Dell Shannon - Extra Kill

Hackett said a few things about that. "Know where he's gone?"

"If you'll let me get a word in edgewise. He was just back from somewhere, looking like the dealer'd handed him a royal flush first time round, when that Miss Weir called and out he goes again in a hurry."

"Oh, O.K., thanks." Hackett hung up. It was twenty past five. He seemed to remember that that school of hers closed at three-thirty, four, around there: she was probably at home. Try, anyway. He found another dime, looked up the number.

"Miss Weir? Art Hackett. Is Luis there?… Luis, listen, I've got something, something so-"

"Well, wel1," said Mendoza, "have you limped up to the finish post, chico? Congratulations. You'd better come round, we've got something here too."

At about the same time that Hackett was brooding over his drugstore sandwich, Alison was saying helplessly, "Now drink your tea while it's hot," and wondering why it was that in the American mind, apparently, tea was connected with trouble. Could it be still reverberations from the Stamp Tax? When someone was in trouble, a little under the weather, or having a crying spell, automatically you made them a nice hot cup of tea.

She had found the girl outside her apartment door when she came home, a forlorn stranger who told her numbly, like a child repeating a lesson, "Sergeant Hackett said to come and see you. I'm sorry, I didn't know where else to come. I didn't know what to do. But I had to get out of that house. I had to. I'm Angel C-Carstairs."

She was shaking and cold, and she'd had some kind of bad shock, Alison saw. Having heard a little about this case from Mendoza, she recognized the girl's name; she made her come in and sit down, she made the tea and gave her soothing talk, and then all this began to come out. Incoherent at first.

"I didn't know-I thought I'd never seen it before, but it must be hers, because-because she kept saying- Like, you know, if you keep on telling a person he's stupid, he will be. She did that with me, I know it, I know it in my mind but I c-can't seem to do anything about it-telling me I'm too big and clumsy. You know. It was like that, about this-as if she thought, if she said it to me enough I'd begin to believe it-the way everybody else would. And it's not true, it's silly. That I could ever-be in love-with somebody like that! Like Brooke! I didn't even think he was handsome, I mean he was too good-looking-you know-"

"Yes."

"Oh, I don't know what I'm doing here-perfect stranger to you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I didn't know-I just had to get out of her house- You see, it was so funny, the way she kept insisting it was my coat, as if after a while I wouldn't be sure about that either, and say it was- and then after they'd g-gone, she got onto this, kept saying she understood how I'd loved him, felt jealous-and then I thought why it could be. I didn't believe it-I don't know if I believe it-but if she did-Oh, I've hated her, I've hated her so-you can't understand that, how anybody could-my own mother, but you don't know, you probably have a n-nice mother-"

"Drink your tea," said Alison. She was beginning to understand what this was all about, and automatically made quiet responses while she thought, I'd better call Luis. Persuade her to talk to him, if she will. "Actually I don't remember my mother at all, she died when I was two, and my father brought me up. Not much of a bringing-up, I expect, either, because he was an engineer and we lived in Mexico mostly, traveling around from one godforsaken spot to another-construction camps, you know. But people are just people, no better or worse for being mothers or fathers. And hating doesn't do any harm except to you-"

"I know, I don't want to, I-I don't think I do, any more. It's all over, all of a sudden, and I don't know what to do-but I shouldn't be here, I'm sorry. I've g-got money, and in the bank too, I mean I'm all right. I expect I'd better go to a hotel. It just hit me all of a sudden, the reason. And I don't know-now-how I do feel about her. Doing that. Not him-but trying to-wanting to-"

"Yes. I think the only way to feel is sorry for her, don't you? Not resentful. It's just a thing you have to face up to."

"I-I guess I'm not very good at that."

"Then now's the time to start," said Alison firmly. Angel had calmed down a little; perhaps the kitten had helped, curled up beside her purring. "I always wanted a c-cat. She never- But I could be different, couldn't I? I could learn better. To cope, sort of, you know. You know what I always wanted to do? It's silly, I guess, she said… But I liked it better than anything else at school, even than poetry. I-1ike to cook… She kept on at it, until I suddenly saw, that was all. And they think it was me, that's what she wanted them to- Not Sergeant Hackett, he's nice, but the other one. That I was in love with Brooke. But does she think I'm c-crazy, not to know how I felt-and didn't feel? Oh, I don't understand-and-"

"You'd better tell Lieutenant Mendoza about this." And then Alison spent ten minutes persuading her.

"I couldn't! Don't you see-even if-even if I don't feel anything-like that-for her, she is-! I couldn't-like t-telling tales-"

"Don't be childish," said Alison. "This is serious, you know it is. And I doubt very much if it'll come as a surprise to Luis, when-" even you know about it, she finished in her mind, but Angel was rushing on.

"And besides he's the one thinks I-! He looked at me when he left-I knew what he was thinking-"

“That I doubt too," said Alison. "If he looked at you one way, it probably meant the opposite. I'm told that's the secret of his success-experience at the poker table. Now you go and wash your face-you've been crying and it'll make you feel better-and you'd better take an aspirin too, and lie down on the bed and rest quiet until he gets here. You can trust Luis not to jump to any wrong conclusions, and it's much better in his hands."

Angel went meekly to do as she was bidden, and five minutes later Alison, looking in, found her sound asleep, curled up on the bed like the kitten.

She left her thoughtfully, shutting the door, and was sorry Mendoza arrived so soon. He listened to her rather incoherent account and said, "Awkward. I'm not quite ready to break this yet, I want a bit more information, and I hope her-mmh-precipitate flight doesn't scare Mona. No odds if it does, though, she'd only do something else damn silly. No finesse at all."

"But what an awful thing, Luis-her own mother-"

"Physical sense only. She's never had a thought in her head besides herself. In this case, anything expedient to get out from under. Now I wonder if that was why she took that laundry bag away? Just in case."

"Will Angel have to testify against her? She's just about at the end of her tether now-"

" Es poco probable, I don't think so. Not if we get a nice tight legal confession, which I'd like. She'll have a rough time for a little while, the publicity, but these things die down-something else'll come along to make gossip."

"There's good stuff in her, I think-she'll take it, and maybe be the better for it. My Lord, how I long to get at her and fix her up-she could be a good-looking girl, you know. And what a time to think of that… "

"Any time's the time to think of a good-looking woman, chica. You do just that, and earn Art Hackett's gratitude. I'd heard the one about beauty being in the eye of the beholder, but I never believed it before. Another good man gone wrong… Yes, I'm afraid so, lo siento en al alma, to my deep regret. Many a man ruined for life by marriage, I only hope he'll have better luck."

Alison said, "Yes?" She watched him relax on the couch, stroking the kitten.

"Well, where is this girl? I've got other irons in the fire-”

"Count five and start pretending to be a human being," said Alison dryly. "I'll get her."