my purse out of the car? Or is that against the rules?”
“We’ll both go get it. That is, if you think you can walk now.”
“I’m all right. Except I’ve got a splitting headache.” She slipped her shoes on and stood up. She seemed to be steady enough. We went out through the kitchen.
“Wait there by the door,” I said. “I’ll get it.” I stepped down into the garage, keeping an eye on her. She made no attempt to run back and get out the front door. I brought the purse in. She drew some water at the tap and swallowed a couple of aspirin she took from the purse. We went back into the living room. I walked over and felt my clothes. The shirt and shorts were fairly dry, but the suit was still soggy. When I looked around she’d gone into the bedroom. Maybe she was trying to get out the window. I ran to the doorway and looked in. She was standing before the mirror of the dresser, calmly touching up her lipstick. She glanced at me inquiringly. “What’s the matter?”
”I thought you might be trying to get out.”
“In that rain? Don’t be silly.” She pressed her lips together, surveyed the result, and dropped the lipstick back in the purse. Then she combed her hair. She was a very smart-looking girl. And spectacular. And about as unflustered as they came.
“You don’t scare easily, do you?”
“Not any more,” she said. She dropped the comb in the purse and looked at me. “Should I?”
“Why not?”
She gave me a crooked smile. “I’ve had two unsuccessful marriages. I’m over thirty. I’m utterly alone. And I’m washed up as a writer. So what are you going to do to me, Mr. Foley? Think of something.”
“All right. But just don’t try to get out of here.”
“Who said I was going to? This is my cottage, isn’t it? I don’t intend to be chased out of it by some displaced gladiator hiding from the police.”
I tried to read what went on behind that face, but I got nowhere. There was a chance, of course, that she was unworried because somebody was meeting her here. And when he arrived I couldn’t handle the two of them. Well, all I could do was sweat that out along with the rest of it.
Three
Wind shook the house again, and rain slashed at the windows. It was a little after four now, and in another two hours it should be growing dark. I could hear the rattle of the hasp and padlock once in awhile as gusts of wind battered at the garage doors. She was sitting on the chaise longue by the coffee table, calmly smoking a cigarette.
“Didn’t the paper say you were a merchant marine officer?” she asked.
“That’s right,” I said. “Third mate on a tanker.”
“Then why the trouble with a policeman? You’re not a criminal.”
“It was personal,” I replied. “Had nothing to do with his being a cop.”
“Did you go there with the intention of killing him?”
“No.”
“Then why did you?”
“I didn’t.”
“What?”
I heard a car coming along the road. Whirling, I slipped to the window and peered out. It was a police cruiser, going slowly past with its windshield swipes beating against the rain. It went on. In a few minutes it came back by, and I had to go through the whole thing again. It went past without slackening speed. They hadn’t noticed. I sighed. She said something.
“What?” I asked, turning away from the window.
“Was that a police car?”
I nodded.
“Why are you so worried? They have no reason to try to come in here.”
I told her about their being here before. “If they find out your car’s here now, they’re going to come in just to be sure you’re all right.”
“Oh,” she said. “So that’s the reason we can’t have a fire in the fireplace?”
”Of course.”
“What will you do if they do come?”
I shrugged. “What can I do? If you don’t go to the door they’ll know something’s wrong and they’ll come in anyway. They seem to think I have a gun.”
I reached out to feel the clothes again. The suit was still damp. When I turned she was watching me. She looked away. It was the second or third time I’d caught her doing that, and I wondered what she was thinking.
“Were you armed when you went to that detective’s apartment?” she asked.
“No,” I said.
“Were you drunk?”
“I’d had five or six drinks.”
“You must have known he might be armed. After all, he was a policeman.”
“I