But there was still the biggest snag to get over.
I would have to get into Blue Jay cabin on Thursday night to make the control unit alive. Also I had to be well away from the cabin at the time Delaney died. Suppose Gilda changed her mind about going to Glyn Camp or suppose Delaney touched the control unit before she left?
If he did that; she might find him, touch him and get killed herself. How was I to be absolutely sure Delaney would only touch the control unit at the exact time I wanted him to touch it and when he was alone ?
This was a real headache.
I was still brooding about it and getting nowhere when I heard a car coming up the lane.
For a moment I thought it might be Gilda and I jumped to my feet, but it wasn’t Gilda. It was Matt Lawson, the insurance salesman.
He left his car at the gate and came over to me.
“Hello there, Mr Regan,” he said in his breezy college manner. “I’ve brought you some money. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. I managed to sell twenty policies up here.”
“That’s pretty good,” I said, anxious to be rid of him.
“I have the figures right here.” He gave me a statement and two ten-dollar bills. “That covers it I think.”
I glanced at the statement, nodded and put the bills in my pocket.
“Well, thanks,” I said.
“Have you seen the new Trojan radio and TV set they’re showing at the Acme Store in LA, Mr Regan? It’s certainly a dandy. I didn’t know if you would be interested in getting the agency for it up here.”
“I haven’t seen it yet,” I said. “I build most of my own sets, but I’ll certainly take a look at it.”
“What I like about it is the time clock on it. All you have to do is to set the clock and at the right time the set switches on your programme.”
I had to make an effort not to show my excitement. He had given me the solution to my problem. A time clock! With such a clock I could control the exact time the control unit was to come alive.
When Lawson had gone, I considered the plan now as a whole.
Unless I made some stupid slip, it was fool proof.
I had to be sure Doc Mallard would be the one to examine Delaney’s body after he was dead.
The local coroner, Joe Strickland, had worked with Doc now for twenty years. He was a meek little man, and he was scared of Doc. If Doc said Delaney’s death was accidental, Joe Strickland would say so too.
I was relying on the inefficiency of two old men — Doc Mallard and Sheriff Jefferson — to cover up murder, and in this particular setup in this particular little town, unless I made a really glaring mistake, I was confident I would get away with it.
I now had three clear days to perfect the plan.
I had to get a time-switch clock. All the dealers in Los Angeles knew me and they might remember I had bought this article. To be absolutely safe I would have to buy it in San Francisco where I wasn’t known.
The following day I drove into Los Angeles, and then took the train to San Francisco, arriving there late in the afternoon. I bought the clock. The clerk who served me practically threw it at me so anxious was he to get rid of me and the rest of the customers before closing time and I was sure he wouldn’t recognize me again.
I got back to my cabin late that night.
It was then, as I lay in bed, trying to sleep, that I suddenly wondered if I had gone out of my mind to plan such a thing, but when I thought of Gilda, I got my nerve back.
III
Soon after eleven o’clock the following morning, I called Delaney’s cabin.
As luck would have it, he answered the telephone himself.
“Regan here, Mr Delaney,” I said. “The set going okay?”
“Terrific.”
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the TV programme for Friday,” I said, coming to the real reason why I was calling him. “They are showing the Dempsey fight film.”
“They are? I didn’t see that. What time is it showing?”
“Nine forty-five Friday morning.”
“Well, thanks, Regan: I wouldn’t have missed that for anything.”
I said I thought he would want to see it and hung up.
For some moments I stood staring at the telephone. It had been horribly easy. I had no doubt that at around nine-forty Delaney would put his hand on the remote control unit to turn on his set and at that time the unit would be lethal.
Everything now depended on whether Gilda went to Glyn Camp in the morning. That was the one thing in my plan over which I had no control.
On the mountain road, a quarter of a mile from Blue Jay cabin there was a place where I could see the cabin far below and part of the road leading to Glyn Camp. I planned to go to this place around eight-thirty in the morning and wait there.
From this vantage point I could see Gilda leave. If by twenty-past nine she hadn’t left, I would drive fast to Blue Jay cabin and stop Delaney from touching the control unit. I could always cook up some excuse that I wanted to test the set and while doing so I could make the unit safe.
My next move was an easy one. I put a call through to Jeff Hamish, the writer, who had a de luxe cabin about a mile from me and about a mile and a half from Delaney’s place.
I knew Hamish was a fanatical collector of LP records and he had quite a library of them. I had picked on him to establish my alibi. He was a well-known writer and, as a witness, he would make a solid impression.
When I finally got on the telephone, I said, “I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr Hamish, but I have a gadget here that’s just made for you. It’s an attachment that cleans a disc while it is playing. There’s a roller dipped in a solution that keeps just ahead of the stylus and really does its job. It’s just the thing for you.”
“Sounds wonderful. Let’s have a look at it.”
“I’m passing your way tomorrow morning. Okay if I look in around half-past nine?”
“Sure, and thanks for remembering me,” and he hung up.
That was going to be my alibi.
Delaney would die at nine forty-five. At that time I would be demonstrating this gadget at Hamish’s place, a mile and a half from Blue Jay cabin around half-past nine and ten. It was an unassailable alibi.
That was Wednesday.
On Thursday night I had the trickiest and most dangerous part of the plan to do.
A little after half-past nine, with my tool box and the time-switch clock, I started off on foot for Delaney’s place.
I didn’t dare risk taking the truck in case someone saw me and remembered I was heading that way at that hour.
I had a twenty-five-minute walk. I kept off the road and cut across the scrub land. There was a moon, but the night was pretty dark and I was confident no one would spot me if they happened to be on the road.
I reached the gate leading up to Delaney’s cabin at ten minutes to ten.
Moving silently, I walked up the rough road until I came within sight of the cabin.
The light was on in the lounge and I could hear music from the TV.
I made a wide detour through the overgrown garden and came up at the back of the cabin.
I climbed the steps onto the verandah, moved to the back door and gently turned the handle. The door swung inwards, and I stepped into the kitchen.
The door was open, and the light from the hall was enough for me to see where I was going. I moved silently to the door and looked into the dimly-lit passage.
The strident sound of jazz was coming from the TV set.
Delaney had the volume well up so I had no fear of him hearing me. I went to the storeroom and eased open the door.
I had a flashlight with me and I turned the beam into the dark little room. I moved in and gently closed the door.
Well, I was in. I had a long wait ahead of me.
I cleared a space by the door so that, if Gilda happened to look in, I could hide behind the door. Then I lowered myself to the floor and rested my back against the wa
ll.
The tension and the hell of waiting began.
It was just after half-past ten when I heard the TV set turn off. I got to my feet, and moving against the wall, I listened, my heart thumping.
I heard the sound of a door shutting.
The partition of the storeroom was thin and sounds came clearly to me.
I heard Delaney say, “Are you going to bed?”
Gilda said, “Yes, as soon as I have locked up.”
Then I heard the bolts of the front door being pushed to, and a moment later, I heard her come down the passage and go into the kitchen. I heard her lock the back door and shut the window.
I waited, holding my breath, wondering if she would come into the storeroom, but she didn’t.
She went back into the lounge.
I heard her say “Good night.”
“There was something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Delaney said. “What’s happened to your lover? You haven’t been sneaking out at night recently. I’ve been watching for you. Has he got tired of you already ?”
“I’m going to bed. Good night.”
“I’m in the mood for some diversion tonight,” Delaney said. “After all you divert your lover — why not your husband ?”
“You’re drunk,” she said, her tone contemptuous. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
I heard her move to the door, then there was a sudden scuffling noise and I heard her scream.
I jerked open the storeroom door and stepped out into the passage. From where I stood I could see into the lounge.
Delaney had caught hold of Gilda by her wrist and had dragged her close to his chair. His face was congested and his eyes vicious.
“You’re forgetting I’m your husband, aren’t you?” he rasped. “You have certain duties that you seem to be forgetting. If your lover is allowed to have his fun with you, why shouldn’t I also have my fun?”
“Let go of me, you beast!”
He hooked his fingers in the neck of her blouse and ripped it open, then he gave her a sudden push that sent her sprawling.
He sat in his chair and cursed her.
I stood there, sweat on my face, murder in my heart, listening and watching. If I hadn’t known that by tomorrow morning he would be dead I would have walked into the lounge and beaten him to death.
Gilda got to her feet and staggered away from him, her face white and her eyes glittering.
“I’ve had enough of you,” she said. “I’m going to leave you!”
“Leave me?” He laughed. “Go ahead and see where it lands you. You won’t get my money when I die. You won’t get a damn thing! If you want to leave, then get out!”
She walked unsteadily to the door and I ducked back out of sight.
I heard her go into her bedroom and shut and lock the door.
This ugly scene had left me shaking.
After a few minutes I heard Delaney turn the light off in the lounge and trundle himself down the passage and into his room. He slammed the door viciously behind him.
After witnessing this scene I had no hesitation now in going ahead with my plan. Gilda had to be freed from this man.
It wasn’t until the hands of my watch stood at two o’clock that I decided it was safe to make a move.
I had been sitting in the hot stuffy darkness now for close on four hours. I was glad at last to become active. Turning on my flashlight and picking up my tool kit, I opened the storeroom door and listened.
The cabin was silent except for the faint hum from the refrigerator in the kitchen and the ticking of a clock in the lounge.
I walked silently down the passage, and into the lounge.
Very gently, I closed the door behind me, then I crossed over to the TV set.
Working quickly, I disconnected the leads to the main and took the back panel oil the set. I disconnected the remote control unit’s lead from the set and reconnected the lead in such a way that the boosted current would go directly to the control knobs of the remote control unit.
I then cut the mains lead and connected the two wires to the time-switch clock. I put the clock in a space in the back of the TV set.
I carefully checked what I had done. The setup was simple enough. Until the hands of the time-switch clock reached twenty minutes to ten, the mains current couldn’t reach the set. At twenty minutes to ten the clock would switch on the mains current and the remote control would then become lethal. When Delaney touched the unit at that time, he would receive the full shock of the boosted current coming through the valves of the TV set.
The time-switch clock safeguarded Gilda. The remote control unit couldn’t come alive until twenty minutes to ten. By that time she would be on her way to Glyn Camp. If she didn’t go to Glyn Camp, I still had time to get to Blue Jay cabin and make the control unit safe.
When I was certain I had made no mistake, I put the back of the set on again.
The stage was set. The success of the plan now depended on whether Gilda left for Glyn Camp in the morning.
I collected my tools, checked once more to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything, then, moving silently, I went over to the lounge window and slipped the catch back.
I pushed open the window, climbed out into the darkness of the verandah and then gently closed the window behind me.
CHAPTER IV
I
AT half-past eight the following morning I called the girl at Glyn Camp who relayed my telephone messages when I was out on my rounds.
“I’ll be leaving in a few minutes, Doris,” I said to her. “My first call will be at Mr Hamish’s place. I’ll be there around nine-thirty. If anything comes in between then and quarter-past ten, call me there, will you?”
She said she would.
It was essential to my plan that Doris should know I was with Hamish at nine-thirty. I was pretty sure that Delaney would try to turn on the TV set before the Dempsey film began. As the time-switch clock prevented the current getting into the set, the set wouldn’t work. He would think it had packed up, and he was certain to yell for me.
Doris, the telephone girl, would get the message and would pass it on to me while I was with Hamish. I would tell Hamish that Delaney wanted me to call on him. I would thus establish the reason why I had gone to Blue Jay cabin and why I happened to be the first to find his body. It was essential that I should be the first there as I had to set the scene before I called Doc Mallard and the Sheriff.
I had a cold empty feeling inside me as I locked up the cabin and got into the truck.
I drove fast down the mountain road until I reached the spot where I could see Delaney’s cabin in the far distance.
The time was now ten minutes to nine. I lit a cigarette with hands that were far from steady, and I stared down at the distant cabin.
There was no sign of any life out there, although the garage doors stood open, which was a hopeful sign. Would Gilda go to Glyn Camp? Would I have to make a mad race down to the cabin to make the remote control unit safe? It would take me about seven minutes to reach the cabin. I could wait until twenty minutes past nine, but no longer.
The next ten minutes were the longest I have ever lived through. I sat in the truck, my hands like ice, sweat on my face and my heart thumping.
I kept looking at my watch, wondering what was happening in the cabin, wondering if Gilda was getting ready to go down to Glyn Camp or if she had decided not to go.
Then suddenly I saw Gilda moving across to the garage.
I jumped to my feet.
She was going to Glyn Camp!
After a long pause, the Buick came out of the garage and drove down the tarmac to the gate. There, I lost sight of it, but I had no doubt that she was on her way to Glyn Camp as she usually did on a Friday morning, and she wouldn’t return before midday.
I looked towards the cabin. There was no sign of Delaney. I looked at my watch. The time was now a quarter-past nine. In less than half an hour, he would be dead.
On the way up
to Hamish’s cabin, I tried not to think of Delaney, but I kept wondering what he was doing: if he had discovered yet that his set wasn’t working; if he was already talking to Doris on the telephone, telling her to get me over to his place right away.
I reached Hamish’s cabin at two minutes to half-past nine.
Mrs Hamish told me to go on in. She said I would find her husband in his workroom.
I went to his workroom which was at the rear of the cabin.
Hamish, a big man with a red jovial face, was sitting on the edge of his desk, the telephone receiver against his ear.
He looked up as I came in and nodded to me.
“He’s here now,” he said into the mouthpiece of the telephone. “Hold on, will you?” To me, he said, “Here’s a call for you, Regan.”
I guessed it would be Doris, calling to say Delaney wanted me to come over and fix his set. The whole plan was working like clockwork. It was uncanny: every move was coming out right for me.
“Thanks,” I said and took the receiver from him.
“I’ve just got to fix something,” he said. “I’ll be right back,” and he went out of the room.
When he had gone, I said, “Is that you, Doris?”
Then I got a shock that turned me rigid.
“Terry . . . it’s me.”
It was Gilda!
“Gilda? Where are you?”
“I’m at your place. I found the key under the mat and I asked your girl where I could find you. She told me where you were.”
“But why are you at my place?”
“I’ve left him, Terry.”
I felt as if someone had slugged me under my heart.
“Left him? What do you mean? You said you would never leave him!”
“We had a horrible scene last night and another this morning. I can’t face any more of it, Terry. I’ve left him for good. I came here to talk to you about it. I’m going to ask him for a divorce.”
I was scarcely listening. Now she had left him, there was no reason for him to die! I looked at my watch. I had two minutes to save myself from becoming a murderer!
Two minutes!
“Stay where you are, Gilda,” I said. I had difficulty in controlling my voice. “I can’t talk now. I’ll be with you in an hour! Wait for me — do you understand?”
Shock Treatment Page 5