James Chase - I Would Rather Stay Poor

‘Yes… I’ve always dreamed of owning such a sum.’

‘You may have dreamed about it,’ he said, flicking ash off his cigarette, ‘but I don’t think you have thought about it.’

There was a note in his voice that made her look sharply at him.

‘What do you mean?’

‘When we get the money, the real trouble begins,’ he returned. ‘We shall have all this money in cash: there’s a lot of it. You realise you can’t stash it away in a bank? Even a safe deposit can be dangerous. The Federal agents can search safe deposits. You’ll have to be very careful how you spend it… no splashing it around. If you do, the Federal agents will investigate you.’

She made an impatient movement as she said, ‘I intend to sell this house and leave here. With the money I get from the house, I’ll be able to drop out of sight. Then I can spend what I like.’

‘That’s where you are wrong. It is a difficult thing to drop out of sight. But that’s neither here nor there,’ Calvin said. ‘If you leave, then I can’t. It would look very odd, wouldn’t it, if we both suddenly left town?’

‘I don’t see why. We don’t have to leave together. You could leave a few months later: what’s wrong with that?’

‘You are not being very bright this morning,’ Calvin said. ‘I am the manager of the bank. I have no other means of earning a living. I couldn’t suddenly resign and leave town. The Federal agents would want to know what I was going to do: how I was going to earn a living. They would be interested especially as there has been a big robbery at my branch. Do you see that?’

‘That is for you to work out,’ Kit said. ‘I know what I’m going to do.’

‘If you are stupid enough to believe you would be safe to splash your money around you’ll find yourself in trouble. In every town there is a Federal agent who keeps track of newcomers. He’ll wonder where your money is coming from. He’ll make inquiries and he’ll find out you are from Pittsville, the town that has had a payroll robbery. He’ll start checking and then you’ll be in trouble… so will I.’

‘I can take care of myself,’ she said. ‘I’m not scared. All I want is the money.’

‘If the money is no good to you when you have it, there is no point in taking it,’ he said mildly.

‘Just what are you driving at?’ she demanded, facing him, her brown eyes angry. ‘What is it?’

‘There is only one safe way for us once we have the money. I stress the word us because there isn’t much point in it being safe for you and not for me since neither of us can take the money without the other. It isn’t unnatural that you should think only of yourself: nor for me to think only of myself, but since neither of us can do without the other, we must think of this thing as a combined operation.’

She walked over to the kitchen table and sat on it, swinging her long legs, her arms folded tightly across her breasts.

‘Can’t you say what you want to say? Must you go round and round the point. What is it?’

‘You and I are going to get married,’ Calvin said and smiled his charming smile. ‘That is the only safe solution.’

She stiffened. Her eyes showed her startled, shocked surprise.

‘Oh no! I’m not marrying you! I’ve had one husband… that was plenty!’

‘I feel exactly the same as you do, but it is the only safe way. It needn’t be permanent. Just long enough to be convenient.’

She studied him, then because she had already learned to respect his shrewdness, she said more quietly, ‘I don’t want to marry you, but I’ll listen. Why do you say it is safer?’

‘It would be the most natural thing in the world for me, staying in your rooming-house, to fall in love with you and want you to be my wife,’ Calvin said. ‘We have to be sure that every move we make is a natural one. Every move we make could come under scrutiny. It would also be natural, after we were married, for you to sell this house, and for me to resign from the bank. We would say there is no future in Pittsville for either of us, which is true. We are using your capital and my small savings to go south where we hope to find a more profitable rooming-house and run it together. That story would be accepted and both of us could leave here without arousing any suspicions.’

‘All right,’ she said, shrugging, ‘but are you suggesting we should buy another rooming-house? I’m not risking so much to get this money to be landed with another rooming-house… get that quite clear.’

Calvin shook his head.

‘You and I will have our honeymoon in Las Vegas. It is an exciting place: a honeymoon place. I happen to have a good friend there who runs a gambling joint. I haven’t seen him for years, but I know I can rely on him because he owes me plenty… I saved his life in the Pacific fighting. I will use some of our capital to gamble with and I’ll win. My pal will see to that. In fact I’ll win quite a lump of money. We will suddenly find ourselves with more money than we had originally and we will change our ideas about buying a rooming-house: instead, we’ll buy a much more ambitious proposition: a motel in Florida. I also happen to know someone who has a motel to sell. We’ll buy it. It isn’t much of a place, but with us working at it, it’ll suddenly begin to make money. If there is one thing I can do it is to fake a set of books. We will pay, little by little, money from the payroll into a bank, showing it is profit from the motel. In three or four years, we’ll have enough in the bank to let us start speculating on the market. Then once we are in this position, we are safe. You and I can part and have our money without any danger to either of us.’

‘Did you say three or four years?’ Kit demanded, her voice going shrill.

‘That’s what I said.’

‘If you imagine I’m going to wait three or four years before I spend that money…’

‘If you can’t wait that long,’ Calvin cut in, ‘then we had better not do the job. This is a three hundred thousand dollar take. It’ll put us on easy street for the rest of our lives. If we make one false move we’ll both land in the gas chamber. Think about it.’

He got to his feet and left her, going up to his room, humming tunelessly, satisfied in his mind that she would do what he wanted.

Their love-making the previous night had been disappointing. He had expected a fierce, wild passion, but she had given herself to him the way a prostitute gives herself. He had the disturbing feeling that it was only because of the whisky she had drunk that she had given herself at all. He had been glad to get away from her and return to his room. It had been the most frustrating sex experience he had ever had.

It was after lunch when the old people were taking a nap and Kit was clearing up in the kitchen that Calvin had the opportunity of getting Alice to himself. She was in the lounge looking through the Sunday newspaper when he wandered in and sat down.

He said very casually, ‘I’ve been thinking about you, Alice. Would you mind if I talked to you about your career for a moment?’

She went red and then white and shook her head, dropping the newspaper and staring at him like a startled rabbit.

‘I’ve been very impressed by your work,’ Calvin said, his voice matter-of-fact. ‘You’re wasted in Pittsville.’ He switched on his charm. ‘You should be more ambitious.’

Hanging on his words, Alice continued to stare at him.

‘I — I don’t understand, Mr. Calvin,’ she said.

‘A girl like you should be working at head office. They’re always on the look-out for keen, energetic workers. Would you like me to put your name forward?’

Her eyes widened behind the shiny lenses of her glasses.