Better to Eat You

by Charlotte Armstrong

  So they were seated, four. David facing Malvina. Fox facing Sarah. Mrs. Monteeth came to serve them.

  David spoke suddenly. “Sarah, has anyone told you? There was good news. The doctor thinks Mr. Fox is in very good health.”

  “Oh!” She looked radiant. “Oh, Grandfather! How wonderful to hear that!”

  The old man cocked his head. His eyes met David’s. “It leads me to wonder if Edgar was not somewhat too cautious,” he said with a nibbling roll of his lips. “And it leads me to think of quite a different future. Travel, eh? This place, you see,” Grandfather shrugged, and then settled his shoulders, “has been in a way, beautiful though I find it, somewhat of a prison.”

  “Not after today,” Malvina said. “Sarah, will you have the dressing?”

  “How impatient you are,” said Grandfather. “Come, Malvina, can we not take our leisure. Here we are at dinner and the night before us.”

  “Will you go back to England, sir?” asked David.

  “Oh, I am spoiled, you see.” Grandfather sighed. He put a fork daintily to the salad greens. “All this luxury, eh? Sarah, my dearie, if you have had the dressing … I can’t see over the flowers.”

  “Shall I remove them, Grandfather?” said Malvina rather eagerly.

  “Malvina, do not fuss,” he said crossly. “Just do not touch anything unless I say so.”

  “England,” said Sarah, “must be rather a gray place.”

  “Too gray. Too gray.”

  Dessert. Coffee. Malvina increasingly stony-eyed.

  They had not eaten. Sarah across the flower centerpiece from Fox was able to seem to nibble but take nothing. David could not eat and had only pretended. Malvina’s plate had gone no less untouched.

  Now Moon invaded the dining room. He was breaking custom. The old man bridled. Moon let out a stream of his mysterious syllables. He was obviously belligerent and the old man did not awe him.

  Sarah said, “I think he wants to know what was wrong with the food. His feelings are hurt. He says we haven’t eaten.”

  Fox said, “Nonsense. It was all delicious.” He had dined well and heartily. “Your place is not here, Moon.”

  Moon muttered, swept them all with an angry glance and flounced away. Sarah’s eyes widened and then she smiled.

  “Sarah, my dearie,” said Grandfather curiously. “How is it that you seem to understand him?”

  “I didn’t realize I could,” she said. “But if I listen carefully … Perhaps he knows some Japanese and knows that I do. Or perhaps the languages are alike. I don’t know. At least, I do get some of his meaning.”

  “What was it he said that made you smile, dearie?”

  Sarah bit her lip. “Grandfather, I hate to tattle. He called you a name. Not a very bad one.”

  “Why, the rascal!” said Grandfather. “Eh? All these years, eh?” The old man was laughing. His lids hid his eyes. His teeth were bad. “An independent character is our Moon, eh? What was the name?”

  “Oh, something like fraud or thief. Just a cross word, Grandfather.”

  “He is a good cook,” the old man said. “Sarah, my dearie, hadn’t you eaten?”

  “Enough.” Sarah smiled.

  “Take your coffee, do.” The old man spoke sharply. Sarah put the delicate cup up to her mouth, the coffee that Malvina had poured.

  David watched Malvina.

  All the while between him and Sarah he could feel the strong bond. She was aware and he was watching and they were (sitting politely at table, chatting, smiling) close and together. Sarah did not really drink the coffee and nothing happened.

  Grandfather began to push away from the table. “Come, now. I have not been forbidden. So we shall try a taste of brandy.”

  He trotted toward the fire.

  David looked at his wrist.

  Sarah said, at once, “Grandfather, may I be excused? I am really very tired.” She looked tired, suddenly, and sad.

  “Eh? Why to be sure, dearie.” The old man was casual.

  David watched Malvina.

  Malvina said, “Brandy, Sarah?” It came hissing through her teeth.

  “No, thank you.” Sarah was graceful. She bent and kissed Grandfather’s brow. “Good night. I am so happy you are better.”

  “I, too,” he said. “Good night, little Sarah.”

  David said “Good night,” hardly keeping out of his voice the love and the excitement he was feeling. Sarah smiled and left them.

  David sat down hard. “Malvina …”

  “Just a moment, David?” She turned her back. To hide her face? She took a few steps back toward the dining room, murmured and nodded to the housekeeper. Then she stood with her back turned just a moment too long. But when she faced around, her smile was innocent, her mask was in place.

  “Mr. Fox,” said David urgently.

  “Eh? What’s that, David?”

  “I am very much worried about the Sheriff’s office,” David said in a hushed close conspiratorial tone. “This man, Maxwell, has it in his mind that Edgar poisoned himself.”

  He had caught their attention. He didn’t care what he was saying. He was talking for time. Time for Sarah to get out her window and go through the gap in the wall and creep cautiously down to the tiny beach and wade around the big rock and so be free.

  Malvina knew she was doing all this, even now. Malvina sat on the stool and her gown fell in all grace but her body was rigid. She did not move or speak. The old man might or might not know what Sarah was doing, and if he knew he might or might not believe that the police would be waiting for Sarah. And might or might not care. He did not move, either. He listened with his head cocked. His hands were still.

  No one, of course, waited yet for Sarah. David could not call Consuelo until he himself was away from here. But he would not go, he would hold these two until Sarah had time.

  “So, you see,” David was saying urgently, “that is why he didn’t feel ready to arrest anybody. But …”

  “Poor troubled Edgar,” Grandfather said. “I cannot believe it. Poor troubled little Sarah … You say this man told you?”

  David talked. The fire muttered. Time went by.

  Sarah threw on her short coat, put her purse in her pocket, gently opened the lower sash of the garden window. She got over the sill quickly and sped through an arc of the garden to the opening in the wall. She came out upon the cliff edge and went carefully along the walk to her left. The glass door at the corridor’s end opened upon the top of the path. She did not think that from the far fireside Malvina could see her slip quickly down.

  To run away … to run away with David! She was excited but she meant to be cautious. Her high heels.… She would have to wade anyhow. She put one hand on the house wall and the other to her shoe.

  “Miss Sarah?” The voice was so close, so loud, so startling, that she trembled. “That you, Miss Sarah?”

  “Mrs. Monteeth!” The woman was standing quietly beside the corridor door. “What are you doing?”

  “I was sent to ask you, would you go to Mr. Fox’s study and wait on him a minute,” said the housekeeper in her prim obedient voice. “Before you run off.” Her voice was obedient to someone’s instructions, as if Mrs. Monteeth hardly knew what the words meant and had not inquired.

  “Grandfather wants me?”

  “Your grandfather wants to say goodbye.”

  “Oh, of course,’ said Sarah. She thought, He’s so clever! He must have guessed! Oh, I must tell him what David and I are going to do. Tell him I won’t be alone. He will be glad.

  “Of course,” she repeated. “Thank you.” And so Sarah walked along the house, on the cliff edge, passing the path, not going down.

  The door to Grandfather’s study was not locked. She slipped in. The small hexagon was dark. She turned on no light. She sat on the edge of Grandfather’s chair and looked out through the glass at the dim beauty of the world, the sparkle of men’s lights in their dwellings, the stars and the glimmer of their presence on the sea.
Goodbye to the dear old man, and then away. Tide was going out. The way around the rock would be getting easier. She had time.

  Then away. With David close to her. Sarah dreamed. It seemed to her, as it does seem to lovers, that all this had been written. They would be together, she and David Wakeley, because … There was no word for the cause, although it was as old as all the stars.

  * * *

  Mrs. Monteeth went back into the house, as Miss Malvina had told her to go, not by the corridor but back through the garden again. The next duty on her list lay in the kitchen and Mrs. Monteeth went there.

  David in the living room looked at his watch. She had had plenty of time, David judged. Now, he thought, he could go.

  Chapter 18

  David drew his remarks to a conclusion. He felt, he said, that someone must check closely on what the police were thinking and doing. He felt he would like to be excused. He would like to run down into the village where he would glean what he could. He was pretending, of course, that he could not imagine Malvina would have told the old man anything.

  Neither Malvina nor the old man attempted to dissuade him. Grandfather sat by the dying fire, his face thoughtful, his head nodding, his breath sighing from time to time.

  Malvina rose, as if released, and walked with David to the garden door. She stepped outside as he did.

  David stood with his ears sharpened. Within the curl of the low house, air in the garden did not stir. The enclosure was breathless and still. At the gate end nothing could be seen. The man on guard was below the garden level. Lights to the right shone in the kitchen. Moon and Mrs. Monteeth could be seen moving in there. Light shone in the Monteeth’s bedroom, tail of the house on that eastern end. Gust was there. His shadow moved against the blind.

  To the left, in the bedroom wing, Malvina’s windows and Sarah’s beyond them were all dark. David went swiftly to the left, passed the dark windows, and leaned through the gap in the wall. Nothing could be heard but the sea, booming and crashing.

  Malvina said impatiently in his ear. “She’s gone. And what am I to tell Grandfather, pray tell me?”

  “Nothing, until morning.”

  “Will you let me know what happens? You are going to the Sheriff’s office?”

  “I’ll let you know,” he said. “Go in, Malvina. Better stay with him.”

  “Yes, I will, of course. I hope …” Her manner softened. “David, now I think you have been wise.”

  “I’m glad,” he said dryly. He struck off swiftly now to the right, toward the steps.

  Malvina stood with her ears sharp. She heard a voice, and David’s answer it. Malvina looked where the lights burned and checked again that the three servants were there. She waited, listening for David to go.

  The guard was sitting in Edgar’s closed car. He opened the car door. “Who’s there? Mr. Wakeley?”

  “Going to town. O.K.?”

  The guard said, “You’re alone?” David stood, feeling as if he turned his pockets inside out for inspection. Evidently the guard could see in this light well enough. He said, “O.K.”

  In Consuelo’s Ford, David drove down the switchback road, proceeding slowly and carefully, and then through the Cove, whipping up speed. At the gates of the Colony, a wavering flashlight stopped him.

  “Who’s this?”

  “Wakeley. Guest at Fox’s place.”

  “Evening, Mr. Wakeley. Alone in the car?” The flashlight dipped into the tonneau.

  “What’s the idea?”

  “Just a minute, sir. Keys to your trunk, please?”

  “Oh, for—!”

  “Sheriff’s orders.”

  “That so?” David took the keys out of the ignition.

  “Supposed to check on who leaves from Fox’s place. Listen, a man died this morning.”

  “Go ahead,” said David wearily.

  He was delayed only a few minutes but in that time he realized that a shadow detached itself from the porch of the small building from which the guards operated and where by day the agent for Colony Cove properties did his business. When, finally, he drove out into the highway, David knew he was being followed.

  Well, then, he could not go for Sarah himself. He must send Consuelo.

  David parked abruptly, saw the following car conquer surprise, grinned, rushed for the phone in the drugstore.

  “Consuelo?”

  “Yes, Davey?” Her voice was as warm and cheerful as ever.

  His throat felt full with a rush of gratitude for the existence of Consuelo McGhee. “You know where the highway runs close to the shore, the north end of Fox’s place?” he said to her.

  “Not the Cove, Davey? The other side?”

  “That’s right. The highway. Go there, Consuelo. Like the darlin’ you are. Sarah’s gone down to the little private beach they’ve got. It’s low tide so she’ll wade around the rock and make for the highway. You pick her up, Consuelo darlin’, and take her to your house. She knows. She’ll expect you. We’re running away.”

  “Davey, where are you?”

  “Drugstore. I got out through the Cove but the police aren’t going to let her fly off with me to Las Vegas.”

  “Davey!” Her voice squeaked.

  “That’s right. We’re going to elope.”

  “Aaah,” she said, “that’s the stuff!”

  “Consuelo, be careful. Get her through the town. I don’t want the police to pick her up. I don’t want her anywhere but with you. I’d go for her myself but I’m followed. Go right away, Consuelo darlin’, because she’s waiting, poor kid.”

  “Right away. Davey, you’ll come to my house?”

  “I’ve got an errand. I’ll give you time, because I’m followed. Then I’ll come.”

  “On my way,” Consuelo said staunchly. “I’ll get her. Don’t you worry.”

  Consuelo hung up her phone, fluffed at her hair in automatic preparation, reached for her coat. Her mouth was firm in her soft old face. Her eyes were bright and enchanted. Her heart was going a little too fast for one who was sixty-two.

  David looked out through the glass of the phone booth. His shadow was not inside the store. He dropped in another coin.

  “Dr. Price?”

  “Yes. Who is this? Wakeley? Now what is it?”

  “Making sure you are home. Coming over to talk to you, Doctor. It may be more important than you know.”

  “About Fox? Absolutely nothing more I can tell you.” The doctor was exasperated.

  “There is something,” David insisted. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  “Now, see here, I can’t …”

  “Wait for me,” said David. “It’s connected with murder.”

  “What is?”

  “That’s what I want to find out. Explain when I see you.”

  “Murder!” the doctor said in plain amazement.

  But David hung up. Then he hesitated. He should, he had promised to arrange about a plane. But he thought he could do that from Consuelo’s house, where a strategy of their flight would have to be planned. Now, he would go and talk face to face with Dr. Price. Something had made Malvina’s pulse leap. And the old man kept a tame doctor, a doctor whose practice had left him because of some doubtful thing, a doctor dependent upon the old man’s providence. Why?

  Let his shadow follow to the doctor’s. No harm in that. Meantime, Sarah could be saved. So he left the drugstore, checking out of the corner of his eye on that dark car that waited.…

  In Grandfather’s study Sarah was still dreaming in the dark, when at last the door opened. She turned her head and saw his small figure against the light, knowing that light fell upon her and her loving smile.

  Grandfather stood perfectly still.

  “Close the door,” she said softly. “Malvina mustn’t know.”

  The door closed in a slow sweep. She knew he was coming nearer. “Oh, sit down, Grandfather.” He got into his chair and she knelt to be near. She couldn’t see his face. She could tell that his breath was s
hort. “You shouldn’t have hurried,” she chided fondly, “I have time. Now, how did you know I was running away? Do you always know everything, Grandfather?”

  He didn’t speak, although his hand reached for hers. Sarah clung to the dry old fingers. “I’m glad to be able to say goodbye,” she whispered. “I wanted you to know, anyhow. I’m not running away alone, Grandfather.”

  “Are you not, dearie?” Now he spoke and his voice was a little strange. She could sense some kind of storm in him and she was concerned.

  “David and I are going to be married.”

  “Is that true?” Now his hand squeezed and he sighed wheezily.

  “I am going by way of the beach. But of course you know! Now how did you know to send Mrs. Monteeth to stop me?”

  “Eh, dearie?”

  “Oh, I suppose Gust was waiting to stop me if I had gone by the gate?”

  “Just so,” he said.

  But suddenly Sarah was afraid. Now she wished she had not come back into the house, that she had silently gone, that this scene had never begun. She didn’t know how to talk to him, how many of her suspicions to tell him. She clung to his hand and said fearfully, “Malvina won’t come in here, will she? I’m afraid she will stop me. The Monteeths won’t tell her? Oh, no, of course they won’t. They are loyal to you.” She felt him stiffen. “Oh, Grandfather, I don’t want to leave you with Malvina. It frightens me. Am I wrong to leave you?”

  “No,” he said. “No, Sarah. Don’t be afraid. You are right to go.”

  “She can’t … Grandfather, if I marry …” Sarah put her head against his knee. “In a way it is all for you,” she murmured. She didn’t want to explain all that she was thinking about his money. It seemed cruel to do so. Sarah was sorry and confused.

  “But my dearie,” said Grandfather suddenly. “You cannot go by the gate.”

  “No, because there is a police guard.”

  “Yes. Yes, I understand.” Now he was strong and eager. “Ah, goodbye, dear Sarah. You must hurry, eh?”

  “Yes. Yes, I must hurry.” She felt released. “Grandfather, you know how I thank you for everything. You are glad I’m going with David? You don’t mind?”