Dark Passage (26 page)

He walked down the street, turned, went
down another street, turned and he was on the street that was all
apartment houses. He knew the street. He knew the apartment house,
the qhite brick structure with the black iron gate and the black
window frames. He lit a cigarette, crossed the street and went
through the open gate. He glanced at his wrist watch as he entered
the vestibule. Then he looked at the listing and he saw her name
and he pressed the button. There was a buzzing response. He opened
the door and went into the lobby.

In the elevator he dropped the cigarette
and stepped on it. The elevator took him to the fifth floor. He
walked down the hall. He remembered the hall, everything about it.
He told himself there was a certain way he had to go about this,
and what he ought to do was stand here a moment and itemize the
things he had to say and the order in which they were to be said.
Then he was thinking that it might not be a good idea to rehearse
it this way because that would be mechanical and he had to avoid
the mechanical now. He remembered the way he had pulled it out of
Arbogast, the way he had hammered away at the U-turns to get
Arbogast’s mind back to that night and specific moments of that
night, getting * Arbogast to see it again, going back to the first
U-turn, the waiting before the first U-turn, the waiting before the
second U-turn, seeing that Arbogast wasn't really back there yet
and drilling the U-turns into Arbogast, keeping Arbogast there with
the U-turns, keeping Arbogast on that street in those moments, then
the first U-turn, and then the second U-turn, and the interval
again between the first and second U-turn so that Arbogast would
stay there and be there long enough to remember. He had not planned
that and he knew that if he had planned something it would not have
been the U-turns. And it was only because of the U-turns that he
had managed to get it out of Arbogast. It was a spontaneous
maneuver and there was nothing mechanical in it and there must be
nothing mechanical in this.

He was at the door now.

He knocked on the door.

CHAPTER 19

The door opened.

She stood there looking at his face. Then
she was looking him up and down. Then again she was looking at his
face.

She was thin. She was about five feet four
and she didn’t weigh much more than a hundred.

She had an ordinary face without anything
pretty in it. She had eyes the color of an old telegraph pole. Her
nose was short and wide at the base and too wide for her face and
her mouth was too large. But she wasn’t really ugly. It was just
that she wasn't pretty. She was tan and there was something
artificial about the tan, as if she got it from some kind of a
lamp. Her hair was dyed darkish orange. She wore it parted in the
center and brought back with her ears showing. She was wearing a
bright orange house coat and pale orange slacks and she wore
sandals that showed her toenails painted bright orange. She had a
cigarette in her hand and the smoke came up and rolled slowly over
her head.

“Come in,”she said.

Parry walked in and closed the door. He
stood on a dark orange broadloom carpet. It was fairly new.
Everything in the apartment was changed and fairly new. Everything
was orange or leaned toward orange. There were orange lines running
down and crossways on the frames of the big window. There was a big
vase of glazed orange on the left side of the window and on the
right side there was a conference of Indian pottery all white
except for zigzag orange lines around the middle.

She seated herself in a low and rounded
chair of pale orange and indicated the dark orange sofa.

Parry sat down. He was looking at her. He
put the package on the sofa.

She said, “I don’t think I should have let
you come here.”

“Don’t you like what you see?”

“That’s not the point. I don't usually do
things this way.”

“Well, I’m glad I came.”

“Would you like a drink?” She was looking
at the package.

“Please. Something cold.”

She got up and went into the kitchen. She
came out with a tray that had two tall glasses half-filled with
ice, a dish of sliced limes and a bottle of carbonated water. She
opened a pale orange cabinet and took out a bottle of gin. She
mixed the drinks.

Parry sipped his drink and looked at the
carpet.

She said, “What did my husband say?” She
glanced at the package.

Parry looked up. She was opening her mouth
to get at the drink. He saw gold inlays glimmering among her
teeth.

He said, “Gave me a
description.”

“Accurate?”

“Yes.”

She took a big drink. “What else?” She
glanced again at the package.

“He said you weren’t easy to get along
with.”

“Maybe I’m not.”

“Maybe that’s what I like.”

“Are you easy to get along
with?”

“Sometimes. It depends.”

She smiled at him. Her mouth was open and
he saw the gold inlays again. She said, “What else?”

“About me?”

“No. What my husband said about me.” She
looked at the package.

“He said you almost drove him out of his
mind.”

“And what else?” She had her mouth open
wide as she smiled.

He look at the gold inlays. He said,
“Well, your husband claimed you had a habit of putting on the
act.”

“What kind of an act?”

“Acting as if you didn’t have much brains,
merely an ignorant sort of pest.”

“Is that what he really said?”

“Yes, and he said you were really a shrewd
manipulator and when you were out to get something you stopped at
nothing. He said he left you because he was afraid of
you.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think he had something
there.”

“Do you think you’d be afraid of me?” She
looked at the package.

“Every now and then. And that’s where
you'd have a problem. You'd have to guess when.”

She laughed. The gold inlays caught some
of the sun and juggled it. She said, “What do you do?” And she
laughed again.

“I work in an investment security
house.”

She stopped laughing. She looked at him.
She said, “What do you do there?”

“I’m a customer's man.”

“What house?”

“Kinney.”

“How long have you worked
there?”

“Only a few weeks. I told you I just got
in town.”

“How did you meet my husband?”

“He came in to make an
investment.”

“Where’s he getting the money to make
investments?”

“He didn’t invest much.”

“How much?”

“I’m not saying.”

She stood up. She said, “Are you going to
tell me?”

“No.”

“All right then, get out of
here.”

“Okay.” He got up and he was going toward
the door.

She started to laugh. He turned and looked
at he The gold inlays seemed magnified. She said, “You were really
going to go, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“And would you have gotten in touch with
me again?”

“No.”

“Why not?” She looked at the package on
the sofa

“You’d start asking questions about him.
You've got him on your mind.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“All right, then, you’ve got his money on
you mind.”

“You don’t go for that, do
you?”

“Part of it I don’t go for. I don't care
what you've got on your mind. But when I'm around I don't want to
hear questions about him or his money.”

“Who said you were going to be
around?”

“I didn’t. Neither did you. But we both
know.”

“Don’t tell me what I know.” She looked at
package.

“All right, I won’t. There's no point in
my telling you if you know already.”

She looked at the package. She said, “Is
that for me?”

“Yes.”

She went over and opened the package. She
untied the violet satin ribbons and opened the box and looked at
the chocolate candy.

She smiled. She was very pleased. She
said, “This is lovely.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

She put a piece of chocolate in her mouth
and he saw the gold inlays again. She munched the chocolate and
said, “It’s very delicious.”

She sat down in the low rounded chair with
the box of candy in her lap. Her mouth was soft with contentment
and her eyes glittered with anticipation. She was stimulated now
and that was what he wanted see.

She said, “Thank you for the candy, Allan.
Allan what?”

“Linnell.”

She was looking at his mouth. She said,
“When I looked at the candy I knew I was going to like the taste of
it.” She kept on looking at his mouth.

He said, “Well what do you think? Do you
think we’ve got something here?”

She leaned back and lifted another piece
of candy. She smiled and said, “Allan Linnell.” then she put the
candy in her mouth and bit into it.

And that told him he was ready.

He said, “I should have brought the candy
in an orange box.”

She watched him gazing at the dark orange
carpet. She said, “Yes, it’s my big weakness.”

“I bet everything you own is on the orange
side.”

“Just about.” She was looking at his
mouth.

“Even your car?”

“Even my car. It’s bright orange. And my
jewelry is orange beryl. And my favorite drink is an orange
blossom, just because of the color.”

“Yes,” he said. “I guess certain colors
appeal to certain people.”

She was looking at his mouth as he said
that, and when it got through her ears and into her head her gaze
dropped and she was looking at his suit. Then her eyes came up
again and she was looking at his eyes. Then her gaze dropped once
more and she was looking at the grey worsted fabric and the violet
stripe. And she looked at the violet box of candy. And she looked
at the violet lines in the grey suit. And she looked at his
eyes.

Then she shuddered and closed her
eyes.

Then she opened her eyes and looked at
him.

Without moving from the chair she was
trying to take herself out of the room.

He said, “You know. You recognize the
suit. You got a good look at it that night. Now you’re looking at
my face and you don't believe it but there's nothing else for you
to do and no other way for you to take it. You've got to believe
it.”

She was trying to get out of the chair and
she couldn’t move.

He said, “It’s really me.”

“Go away,” she said. ” Go away and leave
me alone.”

“I can’t do that, Madge. I can't do that
now. I'm the Pest now. You've always been the Pest but now I'm the
Pest. I've got to be. It's this way, Madge, I've got to stay here
with you and I've got to pester you because I know you killed Gert
and you killed Fellsinger and I've got to make you own up to
it.”

“Go away.”

“You can’t send me away, Madge. You did
that once but you can't do it now. You're very clever, Madge, but
you're not an enchantress. In a dream I had you were a bright
orange enchantress on a high trapeze, and you got me to go up there
with you on the trapeze, and once you had me up there you let me
drop. I was broken and dying and everyone was sorry for me. And you
were up there on the high trapeze, laughing at me and showing your
gold inlays. But I got away from the dream. And you can't get away.
You're still up there on the high trapeze and you're all
alone.”

“Go away, Vincent. Please go away. If you
go away now they’ll never find you.”

“Now I want them to find me.”

“They’ll kill you.”

“Do I look worried?”

She shuddered again. She stared at
him.

He said, “No, Madge, I’m not worried. I
know you did it and I know I can convince them you did it. I've got
facts to prove you followed me from Irene Janney's apartment the
night Fellsinger was murdered. That's the first thing I'm going to
give them. Then I'll take them back to the day you killed Gert.
I'll tell them why you killed her and I'll show them how you killed
her. You killed her because you were on the trapeze and you were
alone. You wanted me up there with you. I never realized how badly
you wanted me. It must have been awful, knowing that the only way
to get me was by getting rid of Gert. So you put on a pair of
gloves and you picked up that ash tray and you killed her. And you
had me. You had me up there on the trapeze but once you had me you
didn't want me any more. So you threw me away. You told the police
Gert said I did it. At the trial you testified cleverly, giving
them all the reasons why I would want to kill Gert, drilling it
into them that I killed her. They had my fingerprints on the ash
tray and they had your story and that was enough for them. And I
had nothing. Because I knew nothing. I thought it was an accident
that killed her and I didn't know how badly you had wanted
me.”