Джеймс Чейз - The Way the Cookie Crumbles

For a brief, horrible moment, the shock was so great that she blacked out. She leaned against the wall, her heart scarcely beating, her body cold with terror.

Someone was coming down the steps!

Leaving the money on the floor and the safe open, she ran blindly down the lane, reached the end and came out into the lane leading to her desk.

Standing by her desk, looking towards her, his eyebrows lifted in disapproving inquiry, was Mel Devon.

She remained motionless. She thought of the open safe and the money on the floor. He had only to walk ten yards to see what she had been up to, and he was already moving in her direction!

With an effort that drove the blood from her face, she controlled her panic and forced herself to walk down the lane towards him.

She heard herself say, ‘Why, hello, Daddy.’

Mel paused and waited for her to reach him.

‘What are you up to?’ he asked, looking intently at her. ‘Is anything wrong?’

‘Wrong? Why, no. Mr. Lanza is coming at midday. I was just checking to make sure that I could find his safe,’ she lied glibly, marvelling at herself for inventing this excuse on the spur of the moment.

‘Oh, I was wondering where you were.’ He looked again intently at her. ‘Are you sure there’s nothing wrong? You look very white.’

‘There’s nothing wrong.’

She moved past him to her desk. He turned and followed her.

‘Aren’t you feeling well, Norena?’

She turned impatiently.

‘Oh, be still! If you must know, I have the curse. I always look like this when I have it.’

Startled and a little embarrassed, Mel reached for the visitors’ register and glanced at it.

‘I’m sorry, hon. Trust me to put my foot wrong. Anyone been in yet?’

‘No.’

‘Did you find Lanza’s safe?’

‘Yes.’

She sat down at the desk, opened a drawer and took out a pile of account sheets.

‘If there’s nothing else, Daddy, I had better get on. I have these to check.’

‘I just came down for a look around. I like to see the place is well kept. You get on with your work,’ and to her horror, he turned and began walking slowly down the narrow lane in the direction of Wanassee’s safe.

‘Daddy!’

Her voice had gone shrill.

He turned.

‘Yes?’

She thought desperately for an excuse to hold him.

‘When am I going to meet Joy Ansley?’ she blurted out, instinctively feeling that if anything would attract him away from Wanassee’s safe, Joy Ansley’s name would and she was right. Surprised pleasure lit up his face.

‘I thought you didn’t want to meet her,’ he said, coming back to the desk.

‘Yes, I’d like to meet her, if she wants to meet me.’

‘She does. We often talk about you. We’re having dinner together tonight. Why not come along?’

‘All right.’ She played a scale along the edge of her desk. ‘You’re in love with her, aren’t you?’

‘I’ve known her a long time,’ Mel said carefully.

‘Are you going to marry her?’

He frowned at her. She wasn’t looking at him. She seemed more intent on the scale she kept playing than on what he would say.

‘Would you mind?’

She looked up then.

‘I have my own life to lead, you have yours. It’s nothing to do with me what you do.’

‘Oh, come, Norena, that’s not true.’ He sat on the desk. ‘You’re my daughter. My home’s your home now. If I married Joy and she came to live with us, would you mind?’

‘So you are thinking of marrying her?’

‘Now your mother is dead — yes, I’m thinking about it. I’ve waited alone now for sixteen years. But would you mind?’

‘No.’

He studied her expressionless face.

‘Sure?’

‘When I say a thing I mean it. I said no, and I mean no.’

‘You’ll like her, Norena. She’ll be company for you.’

‘I don’t want company. She’ll be company for you. Let’s get that straight. I’ll get married one of these days. You’ll be glad of her then. You’d better get it over with. I wouldn’t have waited for a man as long as she’s waited for you.’

‘You don’t mind speaking your mind, do you?’

‘Why should I?’

He laughed.

‘Well, then, tonight. After you’ve met Joy, we’ll have another talk.’

‘You either love her or you don’t,’ Ira said, staring up at him. ‘If you love her, you should marry her. If you don’t, tell her so and let her off the hook.’

The telephone bell rang. Ira picked up the receiver.

‘I believe Mr. Devon is with you, Miss Devon,’ the operator said. ‘Mr. Goldsand is waiting for Mr. Devon.’

Ira drew in a quick breath of relief.

‘You’re wanted in your office, Daddy,’ she said, replacing the receiver. ‘Goldsand. whoever he is.’

‘Oh, yes. See you when you get home,’ Mel said and walked with long strides up the stairs and out of the vaults.

As soon as he was out of sight, Ira sprang up and raced to Wanassee’s safe. She snatched up the packets of money and threw them back into the safe, slammed the door shut, locked it, and removing the keys, she ran back to her desk.

She sat motionless for several minutes recovering from her fright, then after listening, she opened her handbag, pulled up her skirt, took out the money she had stolen and crammed the two packets into her bag which she put in the drawer.

A few minutes to eleven o’clock, Algir identified himself to the two guards who unlocked the grill and waved him to the steps. He was carrying a briefcase and he was tense with excitement. At last, he was thinking, my money problems are over. But as soon as he saw Ira’s white, tense face, he knew something had gone wrong.

‘What’s up?’ he snapped, keeping his voice low. ‘Won’t the key fit?’

‘It fits all right.’ She got up and came around the desk. ‘I was nearly caught. I can’t handle this on my own!’

‘You mean you haven’t got the guts to handle it,’ Algir snarled, blood rushing to his face.

‘Oh, wrap up! Ticky and you were crazy to imagine I could do it alone! I was crazy to agree to try. Wanassee’s safe is right down there. Anyone can come down here while I’m emptying the safe and I wouldn’t know until they were right on me. Devon came down. He nearly caught me. I had the money on the floor and the safe door open.’

Algir immediately saw the problem. He could tell by her tenseness what a fright she had had. This had been Ticky’s idea. He hadn’t given it enough thought.

‘You’re right. I can see you can’t handle it alone. Okay, I’m here now. I’ll do it while you keep watch. Where are the keys?’

She gave them to him.

‘Where’s the safe?’

‘First on the left down the lane. A.472.’

‘If anyone comes down who could cause trouble, drop that on the floor. He nodded to a copper ashtray standing on the desk. ‘Okay.’

She nodded.

‘Much money in the safe?’

‘More than you can carry.’

‘You would be surprised how much I can carry when it’s money.’

He left her and walked fast towards Wanassee’s safe.

Ira lay in her bed, unable to sleep. The moonlight coming through the open window made patterns on the white carpet. Somewhere in the bungalow, a clock began to strike midnight.

What kept her awake was the nagging and persistent thought that she was now a fully-fledged thief. The petty thieving in which she had been so successful when she used to raid the stores in New York had been J.D. stuff, but now she had graduated into Big Time and she could go away for a long stretch if she were caught! And she nearly had been caught. A cold wave of shame ran through her as she imagined what Mel’s expression would have been like if he had seen her at Wanassee’s safe. Shame was something she had never experienced before, and she didn’t like it.