What's Better Than Money

by James Hadley Chase

  I moved from her and sat down.

  Well, here it was. I was in it up to my neck before I had time to recover from the first body blow.

  ‘He said he would give me a week,’ I said, taking out my cigarette case and lighting a cigarette.

  ‘Yes, darling, I know he did, but this offer has just come in,’ Sarita said, sitting opposite me. ‘We can’t expect him to lose ten thousand just for a couple of days. Anyway, why should we keep him waiting? We’re going to have the place, aren’t we? There’s nothing else anything like as good, and it really is a bargain.’

  ‘Well, no,’ I said, not looking at her. ‘I don’t think I’m going ahead with it, Sarita. I’ve been thinking it over. A home is a pretty permanent thing. I am going to spend my life in this City. Terrell’s place is nice, of course, but I think the best thing to do is to hang on here for a year or so and then build a place.

  By then, I shall know for certain what my financial position will be. With any luck, we should be pretty well off. We might even be able to plan something a lot nicer than the bungalow. It’s better to build. As soon as I’ve fixed the bridge, I’ll get out a plan. We can work at it together. We’ll have absolutely what we want.’

  I saw her stiffen and I could see her disappointment.

  ‘But, Jeff dear, at this price the bungalow is a bargain. Instead of remaining in this dreary apartment for another year, we can move into the cottage, take our time about building, and when the place has been built, we can sell the cottage at a profit.’

  ‘I see that,’ I said, trying to control my jumping nerves. ‘But I’d rather wait. I think we’ll forget about the cottage.’

  ‘Please, Jeff.’ It hurt me and made me mad to see how upset she was. ‘I love the place. Please change your mind. If we buy, we don’t pay rent. We will save that. It’s investing your money sensibly, and I really don’t want to stay here another year.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘but I’m not buying Terrell’s place. Let’s skip it, shall we? I’m tired, and I’m ready for bed.’

  ‘But, Jeff, you can’t just dismiss it like that. It’s important to both of us. We have the money. You agreed it was just what we want. We can’t go on living here. You’ll have to entertain more. We can’t have people here. A man in your position must have a nice home.’

  ‘Let’s skip it, Sarita. I know what I’m doing.’

  For a long moment she stared at me, then she said, ‘Well, of course, if that’s the way you feel… all right. You really want us to remain here?’

  ‘Until we build.’

  ‘Then perhaps we could refurnish the place: at least let us try to make it look something better than this.’

  ‘We’ll talk about that later.’ I got to my feet. ‘Let’s go to bed. Look at the time: it’s pushing one o’clock.’

  ‘Mr. Terrell is waiting, Jeff. He wants to know tonight.’

  This was more than my nerves could take.

  ‘Well, tell him then! Tell him I’ve changed my mind,’ and I went out of the lounge and into the bedroom.

  I was angry and sick with frustration. As I began to undress, I heard Sarita talking on the telephone.

  I was under the shower when she came into the bedroom. After I had put on my pyjamas, I joined her in the bedroom. I got into bed and lit a cigarette.

  She went into the bathroom and shut the door. This was the first time since we had married that she had shut the door while preparing for bed and its significance wasn’t lost on me.

  I suddenly had to know the exact amount of money I had in the bank. I got out of bed, went into the lounge and got out my bank statement. A quick calculation showed that I had a little less than two thousand dollars in cash and ten thousand in bonds. I wouldn’t be getting my share of the bridge fee for another eight days.

  We had been spending my small capital pretty briskly since I had landed the bridge contract. There had been clothes to buy. I had given Sarita a diamond brooch. I had had new tyres fitted to the car. I would have to part with my bonds to Rima. That left me with two thousand for eight days, plus a lot of bills.

  I returned to the bedroom.

  Sarita was already in bed, her back to my bed.

  I got into bed and turned off the light.

  ‘Good night darling,’ I said.

  ‘Good night.’

  Her voice was flat and impersonal.

  ‘I’m sorry, Sarita. Really sorry, but you must believe I know what I’m doing,’ I said. ‘You won’t regret it in the long run. Try not to be too disappointed.’

  ‘I don’t want to discuss it any more. Good night.’

  There was silence.

  I lay there staring into the darkness, feeling pretty bad. After a while I switched my mind to what I was going to do. If I were to save our future, I had to find a way out of this mess.

  There were three obvious things I had to do: find Rima, find the gun and get rid of it, then silence Rima.

  But how was I going to find her?

  Tomorrow I would have to send a cheque for ten thousand dollars to the Los Angeles bank. As far as I could see, the only possible way to trace Rima was through this bank. Obviously, they wouldn’t give me her address, but was it possible to trick it out of them in some way?

  I thought about this for some time, but finally decided it was a hopeless line of thought. Somewhere in the bank they would have a record of Rima’s other bank and her signed instructions to credit any sum paid to them into this bank. Was it possible for me to get at this record?

  How did one get at the records held by a bank, short of break in at night? That would be completely beyond my powers. To break into a bank was a professional job, and besides, the risk of being caught was almost a sure thing.

  After more thought, I decided it was impossible to make any plan until I had seen the bank. This meant a trip to Los Angeles.

  I thought of all the work piled up on my desk and the appointments I had lined up for tomorrow and I cursed Rima. But my work would have to be shelved. If I was going to find her I would have to act at once.

  I would have to take the ten-thirty plane tomorrow morning. Jack would have to handle the urgent appointments. What he would say I couldn’t imagine, but I had to move fast. There was a slight chance that Rima would be going to Los Angeles and a slighter chance that I might spot her.

  I would have to part with the first ten thousand dollars. I then had three clear weeks ahead of me before I had to pay the second instalment. In that time I had to find and silence her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I

  I got to the office before eight o’clock and I was in a pretty depressed mood.

  Sarita had been quiet during breakfast. We had said little to each other. Nothing was said about the bungalow, but it was there, between us like a ten-foot wall.

  When I looked at my desk and saw all the paper work piled in my In-tray, my heart sank. By going to Los Angeles, I would be throwing a hopeless burden on Jack. I knew he was pretty booked up this morning with appointments with contractors at the site of the bridge.

  I slaved for an hour, getting some of the urgent paper work out of the way, then the door jerked open and Jack breezed in.

  ‘Hi, Jeff!’ he said, going over to his desk. ‘I’ve got four bulldozers on the job. They are beginning to clear the site right now. I’ve started them, now I’ve got to see Cooper about those concrete mixers. Any mail in yet?’

  ‘Not yet.’ I hesitated, then blurted out, ‘Look, Jack, I’ve got to take a couple of days off.’

  He was pawing through a mass of papers, muttering under his breath. For a moment, he didn’t seem to have heard, then he looked up sharply.

  ‘What was that?’

  I leaned back in my desk chair and tried to look casual.

  ‘I have to take a couple of days off. I want you to hold the fort.’

  He stared at me as if he thought I had gone crazy.

  ‘Hey! Wait a minute! You can’t do that! You can’t tak
e time off now, Jeff! What are you thinking of!

  You have Kobey, Max Stone, Crombie and Cousins lined up for appointments, haven’t you? I want those estimates for the steel today. You can’t take time off now!’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I have to. This is very urgent private business.’

  His jovial face suddenly turned hard and flushed brick red.

  ‘I don’t give a damn how urgent it is! We’re building a bridge and we have a time limit! To hell with your urgent and private business! You’ve got to stay right here and do your job as I’m doing mine!’

  ‘But I have to go, Jack.’

  He ran his hand over his balding head, staring at me. Slowly, the flush died down and into his alert eyes came a quizzing, shrewd expression.

  ‘What’s up then?’

  ‘Personal trouble,’ I said woodenly, not looking at him. ‘It’s important to Sarita and me.’

  He moved papers about on his desk, frowning, then he said, ‘I’m sorry I blew up. I’m sorry too to hear you have trouble. Let’s put our cards on the table, Jeff. You and I are partners. We have put our money in this firm and we’re in it together. We have landed the biggest job the City can offer us. If we fall down on it, we’re cooked. Make no mistake about that. I don’t know what your trouble is, but I’m reminding you this job represents my future as well as yours. If you miss these appointments, we’ll lose five working days. There’s no two ways about that. If Mathison takes it into his head to telephone and finds you’re not at your desk, he’ll hit the ceiling. I’m making an issue of this, Jeff, because neither of us can nor should take a minute off for at least two months.’ He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. ‘Well, I’ve said my piece. It’s up to you what you do. If you take time off now, the bridge will be five days late, and we will have fallen down on the job, and we won’t get any more jobs like this one. I know it, and nothing you say will alter the facts.’

  I knew he was right. I felt a murderous impulse go through me as I realised that Rima must have counted on this, had counted on me being chained to Holland City so she could hide herself away in her own time and with the confidence that once she was hidden, I could never find her.

  I hesitated for a long moment, then I gave up. I had to think of Jack and the bridge even if it meant sacrificing myself. I would have to wait. It would make the hunt for Rima much more difficult and I stood to lose my second ten thousand dollars, but I had no alternative.

  ‘Okay, forget it,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry to have brought it up.’

  ‘Sorry — hell! You’ve got to stay here, Jeff, or we’ll be sunk! Now we have that little item off our chests, what’s the trouble? You and I are partners. I’m not that stupid I can’t see by looking at you that there is something badly wrong. It’s a good thing to share bad things: share this with me.’

  I very nearly told him, but I stopped in time.

  My only way out of this mess was to find and silence Rima. I couldn’t bring Jack into it. This was something I had to do on my own. I would be making him an accessory to murder.

  ‘It’s something I have to handle myself,’ I said, looking away from him. ‘Thanks all the same.’

  ‘That’s up to you,’ he said and I could see he was hurt and worried. ‘I won’t press it. I want to put on record that if you want help, financial or otherwise, I’m here. I’m your partner. What concerns you, concerns me. Understand?’

  ‘Thanks, Jack.’

  We looked at each other, slightly embarrassed, then he got to his feet and began collecting his papers.

  ‘Well, I’ve got to get going. I have a couple of guys waiting for me right now.’

  When he had gone, I took out my cheque book and wrote a cheque for ten thousand dollars in favour of Rima Marshall. I put the cheque in an envelope, addressed it to the Los Angeles bank and put it in my Out-tray. Then I ’phoned my bank and told them to sell my bonds.

  I was caught, but I was still determined to find Rima if I could before I parted with any more money.

  If I really got down to the job and worked practically non-stop, I could gain a few days breathing space.

  I had three weeks in which to clear my desk, and to get so far ahead with my work I could afford a few days off: three weeks before the second payment was due.

  I went to work.

  I doubt if any man at any time has ever slaved harder than I did during the next two weeks. I worked like a crazy man.

  I was at my desk at half-past five in the morning and I worked through until past midnight. During those two weeks, I scarcely said more than a dozen words to Sarita. I left her asleep, and on my return found her in bed. I drove my contractors nearly out of their minds. I turned poor Clara into a thin, sunken-eyed automaton. I got so far ahead with my work that Jack couldn’t keep pace with me.

  ‘For the love of Mike!’ he exploded after the twelfth day, ‘we’re not finishing this goddam bridge next week! Ease off, will you? My boys are going nuts under this pressure!’

  ‘Let them go nuts!’ I said. ‘I have everything buttoned up on my side, and I’m taking three days off from tomorrow. By the time I get back, you should have caught up. Have you any complaints if I take three days off?’

  Jack lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender.

  ‘I’d welcome it! Seriously, Jeff, I’ve never seen anyone work the way you have worked these last two weeks. You have earned your days off. Okay, go wherever you want to, but there is just one thing: if you are in as bad a spot as I think you must be, I want to share it with you.’

  ‘I can handle it,’ I said. ‘Thanks all the same.’

  I got home around eleven o’clock: the first time I had been reasonably early for two weeks. Sarita was preparing for bed as I walked into the apartment.

  She had got over her disappointment about the cottage by now, and we were more or less on the usual terms: perhaps not quite, but close enough. I knew she had been watching the way I had been working, and it had been worrying her.

  I was feeling pretty knocked out, but knowing that at last I was going on the hunt for Rima kept me going.

  ‘I’m leaving for New York tomorrow first thing,’ I said. ‘There are a number of things I have to take care of, and I’ll be away for three or four days. I’ve got to get a lower estimate for a bunch of items to do with the bridge, and New York is the only place where I’ll get what I want.’

  She came to me and put her arms around me.

  ‘You’re killing yourself, Jeff. Surely you don’t have to work this hard?’

  She looked up at me, her brown eyes worried.

  ‘It’ll ease off. It’s been tough, but I had to clear my desk before I could make this trip.’

  ‘Darling, could I go with you? I haven’t been to New York for years. I’d love it. We could meet after your business dates, and while you are tied up, I could look around the shops.’

  Why I hadn’t thought that she would want to come with me I can’t imagine. It was the most obvious thing she would suggest. For a long, painful moment I stared at her, not able to think up an excuse to put her off. Maybe I said all I need to have said by looking at her like this. I saw the excitement die out of her eyes and her face fell.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said and turned away and began to straighten the cushions on the settee. ‘Of course you won’t want me around. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry I mentioned it.’

  I drew in a long slow breath. I hated seeing her look like this. I hated to hurt her as I knew I had hurt her.

  ‘It just so happens, Sarita, I will be tied up morning, noon and night. I’m sorry, too, but I think it would be better if you stayed here this trip. Next trip will be different.’

  ‘Yes.’ She moved across the room. ‘Well, I guess we had better go to bed.’

  It wasn’t until I had turned off the light and we were isolated in our twin beds that she said out of the darkness, ‘Jeff, what are we going to do with our money? Anything?’

  If I didn’t find her and kill her, we we
re going to give our money to Rima, but I didn’t tell Sarita this.

  ‘We’re going to build a place of our own,’ I said, but there was no confidence in my voice. ‘We’re going to have some fun as soon as I get all this work behind me.’

  ‘Jack has bought a Thunderbird,’ Sarita said. ‘He has paid out twelve thousand dollars to redecorate and furnish his apartment. What have we done with our share of the money?’

  ‘Never mind about Jack. He’s a bachelor and he doesn’t have to worry about his future. I’ve got to be sure you are taken care of if anything happened to me.’

  ‘Does that mean I shall have to wait until you are dead or we are old before spending a dime of it?’

  ‘Now, look…’ The irritation in my voice sounded harsh even to me. ‘We’ll spend the money…’

  ‘I’m sorry. I was only asking. It seems odd that you should make sixty thousand dollars, and yet we still live the same way, still wear the same clothes, never go anywhere, never do anything, and I can’t even go to New York with you. I suppose I’m being unreasonable, but for the life of me I can’t see why you are working like a slave day in and night out and neither of us are having any fun out of it.’

  I felt a hot rush of blood to my head. Goaded beyond endurance, I lost control of my temper.

  ‘For Heaven’s sake, Sarita,’ I yelled at her. ‘Stop this! I’m trying to build a bridge! I haven’t even got the money yet! We’ll spend it when I’ve got it!’

  There was a pause, then she said in a cold, shocked voice, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to irritate you.’

  Then followed a deadly silence. It went on and on. We both knew the other was awake, unable to sleep, worried and bitterly hurt.

  The shadowy ghost of Rima stood between our beds, pushing us apart, threatening our happiness.

  I had to find her.

  I had to rid myself of her.

  II

  I arrived at Los Angeles Airport a little after one o’clock and took a taxi to the Pacific and Union Bank.