went in.

I closed it very gently, and when it latched I could feel the tension draining out of me. We were safe now. We were invisible. That snarling and deadly hornet swarm of police was locked away on the other side of the door.

I flicked the wall switch. A shaded table lamp came on. The Venetian blinds were tightly closed. She looked around the living room as casually as visiting royalty inspecting the accommodations and then turned to me and smiled.

“Sanctuary,” she said, “in Grand Rapids modern. And now could I have a drink?”

“Is that all you’ve got to say?”

She shrugged. “If you insist. I’m very glad we got here. You were quite effective, Mr. Scarborough. Expensive, but effective.”

“Thank you, Your Highness. Don’t you ever worry about your neck at all?”

She stopped her inspection of the room to look at me, the large eyes devoid of any expression whatever. “Not publicly,” she said. Then she added, “I’ll take bourbon and plain water.”

If she wanted ice water, I thought, all she had to do was open a vein.

I nodded my head toward the doorway at the left of the living room. “Bath is in that hallway,” I said. “The bedroom is just beyond. Dining room and kitchen to the right.”

She raised her eyebrows. “The bedroom? Where are you going to sleep?”

She was running true to form, all right. I’d intended to turn the bedroom over to her, but she had already taken it for granted. The help could rustle up its own quarters.

“Oh,” I said, “I’ll just bed down on an old sweater outside your door and bark if I hear burglars.”

“You are clever,” she murmured. “You don’t mind, do you? I just wanted the situation clarified.”

“It is clarified. I won’t bother you. This is strictly business with me. You’re probably frigid, anyway. Aren’t you?”

The eyes were completely blank. “No ice,” she said.

“What?”

“The drink, dear. Remember?”

I went into the kitchen and got the bottle out of the cupboard. I mixed two drinks, making mine very short and weak. While I was out there I looked in the refrigerator to see if there was anything to eat. There was only an old piece of cheese. I could get something at the airport. But what about her?

The hell with her.

I took the drinks in. She was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed and the dark skirt pulled down over her knees. She had long, lovely legs.

I took a sip of my drink and looked at my watch. I’d have to hurry and ditch that car so I could get back here before people were astir.

Something had been puzzling me, however, and I thought about it now. “Why do you suppose Diana James went up there?” I asked.

“It’s fairly obvious,” she said. “She had all your rapacious greediness for money. She read—or heard over the radio—that I had fled the country, and she was just hoping I hadn’t had time to pick it up when I ran. A sort of desperation try, you might call it.”

“I suppose so,” I said. “But why did you shoot her? Or do you ever need any particular reason?”

“I shot her because she set foot in my house,” she said simply. “She knew I would, of course, but she thought I was gone.”

I remembered the awful horror in her eyes when that light burst on her and she heard Madelon Butler call her Cynthia. She had known she was dead when she heard it.

“Why did you start that fire?”

“The house was mine,” she said coldly. “It belonged to my grandfather and my father, and I’m the only one of the family left alive. I’m sure no one can question my right to burn it.”

“Except the insurance company.”

“Why?” she asked calmly. “They’ll never have to pay. There is no one to pay it to.”

I thought of that. She was right. She no longer existed as Madelon Butler.

I was right, too; but I didn’t know the half of it.

Thirteen

It was fifteen miles out to the airport. The drink propped me up for a few minutes, but when it wore off I was more dead on my feet than ever. I wondered if I had ever slept. There was no traffic, however, and it didn’t take long.

I drove into the parking area. It was dark and no one was around. Before I got out I rubbed my handkerchief over the steering wheel and dash and the cigarette lighter. I left the keys in the ignition, and as I got out