‘So okay... have you any money?’
She slapped her big bag.
‘It’s here. Come on, Wig-top, let’s get moving.’
When we got onto the Tamiami Trial, heading for Naples, she fell asleep.
The time now was 04.00. In another hour it would be light. The broad freeway was deserted. On either side were dense forests of Cypress and pine trees.
I looked at her. Her head was against the window, her eyes closed. All I had to do was to slow down, bring the car to a gentle stop, take the .38 from my hip pocket, shoot her through the head, open the offside door and tip her body on to the road, then drive off. There was nothing to it. Just before reaching Naples, I’d get rid of the candy floss wig, dump the car and catch a Greyhound bus to Sarasota. There I’d buy a new outfit, shave off my beard and head across country by bus to Fort Pierce. From there, by bus I’d head back to Little Jackson where I had garaged my Buick. Then I would drive back to Paradise City: free and safe!
This plan flashed through my mind: it was so easy. I had imagined getting rid of Rhea would have been impossibly dangerous, but there she was in a drunken sleep entirely at my mercy. All I had to do was to point the gun at her and squeeze the trigger.
I looked into the driving mirror. The long freeway was dark: no sign of approaching headlights. Gently, I eased my foot off the gas pedal. The car began to lose speed, then drifted slowly to a standstill in the deep shadows of an oak tree as I shifted the gear lever into neutral. I set the handbrake.
I looked at Rhea, but she still slept, then I put my hand behind me and my fingers closed over the butt of the .38. Slowly, I drew the gun and slid back the safety catch.
I lifted the gun and pointed it at her head, my finger curling around the trigger, but that was a far as I went.
I sat there, looking at her, the gun aiming at her and in despair, I knew I couldn’t pull the trigger. I couldn’t kill her in cold blood. In the heat of the moment I had killed Fel, but it wasn’t in my makeup to shoot a sleeping woman.
Rhea’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
‘Go ahead, Larry Carr,’ she said. ‘Prove to yourself you have some guts. Go ahead... kill me!’
The blazing headlights of an approaching truck lit up the interior of the Chevy. I could see Rhea clearly. God! She looked awful! How I could have ever lusted for her seemed now, looking at her, to be some dreadful erotic nightmare. She was huddled in the corner, her eyes dull, her thin lips twisted into a sneering little grin and she looked out of her mind.
‘Go ahead... kill me!’ she repeated.
The truck roared by, shaking the Chevy in its slipstream. The thought flashed through my mind, making me flinch, that if I had killed her, the truck would have passed as I was tipping her body on to the road.
I let the gun slip out of my hand. It dropped on the bench seat between us. I knew this was the end of the road for me and I suddenly didn’t care anymore.
‘What’s the matter, Cheapie?’ she asked. ‘You had it all planned, didn’t you? Run out of guts? Did you imagine I wouldn’t know you even in that godawful wig?’
I stared at her, hating her. She was as repulsive to me as a leper.
‘I’ll say what your boyfriend said to you: get out!’ I said. ‘Get out of my car.’
She peered at me.
‘Don’t get your bowels in an uproar. I’ve got the necklace... you and I could still beat the rap.’ She fumbled in her bag, opened it and took out the leather jewel case. ‘Look. I have it! A million dollars! You said you could sell it! Together, we can go to Havana. We could start a new life together.’
Together? With her? I shuddered.
‘Sell it? Live with you?’ I said. ‘I wouldn’t live with you if you were the last whore left in the world! That necklace isn’t worth a dime... it’s a fake.’
She stiffened and leaned forward. Her green eyes blazed with madness.
‘You’re lying!’
‘It’s a glass replica, you poor fool,’ I said. ‘Do you imagine I would let you and your moronic brother walk off with a million dollars’ worth of diamonds?’
She drew in her breath in a sharp, little hiss.
I expected her to fly into a murderous rage but what I had told her seemed to crush her.
‘I warned the mug,’ she said, half to herself. ‘I knew you were a snake from the moment I saw you, but he wouldn’t listen. ‘This guy’s okay,’ he kept saying, but I knew different.’ She relaxed back. ‘Okay, Mr. Cheapie Carr, so you win. If they catch me, I’ll go away for life. I’ve already had eight years in jail. I know what it means... you don’t. Fel didn’t He’s lucky to be dead.’
I couldn’t bear to look at her any longer.
‘Beat it!’ I said. ‘When they pick you up, talk as much as you like. I’ve got beyond caring. Get out and get lost!’
She didn’t seem to hear me.
‘I had two weeks shut up in his stinking pad,’ she said. ‘Two weeks! Every minute I expected the fuzz to come and get me. God! I could do with a drink!’ She pressed her hands to her face.
Watching her, I felt no pity for her. I wanted to be rid of her, to drive away, to go back to Paradise City and wait there for the police to come and get me.
‘Beat it!’ I shouted at her. ‘You’re rotten. Even a stinking brainless creep like Spooky doesn’t want you! Get the hell away from me!’
‘Fel was the only one who couldn’t live without me,’ she said. ‘Then he ran away when the crunch came... yellow right through.’ She gave a hard barking laugh. ‘Well, I guess this is curtains for me. I wonder what it’s like to be dead.’
Then I saw she had my gun in her hand.
‘Drop that!’ I shouted.
‘So long, Cheapie... your time will come.’
As I lunged at her, she shoved me off, lifted the gun, pointed it at her head and pulled the trigger.
The flash of the gun blinded me and the bang stunned me. I felt a wet mess on my face and shuddering I threw myself out of the car. I stood there shaking, mopping my face with my handkerchief as a thin wisp of gun smoke curled out of the open door.
Sergeant O’Halloran sat at his desk, rolling his pencil across the blotter.
On the bench against the wall sat five of Spooky’s gang: kids ranging from ten to fifteen years of age, sullen, dirty and wearing their uniform of black shirts and jeans.
I caused a sensation with these kids as the two patrolmen shoved me into the charge-room: that I could understand. With my candy floss wig at the back of my head, Rhea’s blood on my shirt, a bruise on the side of my jaw where one of the patrolmen had hit me and handcuffs on my wrists I made a photo that would cause a sensation anywhere.
There was an immediate buzz from the kids and O’Halloran, leaning forward, bawled, ‘Quiet, you little bastards! Hear me or I’ll get amongst you!’
It seemed to me I was back on square A.
One of the patrolmen came forward and began talking to O’Halloran. I only caught a few of his words: ‘Tamiami Trail... shot dead... gun in his hand.’ Lowering his voice, he went on talking and O’Halloran wrote it all down.
I knew he was booking me for Rhea’s murder and I didn’t care. I was past caring about anything. During the long drive back to Luceville I had had time to think. Rhea’s suicide had jolted me back to the man I had been before the crash that had killed Judy. Now, I saw myself as I was. This subconscious greed that must have always been with me had come to the surface. Because of this greed I had caused Sydney’s death. Because of this greed I had murdered Fel Morgan. I thought of the moment when I had hooked my fingers into his trousers’ cuffs and had heaved him into oblivion.
This moment, as I was driven back to Luceville, was my moment of truth.
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