He passed me and then he drove forward in a flying tackle, his hands slamming against Vidal’s broad back.

Caught off balance, Vidal pitched forward into the wind and the rain.

I had one brief horrible glimpse of him as the wind swept him from sight, then the torch I was holding slipped out of my fingers and began to roll down the stairs.

Darkness closed in as I heard Dyer, his breath sobbing through his clenched teeth, drag the door shut and slam home the bolt.

Val and Vidal were out there on the exposed roof, swept by the ferocious, deadly wind!

Had Dyer gone out of his mind?

He had bolted them out to certain death!

The sudden beam of Dyer’s torch half blinded me. I could see he had set his back against the door. His face was as white as tallow and his lips kept twitching.

‘Dyer! She’s out there!’ I shouted at him. ‘Get away from the door! She’ll be killed! I’m going after her!’

‘Clay!’

The sound of her voice turned me to stone. Slowly, I moved my eyes, my body rigid with shock.

Val was standing in the doorway of a small room to my right.

‘It’s all right Clay.’ A ghastly little smile hovered around her lips. ‘It was the only way. You couldn’t do it, so we did it.’

I stared from her to Dyer who was wiping his sweating face with his sleeve, then back to her.

‘At last, I’m free Clay,’ Val went on, her voice trembling. ‘He’s gone forever.’

I couldn’t grasp what she was saying. I felt so bad I thought I was going to pass out and I grabbed hold of the top of the banister rail to steady myself.

‘You and Dyer? What are you saying?’ My voice was a croak.

‘You failed to help me, Clay, so Vernon has freed me.’

Bitter jealousy and anger swept over me. I faced Dyer. ‘What is she to you to have done such a thing? You’ve murdered him!’

‘Shut up!’ His voice was a thin quaver. ‘It’s done!’

Then above the sound of the hurricane there came a violent hammering of fists on the door.

Dyer jumped away as if the door had turned red hot, his face a mask of fear. He looked with horror at Val who seemed to shrink, her face that of an old, terrified woman.

‘Burden!’

Vidal’s voice came through the door panels.

‘He’s alive!’ I started forward but Dyer moved between me and the door.

‘You want him dead, don’t you?’ he quavered. ‘Leave him! He’ll be swept away. You want Val to be free, don’t you?’

I hesitated.

‘Open the door Burden!’ Vidal’s voice sounded fainter. ‘Burden!’

‘He’s calling to me.’ I said stupidly.

‘Let him!’ Dyer’s voice turned vicious. ‘Go away! Leave this to me. He can’t hold out much longer.’

‘No’

I saw my father, blood on his hands, as he skinned a rabbit. All the old revulsion of violent death swept over me. I realised then that I would never have been able to shoot Vidal. And now, I knew I couldn’t stand by and let him die out there. I had to save him! I just could not stand by, listening to him calling to me for help and do nothing.

The hammering on the door abruptly ceased.

‘He’s gone!’ Dyer exclaimed.

Val hid her face in her hands.

I moved towards the door. Dyer grabbed hold of my arm.

‘Get back!’

I shoved him aside and took hold of the bolt. I received a stunning blow on the side of my head that made me stagger. As I spun around Dyer hit me again, his fist thudding into my right eye, half blinding me.

Mad rage seized hold of me. All my pent up frustration seemed to burst inside me. My fingers closed around Dyer’s throat. He dropped the torch as he tried to drag my fingers away, but I was stronger than he.

He went down on his knees. I increased my grip. Vaguely I heard Val screaming.

‘Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!’

Her screaming voice brought me to my senses. With a shudder, I threw Dyer from me, pushed Val aside, grabbed hold of the bolt and wrestled it back.

The wind pounced as the door slammed open. I went down on hands and knees, peering into the wet darkness.

‘Vidal!’

A vivid streak of lightning lit up the roof. I saw him. He was lying flat, his fingers trying to get a grip on the wet roof, the wind moving him closer and closer to the sloping edge. Once there — nothing could stop him from being swept away.

I heard the door slam and the bolt go home. Dyer had locked me out! I didn’t care. I had this compulsive urge to save Vidal and I was going to save him! Laying flat, buffeted by the wind, I began to edge towards him.

‘Vidal!’ I yelled at him.

He looked around. The roof was lit by more lightning and he saw me.

The wind suddenly flung me towards him. Grabbing hold of a low wall that ran along the side of the roof, I managed to anchor myself. I saw the wind shift Vidal towards the sloping edge. I was within ten feet of him. I relaxed my grip slightly so I was blown closer to him. Still holding on to the wall, I stretched out my leg and his fingers closed around my ankle.

The wind tore at us. I thought my grip must be broken. My arm felt as if it was being pulled out of my shoulder socket. Vidal shifted his grip to my knee and heaved himself on top of me. As my grip was broken, he reached above me and grabbed the wall. I began to slide away and I seized hold of his jacket.