The Big Bounce

Nancy put on a little surprised look. “That’s right. Because I left the door open for you. But he did knock.”

“What I mean,” Ryan said, “you didn’t mean to kill Frank.”

“Of course I didn’t mean to kill him.”

“You thought it was me coming in.”

“Sure.”

“You meant to kill me.”

Nancy sat quietly in the chair. “I did huh-why?”

“I guess there are a lot of reasons,” Ryan said. “But mainly because you thought it would be fun.” He waited, moving to the ottoman and sitting down in front of her.

“Was it?”

“It was all right.”

“But not what you thought it would be.”

“Isn’t that fu

Her eyes followed him as he rose now and moved toward the den. “Where are you going?”

“Call the police.”

“I’ll do it.”

“You might get it wrong.”

“You tell on me, Jackie, I’ll tell on you.”

Ryan paused in the doorway. He felt tired and shook his head slowly. He said, “Hey, come on, okay?”

“I mean it. I’ll say you were with him. I’ll tell them about the wallets.”

“All right,” Ryan said. “You tell them about the wallets.”

He went into the den and picked up the phone and she heard him say to the operator, “I’m calling the state police.” There was a long silence. She heard him say, “I want to report a shooting,” and a silence again. Then the sound of words: “Out at the Pointe… Ray Ritchie’s place… Huh?… No, you’ll see when you get here.”

As he came out to the living room she said, “All right for you, Jackie. Boy are you going to get it.”

With his foot Ryan pushed the ottoman over to the walnut console model TV that he could get a hundred and a half for and fooled with the dials until the picture came clearly into focus to show McLain still in there. George Kell said, “Two on, two out, top of the ninth.” Ryan eased down on the ottoman.

Nancy leaned over the arm of the big chair to watch him for long seconds, almost a minute.

“Jackie?” she said, and waited. “Jack, you nifty lover, hey. What if I tell them you came in and surprised him and you had a fight. Do you see it? You even look like you were in a fight.”

Nancy waited.

“I’ll tell them you saved my life. You pulled him off me and-listen-while you were fighting I got the gun. Then he was about to hit you with something, the poker, and I had to shoot him.”

Her eyes opened with the little surprised look. “Hey, Jack, then we both get our pictures in the paper. And in Life-a big picture of us wearing real neat sunglasses. And then both of us get in the movies! Wouldn’t that be it?” She opened her mouth and her eyes, faking it a little but actually taken with the idea.

Ryan looked at her. He waited until he was sure she was watching him and listening and he said, “I’ve been in the movies.”

He looked back at the TV set, at McLain bringing up his leg and throwing from the shoulder with a man on base. The son of a bitch was good, but he could sure get in trouble.

“Listen, I’m serious,” Nancy said. “It can work. It would be more fun with somebody else.” She waited, watching him. “Listen to me, will you? Look at me. This could be great. We tell them what happened and in a couple of days we take the car and go-wherever you want, just go. Jack, listen to me!”

McLain looked over at the ru

“We can make it look good,” Nancy said. She paused, thoughtful, before pushing herself out of the chair. “We’ll say he was violent. In fact”-her hands went to the V-neck of her shorty pajamas-“before I got to the gun, he grabbed me and tore my pajamas off.” Her hands came down, ripping the front of the pajama top to the hem. She held it open and said, “Jackie, look what he did.”

Ryan looked. He nodded and looked back at the set again.

Nancy was thoughtful for a moment. “Then, all of a sudden, he went psycho and started smashing things.”

She used the poker from the fireplace, bringing it up swinging at the painting over the mantel, hacking at it and smashing the light fixture. She destroyed a glass cabinet in the living room and worked her way into the dining room, smashing every piece of glass and crystal and china she saw: vases, ashtrays, figurines, a mirror vanished in a sound of splintered glass. She shattered the entire floor-to-ceiling thermopane that faced the sundeck, chopping away the fragments of glass that pointed jaggedly out of the frame. She saved the lamps until last, smashing them one by one, the room becoming dim and finally dark. Only the flat white glow of the TV picture remained.

A silence followed. Nancy stood near the big chair in her torn shorty pajamas. She stood motionless, the silence lengthened, and the voice of George Kell said, “All tied up in the bottom of the ninth with Detroit coming to bat. If they’re going to put something together now’s the-”

Ryan turned off the sound. He sat hunched in the white glow of the picture tube. Behind him, Al Kaline silently swung two bats in the on-deck circle.

He said to her, “Have you broken everything?”

She seemed to nod. “I guess so.”

“Then, why don’t you sit down?”

“Jackie-”

“No more, all right? If you say any more, I think I’ll bust you one and I don’t want to do that.”

As Al Kaline stepped into the batter’s box and took his stance, touching the end of the bat to the plate and digging a foothold with his spikes, they heard the first thin sound of the siren far up the Shore Road.

“Sit down and relax,” Ryan said. “There’s nothing more to think about.”

Nancy curled slowly into the chair, leaning on one of the arms and resting her face in her hand. She stared out at the swimming pool and the lawn and the orange pinpoint of light against the night sky and a finger began stroking the soft, falling edge of her dark hair.