"I wasn't thinking of giving you away," she said, and gave me a hard little smile. "Don't be so suspicious, David."
"I think I have every reason to be suspicious."
"I shall have to find someone else to lift Bruno," she said. "It may take a few days. Will you stay until next Monday?"
"I would prefer to go as soon as Valeria arrives."
She lifted her shoulders in an indifferent shrug.
"I know what you would prefer to do, but that is scarcely the point. Someone must be found to lift Bruno. You don't expect Nurse Fleming to do it, do you? Or are you so damned selfish you don't care?"
I hesitated. My instincts warned me to get out as quickly as I could, but her request was reasonable. She had to find someone to take my place.
"All right," I said. "I'll wait until next Monday, but not a day longer. It's up to you to find someone by then."
"I will," she returned. "Thank you so much, David. It's very considerate of you."
The jeering expression in her eyes warned me I had made a mistake.
"And when you have gone, David," she went on, "shall we agree to forget each other, and our eccentricities—shall we call them?"
"Sure," I said, and moving past her, continued on my way to the kitchen.
The stalemate had turned into a victory after all.
I spent the afternoon reading to Bruno while Laura rested in her room.
There was a feverish look of excitement and anticipation in his eyes, and I guessed he was thinking of his daughter.
I would be sorry to leave him. During the short week I had known him I had come to respect and admire him. But I had to go. I couldn't go on living in this atmosphere. Once his daughter was here to look after him, I felt he would be safe from any danger. Laura wouldn't dare do anything to him with Valeria and Nurse Fleming continually about.
As Bruno didn't seem particularly interested in what I was reading, I put down the book.
"I'm sure you'll be very glad to have your daughter with you again," I said. "Now she is coming back, I shall be leaving. I have still a lot of research to do, and I want to go to Orvieto to study the Cathedral there. I'll be sorry to leave you, but I hope you will understand I can't spend the rest of my days here when there is so much for me to do elsewhere."
He showed his surprise and disappointment very plainly, but that soon passed, and I could see he agreed with me that I had to think of myself.
I continued this one-sided conversation, telling him that I intended to push the book on rapidly, romancing a little about my future plans, knowing most of the things I told him wouldn't be possible. I was still talking when Maria brought in the tea.
I left them together before Laura came in.
After I had settled Bruno for the night, Laura followed me out on to the verandah.
"You can go back to your room now, David," she said. "I shan't need you anymore. I shall be using Nurse Fleming's room, so I shall be on hand if he wants anything."
She was not quite casual enough, and I had a feeling she was planning something, and wanted to be sure "I would be away from the villa, and not likely to return.
"I'm going into Milan," I said. "I have a date with Giuseppe. I may be back late, but if you think you might want me I can put him off."
"I shan't want you," she said. "Do you want to take the car?"
"I'll use Bicci's."
"Good night, David."
As I walked down the path to the village, it occurred to me that tonight was Laura's last safe chance to get rid of Bruno.
When Valeria returned, her chances were going to be a lot less, and none of them safe. Had she planned to do something tonight?
Was that the reason why she had agreed so easily to my leaving?
Had she decided to let Bellini do what I had refused to do?
The thought brought me to an abrupt standstill. In an hour it would be dark, and Maria would have gone home. Laura would be alone with Bruno.
I went on down the path to the village.
Bicci was closing up for the night.
"I'm going into Milan," I said. "I may be late. Can I have the car?"
"Certainly," he said. "It has petrol. Go ahead and enjoy yourself."
"Signora Fancino may telephone," I said. "If she wants me, tell her I don't expect to get back until one o'clock."
"I'll tell her."
I got in the car, backed it out of the lean-to and drove off down the road until I came to the bend that would hide me from Bicci's view. I ran the car of the road, turned of the engine and got out.
I had an idea Laura might check my movements. She would be satisfied now that I had gone to Milan.
I reached the villa as the moon came up over the distant mountains. I moved silently and cautiously, keeping under cover, and I took up a position behind a big willow tree where I had a view of Bruno's room.
Laura was sitting in an armchair, away from the bed, reading.
There was a Chopin record playing on the radiogram. The scene looked so quiet and domesticated that I wondered if I were wasting my time.
After a while I saw the light in the kitchen go out, then Maria came into Bruno's room. She was dressed to go home. She said something to Laura, who put down her book, got up and went with her out of the room.
I moved forward, ran up the verandah steps, and pulling a big cane settee away from the wall, I squeezed behind it and crouched down on the floor.
I was now immediately below Bruno's window, and even if Laura did come out on to the verandah she wouldn't be able to see me.
I heard her return.
"Maria's gone home now, Bruno. I think I'll turn in. I'll be more comfortable in bed with my book. I'll put out the light. You may as well try to sleep."
The radiogram stopped playing, and a moment later the light went out.
Then a light sprang up in Nurse Fleming's room.
I waited for perhaps five minutes. Then I heard a soft step on the verandah. I saw Laura come out silently from Nurse Fleming's room and go quickly down the steps towards the harbour.
She had left the light burning so Bruno would imagine she was still there. She was safe in her deception. He couldn't call out, and had no reason to think he was alone in the villa.
I went after her as far as the terrace that overlooked the boathouse. Lights showed in the big bay window.
I watched her run down the steps and disappear through the doorway to the boathouse. I gave her a few moments, then followed her down. In the harbour was a small rowing boat, tied up alongside the motorboat.
I was immediately below the windows of the boathouse, in the shadows. I heard the windows being opened.
"It's like an oven in here," Laura said. "Why didn't you open the windows?"
Her voice came clearly to me in the still quietness of the Lago.
"Well, it's open now," a man said in a harsh, curt voice. "What's been happening?"
Glancing up, I caught sight of the massive figure of Bellini as he moved over to the window.
"Valeria will be coming tomorrow," she said. "David goes next Monday. The nurse has asked for a long weekend. It's working out beautifully. Friday is the night, Mario."
Bellini grunted.
"So long as it is Friday. I'm sick of this waiting. I've got to get out of the country."
"We can't do it before Friday. We can't afford to make mistakes. Besides, David must have time to get to know her. That's more important than anything."
"You're so damned cautious," Bellini growled.
"Oh, no, Mario. You're too reckless. I'm not taking any risks for the sake of a few extra days. Now listen to what I'm going to tell you, and please try to remember it. You will come here at nine on Friday evening. I shall be waiting for you. If everything is all right, you'll go up to the villa. I'll remain here to make certain no one comes. No one will come, but we've got to be sure of that. You mustn't come near here until Friday night. You do understand, don't you?"
"Of course I u
nderstand," Bellini growled. "But there's too much damned talk. When do I get some money? That's what I want to know."
"You had fifty thousand lire only a few days ago," Laura said sharply. "I can't let you have any more."
"I've got to have some more," Bellini snarled. "Don't I keep telling you I've got to get out of the country? It isn't safe here any longer. You don't know what these devils are like once they start hunting for you. I want a million lire. That's what you promised me, and I'm damn' well going to have it."
"You shall have it on Friday. I'll sell my pearls. But you won't get anything, Mario, if you make a mistake on Friday."
"I don't make mistakes, and if you try any tricks, little viper, I'll break your neck."
Laura laughed.
"There'll be no tricks, Mario."
"There'd better not be. Come here. We've talked enough for tonight."
"But you do understand, Mario?"
"Stop talking, and come here!"
It was just after one o'clock when I heard Laura coming up the steps from the boathouse. She was smoking a cigarette and humming to herself, and moved a little unsteadily.
I watched her mount the steps to the verandah and go into Nurse Fleming's room by the casement windows.
I waited for the light to go out before I returned to my room.
I waited some minutes, then I was surprised to see a light spring up in Bruno's room.
Moving fast and silently, I reached the verandah and crept up to the open window.
"Not asleep yet?" Laura was saying. "Have you been wondering where I've been all this time?"
I looked into the room.
She faced him, resting her hips on the edge of the table at the foot of the bed, her arms folded, a cigarette hanging from her scarlet lips. She had been drinking, and although she wasn't drunk, I could see by the expression on her flushed face that she was in a spiteful and vicious mood.
She had changed into a pair of green lounging pyjamas, and her small feet were in leather heelless slippers. As I watched her, she ran her fingers Through her copper-coloured hair and smiled at Bruno.
"I've been down to the boathouse," she went on. "Don't you wish you could spy on me, Bruno?"
She flicked ash on to the floor while she looked at him, her chin tilted aggressively, her mouth hard.
The light from the table lamp fell on Bruno's face. His eyes were alert and wary.
"It's about time we had a showdown," she said. "Ever since your accident, I've been patiently waiting for this moment."
I stood in the shadows, watching her. I could hear her as easily as if I was in the room.
"Let's start at the beginning, Bruno," she went on. "As far back as the time you realized what a mistake you had made in marrying me. It was a mistake: a mistake on both sides. I married you for what I could get out of you. I thought I could put up with you because you were so rich, but when I found you weren't overgenerous, and then when you began to despise me, I realized you weren't the only one who had made a mistake."
She stubbed out the cigarette, took out a packet from her pyjama pocket and lit another.
"Being married to three hundred million lire was a novelty at first," she went on, "until I realized I wasn't going to get much of it. If you had been kinder to me, Bruno, I might have tried to settle down and accept what you doled out to me, but you were so damned patronizing, and when you found your interests weren't mine, and my friends bored you, you deliberately set out to make me feel your inferior. I've never forgiven you that. Then when you decided to make our marriage impersonal and you insisted on separate rooms, I realized something would have to be done."
She pushed herself away from the table, and went over and sat on the bed.
"It would have been safer for you, Bruno, if you had divorced me. I would have gladly given you grounds for a divorce if you had promised me a decent settlement. But it didn't suit you to divorce me, did it? All you could think about was Valeria and whether a scandal might hurt her chances. You didn't consider me for a moment!"
She dropped her cigarette on the floor and put her foot on it.
"Then you had to spy on me. What did it matter to you that Laurence and I were lovers? I didn't mean anything to you. All that talk about behaving myself for Valeria's sake! Then you did the stupidest thing you have ever done. You might have known I wasn't a person you could threaten in safety. When you told me you were going to alter your will if I didn't give Laurence up I decided I had to do something about you, and do it fast."
She leaned forward, her lips parted in a cruel little smile.
"I want to watch your face when I tell you this, Bruno. I've been storing it up for four years, waiting for the right moment to tell you. I let the hydraulic fluid out of the brake system, Bruno. The police thought the tank or whatever you call it had been accidentally punctured, but I did it. When you went rushing off to meet Valeria, I knew you would drive crazily as you always did, so I fixed the brakes. It was my bad luck and your damned obstinacy that the smash didn't kill you, but at least it put you in bed and made you useless and gave me the whiphand!"
She sat staring at Bruno for perhaps a minute. It seemed an incredibly long time to me. I watched her fascinated as one is fascinated by a repulsive but beautiful snake.
"How calmly you take it," she said at last. "You were always so calm and indifferent about anything I've ever said to you. But I'm going to jolt you out of your calm smugness. I haven't finished yet, Bruno! I'm going to make you suffer for the way you've treated me. I'm going to make you sorry you're not dead!"
She got of the bed and began to pace up and down, passing so close to the window I only just ducked back in time.
"It was stupid of you to leave Valeria so much of your money, Bruno," she went on. "Why did you have to leave her this house and the boat as well? You didn't bother to think what would happen to me did you? Well, she's not going to have the money or the house or the boat. I'm going to have them! Do you hear?"
She went over to the bed and glared down at him. "I'm going to have everything! Valeria's going to die on Friday night. It sounds dramatic, doesn't it? But that's what's going to happen. It's taken some time to arrange. It hasn't been easy, but it's been fun doing it. Poor little Valeria is going to be murdered on Friday night. She's going to be another victim of a maniac, and the maniac is your nice, intelligent David Chisholm."
She bent over Bruno, her eyes glittering.
"You think I'm drunk, don't you? You don't believe any of this: but you'll see! Wait until Friday night! You'll see for yourself then! You don't think David's a maniac either, do you? But he is! The police are looking for him! That's why he's been hanging about in Milan all this time. He hasn't a passport; he's an Army deserter, and he's in hiding. I knew about him long before I ever met him. The major of his unit was a friend of mine. He told me about him. Your clever, nice David hacked a woman to pieces about six years ago. When I saw him outside the Duomo I recognized him from a photograph I had been shown. I knew he was the man I was looking for. It was so easy, Bruno. I had only to pretend to fall in love with the fool, and he came here without a murmur."
She straightened Bruno's pillow, smiling down at him.
"At first I planned for Bellini to get rid of Valeria, but he said it wasn't safe." She sat on the bed, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes glittering. "I had to find someone who would be immediately suspected by the police. That's why I picked on David. The fool imagined I wanted him to get rid of you. But he wouldn't do it, so I knew it would be no use telling him I wanted to get rid of Valeria first."
She took another cigarette from the packet and toyed with it while she watched Bruno.
"So Bellini is going to do it, and David's going to get the blame. This is what is going to happen, Bruno. I want you to know all the details. Nurse Fleming is going away on Friday until Tuesday morning. On Friday evening, as soon as Maria has gone home, Bellini will come to the villa. I shall be in the boathouse. David will be working o
n the car. I'll make sure he has a job to do so he is near the house. You and Valeria will be alone."
She leaned forward.
"I want you to imagine the scene, Bruno. Bellini will surprise Valeria before she can cry out. He'll probably break her neck. He may have to do it in this room. It depends if he can catch her before she cries out. I hope he does do it in here, Bruno; the shock may kill you and save me a lot of trouble. He will leave as soon as he is sure she is dead. I shall then come up and find Valeria and call the police. They will suspect David. They'll know for certain when they find out who he is. Then in a couple of days you will be found dead, Bruno. Dr. Perelli will assume delayed shock has killed you."
She got up and walked over to a chair and picked up a cushion.
"Have you ever thought how easy it would be for me to finish you, Bruno?" she asked, coming over to the bed. "All I would have to do is to put this cushion over your face and hold it there. You wouldn't last long, would you?"
She bent over him, the cushion hovering within a few inches of his white, set face.
"It would be so easy. I'm so tempted to do it now, but that would be stupid. Valeria first, then you next."
She tossed the cushion back into the chair.
"Not quite so calm now, are you? Think about it. Only four more days, and there's nothing you can do about it. You can't tell anyone; you can't warn Valeria, and you can't do a damn thing about it! But you'll be able to see the thing happen. You'll see Nurse Fleming go of for the weekend. You'll hear me tell David to work on the car. You'll hear me tell Valeria that I'm going down to the boathouse to enjoy a little swing music on the radiogram that you can't bear to hear. You'll see Maria go home. You'll lie there with Valeria sitting beside you, knowing Bellini is coming, and you won't be able to warn her. You'll see Bellini creep in. You'll see him put his hands on her throat, and I hope you'll suffer!"
She leaned over him, her voice suddenly hoarse with vicious fury.
"I've waited four years for this, and I'm going to enjoy every second of it, starting from now!"
chapter eight
1952 - The Wary Transgressor Page 15