Страница 65 из 65
‘Must apologise, Kaufman,’ he said gruffly. ‘You were quite right, of course. But there it is – I get so many people wanting me to investigate this or that and I’m responsible for the way public money is spent. I mean, I can’t just…’
‘Sure,’ I said.
The lieutenant took the opportunity while the district attorney was trying to sort himself out. ‘Okay, Kaufman, give me the story,’ he said, and held his notebook ready. I gave it to him.
The next visitor was Dusberg who cheered me up quite a lot. He gave me a cheque for two thousand bucks and I don’t know of anything more cheering. The carnival was finished, cleared off the lot and he was already starting to divide it up into lots for sale.
The days dragged by. One by one the bandages came off and stayed off. I still didn’t dare ask. I was frightened they’d tell me. Frightened they’d look at me sorrowfully and say, ‘Why, didn’t you know? She died that night. She was dead by the time you had crawled from under the canvas.’ That’s what I was frightened they’d say.
Then came the day. The day I left the hospital. I couldn’t wait for the day to go. I paced up and down the apartment, more nervous than a kitten. Around seven I put on my tuxedo and all the trimmings. Even if she was dead, then this would be a sort of private funeral, I thought.
The house lights went out, the single spot beamed on and there, in the centre of it, was Katherine. She did her act as before. I sat there and felt I could have sat there forever and been happy just watching her. Then the final on-off of the lights and she was gone.
I ran… past the protesting waiters and bandsmen, past the shocked wardrobe mistress, until I found her room. I didn’t bother to knock. I just burst in and then we were in each other’s arms.
‘Why didn’t you come and see me when I was in hospital?’ I asked her when we came up for air. ‘Why didn’t you even let me know you were alive?’
She turned her face away. ‘I didn’t know whether you were interested – I didn’t even know if you cared!’ she told me.
‘Honey!’ I pulled her back into my arms. ‘I nearly went crazy just thinking about you. I didn’t know whether you were dead when I got through that canvas. Nobody told me, nobody mentioned you – and I thought that was probably because you were dead!’
‘You poor darling!’ she whispered.
When we had calmed down a little, I asked her what had happened that night. She shuddered as she thought of it. ‘We got there first, as you know. Cielli took us through to the back – the room behind the stage. He was gloating over us, telling us exactly where we’d be when we were shot. He kept on and on. Finally, Mollo couldn’t stand it any longer and he tried to jump Cielli.
‘Cielli waited until Mollo was almost onto him, then he shot him.’ She shuddered again. ‘He laughed when he did it. I started screaming and I couldn’t stop. He told me to shut up – that he wasn’t going to shoot me until you arrived. He was looking forward to watching your face while he did it.’
She was trembling as she remembered. ‘Take it easy, honey,’ I said.
‘Then he hit me,’ she went on, ‘knocked me off my feet and I fell to the ground. The next moment the car came crashing in. I thought the world had come to an end – I’ve never heard anything like it in all my life! There was the crash and then canvas came down over everything. Splintered glass came over us. I was lucky being on the ground – it missed me. I saw a piece hit Cielli and he just laughed.
‘I think he was crazy even then. He said that you’d arrived with a vengeance. He was waiting for you to come to him. He said that it was meant for him to kill you. He was raving. Then a piece of metal hit me on the head. I didn’t know any more until I came to in the ambulance. They only kept me a couple of days in hospital, then I came home.’
She smiled up at me faintly. ‘With Gatt gone, the club is quite a nice place. I went back to work and I’ve been here ever since – hoping.’
I’d bought a new car with some of the dough that Dusberg had paid me, so I drove her home. We got up to her apartment. ‘Pour yourself a drink, honey,’ she said, ‘while I get changed into something more comfortable.’
I poured the drinks. ‘Will you marry me?’ I asked her.
‘Huh?’ She looked at me blankly.
‘I mean it,’ I said. ‘A private eye should have a wife to come home to at night – I’m sure of it. You think I want to spend the rest of my life pouring my own drinks?’
She stammered but didn’t say anything. ‘Go and think about it while you’re getting changed,’ I suggested. ‘I don’t want you to make a rush decision. I’ll give you until you’ve changed.’ She went out of the room.
I drank my drink and her drink while I waited.
‘Rex!’ Her voice was soft and husky.
I looked around but I couldn’t see her. ‘Where are you?’ I called.
‘Right here,’ she said. I saw an arm waving from behind the door. I wondered what sort of an answer that was!