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

Half drowned, hammered by the wind, we lay panting. Then with incredible strength, Vidal began to claw his way back along the wall, dragging me with him. He kept moving back until we reached the shelter of a chimney stack. The wind continued to roar around us but no longer dragged at us.

Vidal leaned forward, his mouth close to my ear.

‘There’s another exit on the far side of the roof,’ he shouted. ‘If the door’s locked, we’re cooked.’

His face lit by a flash of lightning showed no fear. He looked confident and calm which was a lot more than I felt.

‘Stay here,’ he went on. ‘I’ll try to get across.’

‘You won’t make it!’ I shouted.

He didn’t stop to argue. Keeping flat, he began to edge out of the shelter of the stack. Instantly, the wind pounced on him and if I hadn’t caught hold of his arm, he would have been swept away, across the roof and over the edge.

I dragged him back to shelter.

‘So we stay here,’ he said.

We stayed there, the warm rain beating down on us, the wind howling around us, but at least we were in no immediate danger.

The minutes dragged by: the most uncomfortable minutes I had ever lived through. There was no let up from the violence of the wind and the rain. We had to keep our heads down to breathe. The almost continuous crash of thunder deafened me. My mind was bludgeoned. I didn’t even wonder how long we could remain as we were.

Then suddenly Vidal gripped my arm.

‘Look!’

I followed his pointing finger. Across the far side of the roof appeared the light of a powerful torch. The beam swept the roof, passed near us, continued on, came back and found us. For several seconds the beam held us, then abruptly went out.

‘Gesetti!’ Vidal shouted.

I felt a surge of hope.

Again the light appeared, then I saw Gesetti’s squat figure, lit by the lightning, as he plunged towards us. The wind threw him flat and swept him across the roof. For a moment I thought he was going over the edge but another flash of lightning showed me he had a rope around his middle and the rope was secured somewhere inside the doorway he had just left.

He fought his way nearer. Again the wind swept him back and again, but for the rope, he would have gone over.

‘Hang on to me,’ Vidal shouted.

As I caught hold of his jacket, he moved out of the shelter. We were swept towards Gesetti who grabbed hold of Vidal’s wrist.

Then began the long and desperate struggle to get to the open doorway. Gesetti hauled on the rope, dragging himself, Vidal and myself inch by inch across the wet roof until we finally rolled through the doorway, out of the rain and the wind. As I leaned against the wall, my knees buckling, Vidal and Gesetti got the door shut.

‘You took long enough,’ Vidal said harshly. ‘What the hell were you doing?’

Gesetti snorted.

‘Getting the goddamn rope. If you think that was easy, have another think.’

‘Where are they?’

‘Trying to bust into your office.’

‘That’ll take them quite a time. Where do they think you are?’

Gesetti gave a snorting laugh.

‘Dyer put on a big act and I fell for it. He got me out of bed, yelling you were out in the garden and in trouble so I go out in the wind and the sonofabitch locks me out. I saw you on the roof so I get the rope, kick in the back door and here I am.’

‘They’ll be busy for an hour or so. We’ll take a shower and a change of clothes,’ Vidal said. ‘Here, Gesetti, find Burden something to wear. I’ll be in Harris’s room.’ Taking a small flashlight from his pocket he went down the corridor and into a room at the far end.

Gesetti led me to another room. He lit a hurricane lamp, then regarded me with his sneering snake’s eyes.

‘Go ahead, buster,’ he said. ‘Help yourself,’ and he left me.

Unsteadily I went into the small bathroom, stripped off, took a shower and then returned to the room. Going to a closet I found a shirt and a pair of slacks that fitted me.

I moved like an automaton, my mind completely blank. I felt I was in the grip of a nightmare and what made this nightmare so terrifying was the certain knowledge that when I woke from it, reality would be even more terrible.

The door jerked open and Vidal came in, wearing a dressing gown that trailed around his ankles.

‘Come along Burden, you need a drink.’ He led me down the corridor and into the butler’s sitting room.

Gesetti, wearing only a towel around his thick middle, was pouring whisky into glasses.

‘Give Burden a drink,’ Vidal said, sitting down, ‘then get out.’

‘Yes, boss.’

Gesetti gave me a tumbler half-full of whisky and crushed ice, then left the room.

‘Sit down Burden,’ Vidal said. ‘Smoke if you want to. There are cigarettes in that box.’

I drank some of the whisky, then putting the glass on a nearby table, I sat down.

‘You puzzle me,’ Vidal said, staring at me. ‘You saved my life.’ He crossed one stumpy leg over the other. ‘What made you do it? It interests me. Only an hour ago you were set to shoot me.’

I stiffened, staring at him.

‘Tell me... why did you save my life Burden?’ he went on.

How could he have known that I was going to shoot him? Seeing my bewildered expression, he gave his short, barking laugh.

‘There is nothing supernatural about me Burden, in spite of what my wife has led you to believe and there is nothing I don’t know about your association with her. When I discovered how dangerous she is, I had every room in this house bugged. I had your room and hers at the San Salvador hotel bugged. I have been listening for the past weeks to her plan to get rid of me with considerable interest, not to say admiration for her ingenuity.’

‘What are you saying? Val? Dangerous?’ I leaned forward to glare at him. ‘It is you who are dangerous! Since you seem to know so much, you may as well know I have loved her for years and I still love her!’

‘I know that. I’m sorry for you Burden. Even now you can’t see that she has been using you as a cat’s paw — as a sucker.’

Don’t listen to him, I told myself. Val has warned you. This man is evil! He is trying to turn you against her.

‘My poor Burden,’ he went on after a long pause, ‘you are in for a shock. Valerie is incapable of loving anyone. She just uses people for gain: as she used you, as she has used Dyer and as she tried unsuccessfully to use me.’

‘I will believe nothing you say against her!’ I shouted at him. ‘She warned me! You are evil, vicious and ruthless. You have molested her under hypnotic influence! Nothing could be more despicable than that!’

‘And yet you saved my life?’ He lifted his eyebrows. ‘Why did you do that Burden?’

‘Why did I? I have a conscience! I would rather be dead than to have your disgusting life on my conscience!’

‘Very praiseworthy and yet you were tempted. She nearly convinced you, didn’t she?’

‘I won’t discuss her with you!’

‘Do you really believe that nonsense about me hypnotising her?’ he asked. ‘I admit, listening to the tapes, she is very persuasive but I assure you I have no talent for hypnotism.’

‘I would rather believe her than you!’

There was no letup in the storm while we were talking. Thunder crashed and the wind howled and the rain hammered against the shuttered windows.

He got to his feet.

‘Possibly they have broken into my office by now. Come along Burden, see for yourself.’

He went to the door and opened it.

I sat there, hesitating. I recalled the scene of the landing when Dyer had shoved Vidal out on to the roof. I saw again Val’s ghastly little smile and heard again what she had said: It was the only way. You couldn’t do it, so we did it.