Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying

Kingship Remainded at the smelter. Gant accompanied Marion back to New York. In the plane they sat silent and immobile with the aisle between them.

After a while Marion took out a handkerchief and pressed it to her eyes. Gant turned to her, his face pale. "We only wanted him to confess," he said defensively. "We weren't going to do it. And he did confess. What did he have to turn away like that for?"

The words took a long time to reach her. Almost inaudibly she said, "Don't..."

He looked at her downcast face. "You're crying," he told her gently.

She gazed at the handkerchief in her hands, saw the damp places in it. She folded it and turned to the window at her side. Quietly she said, "Not for him."

They went to the Kingship apartment. When the butler took Marion's coat-Gant kept his-he said, "Mrs. Corliss is in the living room."

"Oh God," Marion said.

They went into the living room. In the late afternoon sunlight, Mrs. Corliss was standing by a curio cabinet looking at the underside of a porcelain figurine. She put it down and turned to them. "So soon?" she smiled. "Did you enjoy-" She squinted through the light at Gant, "Oh, I thought you were..." She came across the room, peering beyond them into the empty hallway.

Her eyes returned to Marion. Her eyebrows lifted and she smiled.

"Where's Bud?" she asked.

The End