Реймонд Маршалл - The Paw in the Bottle

She went to her room, white with fury because she now realized that whatever he said or did to her could not be bad enough to make her give up this life of luxury she had discovered. She knew she was in a trap, and she raged against it. She hadn’t the strength of character to give up her possessions and go back to the drudgery of the past. It infuriated her to know she hadn’t the power over him as she had over other men. After a while she began to calm down, and she sat on the bed and for the first time began to reason out why he should have done so much for her when it was obvious she meant nothing to him. Why was he doing this when he was contemptuous of her; even disliked her? At first it had been because she knew he could see, but then he had mace out that it didn’t matter if she had talked. If it didn’t matter, why was he still pretending to be blind? Suppose he had been bluffing? Suppose he still had a reason for someone to believe he was blind? But why? Who was he afraid of? Someone in the factory? Benton? The police? She jumped up suddenly. The police? Then it came to her in a flash and the shock staggered her. He had shot Blanche! It was so obvious she couldn’t understand why she hadn’t realized it before. It was a perfect alibi. That was it! No one would suspect a blind man. He had hated Blanche. Gerridge had said if they were divorced he would have had to settle a large sum of money on her and he hadn’t the means. Blanche was carrying on with Benton. The motive was there. He had pretended the operation on his eyes had been a failure when all the time it had been successful. He must have known sooner or later an opportunity would come, and he could murder Blanche in circumstances that couldn’t possibly involve him so long as he kept up the pretence of being blind. And she had given him the opportunity. He had been quick to see how easy it would be to shift the blame on to Harry. That was why he had been so anxious that Blanche shouldn’t know about the robbery.

Somehow he had persuaded Blanche to return with him to the flat. But how had he evaded the police? And then Julie remembered the finger-stall he had picked up in the lift and had tried to conceal. She remembered too how agitated he had become when she had told him someone could have shot Blanche from the passage. She was sure now he had come up with Blanche and remained out of sight in the lift while she opened the front door. Then he had shot her as she entered the hall and had thrown the gun in after her. It was simple enough. The police weren’t in the passage. All he had to do was to close the lift doors immediately after getting rid of the gun and to wait until the police had broken into the flat. While they were arresting Harry, the lift would take him down to the basement. There, no doubt, he had waited a few minutes then walked in through the main entrance. Who would suspect him?

The discovery filled her with horror. She had known instinctively that Harry hadn’t done it. She had known all the time. As she sat there, cold and shaken, not knowing what to do, she heard a step outside and then Wesley came in.

She jumped to her feet and backed away, fear in her eyes.

‘It was you!’ she exclaimed. ‘You killed her! That’s why you’ve pretended all this time to be blind!’

He closed the door quietly.

‘I thought you would find that out in time,’ he said, calm and unmoved. ‘Well, now you know, we’d better talk it over. Sit down, and for goodness’ sake don’t look so scared. I’m not going to hurt you.’

‘I don’t want to talk to you! Leave me alone! I’m going to the police!’

He pulled up an arm-chair near the bed and sat down.

‘It’s no use getting excited, Julie. It’ll pay you to keep calm and hear what I have to say. Have a cigarette?’ He held out his case, but she shrank away, shuddering.

‘Julie, will you try not to act like a servant in a melodrama?’ The cold edge to his voice aroused her anger, as he intended it should do.

‘How dare you! Get out! Get out before I scream for help!’

Wesley lit a cigarette, dropped his case and lighter on the bed.

‘Have a cigarette, Julie, and don’t be silly. I want to talk to you.’

‘How can you be so unmoved after what you have done?’ she said, staring at him blankly. ‘You haven’t any feeling in you. You’re cold-blooded and horrible.’

‘I assure you I have some feeling in me, Julie, but that’s neither here nor there. You are quite right: I did shoot Blanche.’

Julie stiffened.

‘And you tried to make out Harry did it. You coward! How could you?’

‘I haven’t the same interest in Harry Gleb as you. He happened to be on the spot and naturally it was assumed he did it. You can scarcely blame me for not coming forward, can you? I think you would have done exactly the same as I did.’

She was so surprised by his callousness that she could think of nothing to say.

‘After all, Julie, with all respects to your friend Gleb, he isn’t of any great value to society, is he? He is a thief, a spiv and from what you tell me a danger to young women. He hasn’t anything to commend him as far as I can see. On the other hand I am engaged on work of national importance. My research work on pilotless aircraft which is now coming to fruition will be of immense value to this and the next generation. Putting us both into the scales I feel I have many more claims to life than he has.’

‘How can you talk like that? He’s innocent. You couldn’t hide behind him. You couldn’t let him hang in your place.’

‘But I didn’t say I was going to let him hang in my place,’ Wesley returned, and smiled. ‘Before you get excited, Julie, I’d better explain what has been happening. Now don’t interrupt. Just sit down and keep quiet. Please have a cigarette. It’ll help to settle your nerves.’

Hypnotized by his calm, Julie sat on the bed and took a cigarette.

‘That’s fine. All right, I’ll begin at the beginning. I married Blanche six years ago. I was very much in love; stupidly in love, if you like. I should have known from her reputation what kind of a woman she was; I had enough warnings, but I didn’t believe the tales. To me, Blanche was the most attractive and lovely creature out of a fairy tale. In those days I had a lot of money. It seemed only right that I should make her a large settlement. I made her a large settlement. And then she suggested I should also agree to pay two hundred thousand pounds if the marriage broke up. I won’t waste time telling you how clever she was about that. She made it sound like a joke. It seemed a joke to me until I had a watertight settlement presented to me for my signature. I refused to sign it, and Blanche promptly refused to go through with the marriage. There were two hundred guests expected, the whole wedding pageant had been arranged and I realized I would either have to sign or lose her and look a fool for the rest of my days. At least, that was how it seemed to me at the time. I behaved like a fool and I’m paying the price now. I was in love with her. I wanted her very badly. I felt the marriage couldn’t go wrong. To cut a long story short I submitted to blackmail and signed. To tell it now makes it sound incredible, but I assure you she was very clever about it. She somehow made it seem that I was the one who didn’t trust her, that I would be the one to break up the marriage if the marriage was to break up.’ He shrugged and smiled. ‘I assure you ninety-nine men out of a hundred would have done the same if they had as much money as I had then.

‘The first year of our marriage was happy enough. A little disappointing, perhaps, but nothing that I could actually put my finger on. Blanche was always very bright and sweet; we went everywhere together, did things together, but all the time I didn’t feel that she was quite mine. She wasn’t, of course; she belonged to a dozen different men, but I only found that out later.