there was another car down there somewhere. He had one. But he also had a rifle, and he knew how to use it.

“Do you suppose he’s gone?” she asked. She was still sitting at the table, finishing another drink.

“Of course not,” I said. “He’s just waiting. We have to move sometime, and when we move he lets us have it.”

“How does he know we haven’t sneaked out the back door and left on foot?”

“Because,” I explained curtly, “he knows how you’re dressed. He knows you’re not going anywhere without a car. And we can’t use the Cadillac, even if he wasn’t watching it with a gun.”

She poured another drink. The bottle was nearly empty. She held up the glass and looked at it. “Well, you’re the high-priced expert.”

She was chromium-plated and solid ice both ways from the middle. From her attitude you’d think she was merely a spectator at all this. It was something she was watching from the first row balcony and finding a little tiresome.

The air was clammy with heat. My shirt stuck to me. I looked at her and the bottle with irritation. “Look. You can lay off that sauce.”

She glanced briefly up at me. “And you can mind your own business.”

I sat down across from her. I caught the front of her pajamas and pulled her up straight in the chair. “Let s get this straight. Right now. If we get out of here, for about the next two months I’m going to have the job of trying to hide you from the police. It’s going to be rough, believe me. And if you get caught I’m in the bucket too. So I don’t intend to make the job any harder by having to watch out for a blabber-mouthed lush wandering around in a fog. You’ll stay sober.”

There was only faint interest in her face, as if she were just waiting for me to crawl back under a rock. “If you’re certain you’ve finished,” she said, “you might take your hands off my clothing.”

“Yes, Empress,” I said. I shoved her back in the chair. “But keep it in mind.”

“Do you intend doing anything about getting us out of here?”

“I’m working on it, Your Highness. But we can’t go anywhere until after dark, anyway. So keep your pants on.”

“Barbarian.”

“Who is that guy out there?”

“How would I know? He hasn’t sent in his card.”

“Cut it out. Who is he?”

“I fail to see where it concerns you. You’re being paid to neutralize him, not identify him.”

“Boyfriend?”

“As you wish,” she said boredly

“Who killed Butler? Both of you?”

She made no answer. She merely stared at the empty space where I would have been sitting if I hadn’t already crawled back under the rock.

Even if we got out of here, I thought. . .

Living with her for two months was going to be fun. Which one of us would start to come unglued first?

Eight

I stood with my back against the rear window and stared out the front. As nearly as I could, I lined up the broken panes front and rear, and sighted. He’d be right in there somewhere. There was no reason for him to move, if he could see everything from where he was. He could watch the house there, and he could cover the road.

There was nothing to mark his spot, however. One area in the timber was just like any other. I looked farther up the hill. On the skyline and a little to the right I saw a tall tree that had apparently been struck by lightning. That would serve as a reference point.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Getting ready to call a cab,” I said.

I took off the white shirt. It could be seen too easily in the timber. I found an old blue one in the storeroom and put it on, and shoved the gun back in my belt.

She was still watching me. I went over to the table, picked up the bottle of whisky, and poured what was left on the floor.

“You’re going to have to be at least partly sober for this,” I said. “Now. The only reason he hasn’t walked in here and shot you is that he knows I’m here and that I’ve got a gun. It’s his gun. You still following me?”

She nodded, saying nothing.

“Well, I’m going out there. I’m going to try to get behind him. I hope I can get out the back without being seen. But the gimmick is that he might not shoot if he did