Hit and Run

'You're wrong, Ches! I swear we're not,' she said. 'It is exactly as I told you.'

I studied her, convinced she was lying.

'Okay. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll go together and talk to Ross. I'd like to hear what he has to say if we come on him unprepared. You wait here. I'm going to change, and then you and I will go and talk to him.'

I went out of the lounge, shutting the door before she could protest, walked down to my bedroom, opened the door but didn't go into the room. I slammed the door shut, then stepped quickly into the spare bedroom, pushing the door ajar and listened.

I heard the lounge door open gently. Looking out, I saw Lucille step into the hall and stare down the passage at my closed bedroom door, then she stepped back into the lounge again and shut the door. A moment later I heard the faint tinkle of the telephone bell as she began to dial.

I had set the trap for her and she had walked into it.

I crept down the passage and listened against the door panel.

I heard her say: 'What shall I do? I don't think he's going to pay. No ... I can't handle him any more. You'll have to do something ...'

I turned the door handle and walked into the room.

Lucille hurriedly replaced the receiver and moved quickly away from the telephone.

'All right, all right,' I said, 'don't look so guilty and embarrassed. I heard you. Now will you admit you're working with him?'

She turned slowly and stared at me. Her face was white and her eyes showed her hatred of me. She was no longer young nor fresh nor beautiful. She looked older, defeated and trapped.

'You think you're smart, don't you?' she said, her voice stifled with hatred. 'Well, all right, I admit it. But you're going to give us the money! You can't prove I was with you! You can't prove I was driving! We've got a picture of you and the car. That's something you can't do anything about! If you don't pay up, we'll send the picture to the police. If you try to bring me into it, it'll be your word against mine and you have no proof. I've got an alibi. I've got people who will say I was with them when he was killed. There's nothing you can do but pay up and that's what you're going to do!'

I stood looking at her hard, vicious little face, and my mind jumped to the bloodstains on the off-side rear wheel of the car and I felt a cold chill snake up my spine.

Those stains had baffled me, but I realized now what they meant. This hadn't been an accident. O'Brien had been murdered as Dolores and Nutley had been murdered.

'You and Ross murdered him, didn't you?' I said. 'The crash was faked. You knocked him on the head and you ran him over with the rear wheel of the Cadillac. You were jittery enough to make a mistake. You killed him with the wrong wheel. You should have run him over with your on-side wheel and not your offside wheel, Lucille. It's a mistake like that that lands a killer in the gas chamber.'

She backed away from me, her face suddenly grey.

'I didn't kill him!'

'You and Ross did,' I said. 'You planned to kill two birds with one stone, didn't you? You planned to get rid of O'Brien and get thirty thousand dollars out of me.'

'It's not true!' she said hoarsely. 'You can't prove anything! I didn't kill him! If you don't give me that money ...'

'You're not going to get it,' I said and I moved over to the french windows, undid the two curtain cords and pulled them free. 'I have a busy afternoon ahead of me,' I went on, looking at her. 'I want to find out why you had to kill O'Brien. I don't want you in the way. I'm going to tie you up, Lucille, and keep you here, until I find out what I want to find out.'

Her eyes opened very wide and she began to back away.

'Don't you dare touch me!' she exclaimed. 'You're not keeping me here!'

'You will either submit gracefully or you will get hurt,' I said, moving towards her. 'Don't kid yourself our little scrap just now meant anything because it didn't. This time if you get rough, I'll get rough too.'

She whirled around and bolted towards the open french windows, but she had started a shade too late. I reached out, grabbed her arm and spun her around. I was now past the stage of chivalry. As she tried to rake my face with her nails, I knocked her hands aside, and hit her on the side of her jaw. Her eyes rolled back and she slumped into my arms.

Then, moving quickly, I fastened her wrists behind her and then tied her ankles together. I picked her up and carried her into my bedroom and laid her on the bed.

Then going to my wardrobe, I put on a tie and jacket and changed my shoes. By the time I had finished dressing, she began to move.

I went into the kitchen and got a length of clothes line, returned to the bedroom and fastened her securely to the bed.

I went over to her and looked down at her.

After a moment or so, she opened her eyes and stared up at me, her eyes dazed.