1975 - Believe This You'll Believe Anything

by James Hadley Chase

  I looked at Val who was still staring down at her hands, then I looked at Dyer. His eyes shifted from mine and muttering something, he got up and walked stiffly out of the room.

  I sat still. The noise of the hurricane still continued to hammer against the house.

  ‘Val!’

  She didn’t look up.

  ‘Tell me he was lying, Val, and I will believe you,’ I said, my hands gripping the arms of my chair as I stared at her in sick despair Still she didn’t move nor look at me.

  ‘Val! Please! He must be lying! You couldn’t do such a thing to me! I’ve loved you every minute of the six years we have been parted. I love you still! Tell me he is lying!’

  Still she said nothing.

  ‘For God’s sake, Val!’

  Suddenly she shook her head. In a low, hard voice, she said, ‘He wasn’t lying.’

  Well she had said it. I drew in a long, shuddering breath.

  ‘Val, darling, please listen to me. He is going to divorce you. At last you will be free of him. We can go away together. We can’t get married because of Rhoda, but we can find work together. Darling, I don’t care what you did. I don’t care about Dyer. I love you! We can make a new life together.’

  She looked up then, the bitter contempt in her eyes shrivelled me.

  ‘A new life with you?’ She started to her feet. ‘With you, you weak, gutless jerk! I’ve never loved you! You have always been a stupid joke to me.’ She was screaming at me now, her face contorted with spite and rage. ‘Who wants your gutless love? I hope to God I never see you again!’

  She left me, my head in my hands with the nightmare that had now become reality.

  Thunder shook the house while the wind screamed against the boarded up windows.

  I stared down at the rich carpet, hearing again those cruel words she had flung at me before leaving the room. I have never loved you! How it hurt to realise after so many years that I had been idolising a woman who only existed in my besotted imagination! I sat there, hearing the hurricane, feeling my life had come to an end.

  ‘Hey, buster! Wake up!’

  Gesetti’s gravel voice made me lift my head. He was standing by me, his mouth twisted into a sneering grin.

  I reared back.

  ‘Get away from me!’

  ‘Come on, buster, up on your feet. Beddy-byes now. I want you where I know where to find you. Move!’

  The threat in his voice forced me to my feet. I couldn’t bear the thought of him touching me, but he did touch me.

  His fingers closed around my arm: fingers like a steel claw and he led me from the room, out into the hall and up the stairs and I went without resistance. When we reached the upper landing, I saw Vidal standing in the doorway of his room. He held a torch in his hand, the beam directed on the floor. The reflection of the light showed me his set, hard face.

  I paused to stare at him.

  A violent clap of thunder rocked the house as he stepped back into his room and closed the door. There had been something in his small, glittering eyes - something sinister that chilled me.

  ‘Move buster,’ Gesetti said and nudged me on.

  I had a sudden feeling of danger. I was now facing the door into my room and Gesetti pushed the door open. A presentiment that something terrible was about to happen brought me. to a standstill. I spun around.

  I felt a compulsive urge to rush down the stairs, fling open the front door and face the violent night - anything than stay a moment longer in this house.

  Steel fingers gripped my arm and Gesetti’s shoulder, as solid as a block of concrete, slammed against my chest. I went reeling back into the darkness of my room and the door slammed shut.

  I groped around until I found the foot of the bed. The darkness was stifling. The noise of the hurricane hammered at me as I sank on the bed.

  I began to shiver. Something was going to happen: something I was powerless to stop. I sat there, my fingers digging into the mattress, my heart slamming against my ribs while the hurricane banged and tore at the house.

  Then I heard a faint scream. It was immediately blotted out by the roar of the hurricane, but I was sure it had been a scream.

  I blundered to my feet and groped my way to the door. My sweating hand slid up and down the panel until I found the door handle. I turned the handle but the door remained immovable. I was locked in!

  Again I heard the scream. This time there was no mistaking it. Val was screaming!

  I threw myself against the door. I might just as well have thrown myself against a brick wall. I rattled the handle. I began to hammer on the panels.

  The sound of my hammering fists was swept away by the noise of the hurricane.

  Then the door shook as a tremendous blast of wind screamed down the corridor and I knew the door leading on to the roof had been opened.

  ‘Val!’

  I wrenched and tore at the door. It was immovable. Then the wind was cut off as the door leading to the roof was shut.

  There was a long pause while I leaned against my door, listening. All I could hear was the violence of the hurricane raging outside. I felt as if some living thing inside me had died. It was a feeling that left me weak and sick.

  I groped my way across the darkness to the bed and sank on to it. I knew instinctively that Val was dead. I knew Gesetti had forced her on to the roof to be swept away by the wind as Vidal could have been swept away but for me.

  I could still hear her far away scream of terror echoing inside my head.

  The door suddenly jerked open and Vidal, carrying a hurricane lamp, came in.

  ‘An unfortunate accident Burden,’ he said, setting the lamp down on a nearby table. ‘Valerie was deranged.’ His little eyes, glittering with triumph, dwelt on me. ‘You understand? The doctors know she was suffering from a nervous breakdown. The hurricane unsettled her. She lost control of herself and before I could stop her, she ran out on to the roof to be swept to her death.’ His eyes never left my face. ‘You understand?’

  ‘You murdered her,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t be stupid Burden. It was an accident. And Dyer. . .’ He gave his short barking laugh. ‘He turned out to be a hero. Before Gesetti or I could restrain him he went after her only to be swept away in his turn. You understand?’

  ‘You murdered both of them,’ I said.

  ‘No one attempts to take my life nor my money without paying for it.’ His voice was a sudden snarl. ‘You won’t be involved Burden. You were sleeping and heard nothing. I doubt if the police will even question you. If they do, you know what to tell them. I’m giving you this chance because you saved my life.’

  Gesetti came to the door and stared menacingly at me.

  The sight of him sent fear through me: fear that paralysed me.

  ‘It was an accident,’ I said huskily.

  ‘That’s right,’ Vidal nodded. ‘People like those two don’t deserve to live.’

  He left me, and after staring at me for a long moment, Gesetti turned and followed him.

  I sat there staring at the flickering light of the lamp. Life would be empty without my dreams of Val. I had no one now, then suddenly I thought of Rhoda. Even she, with her sluttishness, was better than nothing.

  I sat there, listening to the violence of the hurricane, trying to assure myself that Rhoda was indeed better than nothing.

  The thought, stupid as it was, helped me to face the hours that stretched ahead.

  THE END

  Table of Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

 

 

 
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