The Big Bite

by Charles Williams

I fought down a crazy impulse to scream at her. “Listen, you little fool—” I broke off, staring at the torn evening gown. She couldn’t go to the door in that. She was supposed to have been asleep. “Where is your robe?”

  The doorbell chimed again. The telephone went on ringing.

  I shook her. “Get out of that dress!”

  There must be a robe of some kind in the clothes closet of her bedroom. I sprang up and ran in there. A blue dressing gown was thrown across the back of a chair and some slippers were on the floor beside it. When I got back in the other room she was still sitting in the same place with her hands up against her temples.

  I knelt beside her and slapped her across the side of the face. “Get out of that dress! Look! They’re going to break in here in about one more minute, and when they do you’re going to the chair for murder.”

  She seemed to understand me at last. She began fumbling with the top of the dress. It would take her an hour the way she was going at it. I grabbed it and tried to help. We weren’t getting anywhere. How did they get in the goddamned things—from the top or bottom? I caught it and tried to rip it. It was some kind of strong net material that was stiff to the touch and didn’t tear straight. It bunched up and was strong as screen wire. I cursed. Snatching my pocketknife from the pocket of my trousers, I put the blade inside the dress, petticoat, and everything, and sawed it all the way to the hem. I hauled her erect in nothing but her pants and bra and garter belt, and grabbed the robe. Somehow she manage to stand. We got the robe about her shoulders and belted it.

  “Lean on me,” I snapped. I knelt and yanked off the high-heeled shoes one at a time and slid her feet into the mules.

  I shoved her ahead of me toward the door into the hall. “All right,” I hissed at her. “You’re on your own. Answer the door, and the hell with the telephone. You’ve been asleep. Something waked you, but you don’t know what it was. Make it good, or they’ve got you.”

  She swayed once and put out a hand to free herself. Then she was gone down the hall. I eased along after her until I reached the L, and flattened myself against the wall still out of sight of the living-room. Her mules made no sound against the carpet, so I couldn’t tell whether she was still going or not. At least, I hadn’t heard her fall. Then the front door opened. I breathed a ragged sigh of relief.

  I could hear them. “Mrs. Cannon?” It was a man’s voice.

  “Yes,” she said. “What is it?”

  “Sorry to trouble you. I’m Charlie Lane, from the Sheriff’s office. Somebody reported a disturbance of some sort in the neighborhood. Thought it was a gunshot—”

  She said just what I’d told her, and she said it correctly, with just the right amount of sleepiness in her voice. She was good.

  “You didn’t hear a shot, then?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not sure what waked me.

  “Probably the telephone,” he answered. “Mrs. Ives said she tried to call you before she phoned us. Said the sound seemed to come from over here.”

  “Probably a car backfiring,” she said wearily. It sounded as if she had yawned. What an actress, I thought.

  “Could have been,” he agreed. “But she insisted it was a gun. Said she was awake, reading, and she never did hear any car. Well, sorry I troubled you, Mrs. Cannon. We’ll look around the neighborhood. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Thank you,” she said. The door closed. The telephone had already stopped ringing. My knees felt rubbery as I leaned against the wall and wiped sweat from my face.

  She was returning. I hurried down the hall and into the room where he was. Scooping up the gun, I put it on safety and shoved it in my pocket. I looked at him and came back out into the hall.

  “You’d better come on down to your own bedroom,” I said, taking her arm.

  She stopped and looked at me. Her face was intensely still and her eyes were cold as ice. “Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you so very much for everything, Mr. Harlan.”

  She brushed past me and walked as erect as a ramrod into her own room and collapsed slowly across the bed. Her face was in her arms, but there was no sound of crying.

  I went back in and stood looking down at him, trying to think. We’d thrown them off the track for the moment, but what now? I could still save it if we could get him out of here. But how? They were still prowling the neighborhood; a car leaving here now would make them suspicious as hell.

  Well, I could walk out and get away. Leave her here and keep going. The hell with her. It was her problem, wasn’t it?

  No. The hell it was. I was tied to her. If they caught her she’d talk. I was implicated in murder now as well as blackmail. There was something else too. I wasn’t going to quit and just throw it away after I was in it this far. I wanted that money, and I was going to get it There had to be a way. All we had to do was get him out of here—

  Sure. It started to come to me. He’d set the whole thing up himself. Nobody knew I was here, and nobody knew he was here. It was made to order. As far as any one was aware, she was the only one in the house; the police had just been here and had seen she was all right. She’d been asleep. If they were still suspicious about that shot, at least they had to assume it hadn’t come from here. And if her car were to leave here—not tonight, but tomorrow, in a perfectly routine manner with nobody in it except her, what could possibly be suspicious about that? Hell, it was perfect.

  But how much time did we have? I had to be out of here before daybreak, and there was a lot to do. I glanced at my watch, and then remembered it was stopped. Stepping hurriedly over to the bed, I looked at his. 2:55. It was going to be close.

  I heard a sound in the bathroom next door. She was beginning to snap out of it. That was fine, because she was going to have to come out of her spin and give me a hand if she wanted to save her neck. I started into the bath to give her the word.

  The door was open. She was standing before the medicine cabinet shaking capsules out of a brown bottle. There were at least a dozen of them in the palm of her left hand and a tumbler of water was standing on the back rim of the basin, I jumped for her. She heard me and whirled. I caught her wrist, forced her hand open, and dropped the capsules into the John. Taking the bottle from her other hand, I shook the remaining ones out, threw them into the can, and flushed it.

  “Look, you little fool!” I hissed at her. “Have you gone crazy? There’s nothing to it. All we have to do is get him out of here. I know a way to do it—”

  She held herself erect with both hands on the wash basin. Her face was white as chalk, and she spoke as if all the breath had been squeezed out of her. “Aren’t you ever going to be through with me and leave me alone? Couldn’t you even let me die with a little dignity?”

  “Die, hell. Who wants to die?”

  “I’ve had those for months. I’ve been saving them, because I knew there was a good chance I’d have to use them some day—”

  “Shut up!”

  “—I won’t be taken alive. I have no intention of becoming the feature attraction at a Roman carnival—”

  I caught her shoulders, “Listen,” I whispered furiously. “They won’t catch you. Use your head, you little idiot. Nobody knows he’s even been here. All we have to do is get him out, and you’ll never be suspected.”

  She stared with hopeless bitterness. “Shore up another bulkhead. Plug another leak in the dike. Keep watching the roulette wheel to see if it’s really stopped or whether they’re just pretending it has, to fool you. Why? I’ve had enough. I’m through.”

  I shook her. “I thought you were tough. Why, you little punk, are you going to fold up and quit now? Stand there like a nitwit and let ‘em burn you?”

  “Are you suggesting” there is anything else to do?”

  “Of course. Shut up for a minute and listen to me.” I told her the idea. “It’ll work fine.”

  “Will it?” she asked.

  “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

&nb
sp; “Don’t you see?” she said wearily. “You never win in the end. You can’t. You merely postpone defeat.”

  “You won’t even make an effort to save yourself?”

  “What good would it do?”

  I wanted to swing at her. I was beginning to feel crazy. Catching her by both shoulders again, I put my face right down in hers and snarled at her. “Tough? Why, you runny-nosed little crybaby, you haven’t got the guts of a louse. Go ahead. Quit. Stand here and let ‘em take you. Have your picture all over the front page of every paper in the country. Have sob-sisters pawing over you, photographers flashing bulbs in your face every time they take you from the jail to the courtroom, people staring at you. Look, by the second day they’ll have a name for you. The Black Widow.”

  “What do you think I was saving those pills for?”

  “They’re gone now. I doubt if you’d have had the guts to swallow ‘em, anyway. You’re a punk. Why don’t you face it?”

  Anger was beginning to show in her eyes now. That was what I wanted to see.

  “And just what do you want?” she asked coldly.

  “The same thing I’ve been after all the time. I can save your neck, but you haven’t got brains enough to see it. Look. You can’t bring Tallant back, but at least you can keep from having your name smeared all over every paper in the country and winding up in the chair for killing him. How do you want it?”

  “What makes you think you can do it?”

  “I’ll show you if you’ll stop acting like a crippled chicken.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Nothing, right now. Just give me your car keys and go lie down.”

  Her eyes widened. “Are you going to try to—to take him away?”

  “Not tonight. Of course not. If they saw your car leaving here now they might stop it. Even if the police didn’t see it, one of the old busybodies around here’d notice. Just get out of my way, and I’ll tell you everything to do before I shove off.”

  She went in her bedroom and gave me the car keys out of her purse and lay down on the bed. I went back and looked at him. The top of his head was a mess, but he hadn’t bled too much. The bullet had entered just at the base of his skull and come out on top. That was bad; I had to find it. It took me about five minutes. All that was necessary was to stand about where she had been and line it up. It had gone into the pillow my own head had been on, not more than about three inches from my face, and was still inside. I could feel it with my fingers. There’d be a lot of bloodstained-feathers inside; it wouldn’t do to leave it around here even if I got the bullet out. I took it out through the kitchen, opened the trunk of the car, and put it inside. That was the beauty of the whole thing. It wasn’t necessary to go outside at all. I went back.

  The other pillow was all right. There was no blood on it. The sheet was badly bloodstained, and the top of the mattress pad, but the mattress itself was all right. I rolled the sheet and pad around him and then wrapped a folded blanket around the upper half of his body and tied him up with the rope he’d had around my legs. This was the hard part now.

  He was heavy. I was puffing and wet with sweat by the time I dragged and carried him as far as the garage. I had to rest before I could boost him up into the trunk. When I had him folded into it I went back to her bedroom.

  “What’d you do with my suitcase?” I asked.

  “It’s in the closet there,” she replied without looking up.

  “What about the money? I guess you took that out?”

  “No. It’s still in there.”

  “Good, “ I said. I had bloodstains on the sports shirt I was wearing. I brought the suitcase out, shaved, and changed into a new one. The one I had taken off I rolled into a newspaper and stuck in the car trunk, first cutting out the laundry mark with a razor blade and flushing it down, the John. The whole thing was beginning to make me sick now, and I was glad it was about over. I took the two handcuffs and the chains off the bed and threw them in the suitcase and put it in her car. That was it.

  I went back. “All right,” I told her. “Everything’s set except for remaking that bed. You can do that.”

  She got up without saying anything, took some fresh sheets out of a closet, and made the bed. She put the spread over it. I looked around. The cops could paw through here a week and never find anything to indicate I’d ever been here, or Tallant either. We went back in her bedroom. I looked at her watch on the dresser and wound and reset my own. It was 4:15.

  “Sit down,” I said.

  She sat down on the bed, staring at me without any expression at all. I tossed her the keys and lit a cigarette.

  “You’ve got it made,” I said. “It’s a cinch from here on. Here’s what you do, and be sure you get it all straight. Call any one of the local biddies on some excuse in the morning and just mention you’re going to Galveston to visit friends over the weekend. Back the car out of the garage and leave it at the curb while you come back and get your suitcase. Throw it in back. Stop at some service station where you’re known—or even at Cannon Motors—and have the car gassed up. Everything perfectly natural and aboveboard, see? You might even let them sweep out the car, but for Christ’s sake if they start checking the tires be sure you don’t let go your keys. If anybody ever opens that trunk, you’re dead.

  “Drive on out that road to Breward. Time it so you get to that road turning off lo the lake at about a quarter of ten. I’ll be waiting for you in the trees just off the road, and I’ll have that tape with me—”

  She interrupted me. Her eyes were very. Cold. “So you did have it all the time?”

  “Of course. But that’s a dead issue now. I don’t even have to give it to you, but I might as well. I don’t want it. Anyway, get to that turnoff about a quarter of ten, the way I told you. If there are any other cars in sight, just pull off and pretend to be looking at a road map. I don’t want anybody to see me. When it’s clear, I’ll hop in.

  “This is Friday, and I’m not sure the banks down there are open tomorrow, but we can make it in three hours. I’ll drop you off at the Carson Hotel. You get a room, and then take a taxi to the bank. Draw out ninety-two thousand in cash. Have you got a briefcase?”

  She nodded.

  “All right. Bring it.” I looked at my watch again and stood up. “But never mind now. I’d better get going. I can tell you the rest of it after you pick me up.”

  “What about—?”

  “I’ll take care of him. All you do is drive the car from here to the turnoff, and from then on the whole thing is my baby. You’re paying me; I’ll do it.”

  “All right,” she said.

  “You’re convinced now it can be done, and that it’s easy?” I asked. “No more of this flipping your lid and trying to kill yourself?”

  “I’m all right now,” she said coldly. “I’ll meet you.”

  “Fine,” I said. I went in the bath and drew a big drink of water from the tap and then threw the cigarette in the John. “I’ll see you. Put your light out in here as if you’d gone back to bed.” I waved a hand and went down the hall.

  I let myself out into the patio through the door behind the drape and stood for a moment letting my eyes become accustomed to the darkness. When I could see a little I eased back to the wall and climbed it. The whole neighborhood was silent and the houses were dark. I slipped along the easement and stood for a minute looking up and down the street before I crossed it. When I was in the woods on the other side I breathed more freely and walked faster.

  I circled downhill and came out on a deserted street four blocks away. In another ten minutes I was on the Breward road going out of town. Twice I met cars, but I saw their lights a long way ahead and got off the road until they had gone by. By daybreak I had passed the river bottom where we had crashed, and was going up the hill on the other side. I left the road then and cut across. In about fifteen minutes I came out on the dirt road going in to the lake. Just at sunrise I was digging up the tape where I had buried it unde
r the old stump. I slipped it in a pocket and sat down to rest while I smoked a cigarette. There was plenty of time. It was still a few minutes of nine when I got back out to the Breward road again. I sat down out of sight in the timber and waited. I was tired and hungry and almost numb now from this rat-race that seemed to have been going on forever, but excitement was strong inside me. In just a few more hours it would all be over and I’d have it made for good. They’d almost beaten me, but I had whipped them in the end.

  By nine-thirty I was beginning to stare anxiously down the road, starting to worry again. A thousand things could have gone wrong. Suppose she had flipped again and killed herself? Suppose the police had come back and searched the place? She could be right; they could still be working on the case, keeping it under cover until they had the evidence they needed. Suppose they picked her up? My bag was in the car with Tallant’s body. Probably a half dozen things in it had my name on them.

  Right on the button at 9:45 she came by and picked me up. Everything was going beautifully.

  18

  I pushed it hard, but took no chances, remembering the cargo we had in the trunk and what would happen if we had a wreck. It was a little before one when we came into downtown Houston.

  “I’ll drop you at the hotel,” I said. “Register, and then grab a cab for the bank. Draw out the money, come back to the hotel, and wait for me to call. I’ll register at the Magill Hotel. It’ll be sometime after midnight by the time I get back, and when I do the car’ll be empty and you won’t have anything to worry about. I’ll turn the tape over to you when I meet you, and you’ve got it made.”

  “Simple, isn’t it?” she said coldly.

  “Like shooting fish,” I said.

  I pulled up in front of the hotel loading zone. Some uniformed types helped her out and took her luggage. I wheeled it on out and caught the Galveston highway. When I got down there I bought a shovel at a hardware store and put it in the car. There were several hours to kill. When it was dark I started out west beach. I drove for miles, until I was all alone along a vast stretch of empty dunes and scrub, salt cedars. Parking the car well off the road, I went back in the edge of the cedars, found a sandy spot, and started to dig. It took over an hour to scoop out a place long enough and a little over four feet deep. A few cars went past, down near the edge of the water, but they could only see the car.