The Soft Centre

When Terrell had gone, her father put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. ‘You’re going to bed now,’ he said. ‘I’ll be around. This is going to work out. You see in a couple of weeks, probably less, you’ll wonder why you got so worked up.’

Val moved away from him.?‘Daddy, you don’t really understand. I can’t thank you enough for coming. I can’t thank you enough for your kindness and your help, but you still don’t seem to ealize that Chris is my life. I love him. I mean that… whatever he has become, however he behaves, he is now part of me. Without him, life would be meaningless to me. I’m telling you this because you don’t seem able to accept the fact that he is so very, very important to me. He really and truly is all I now live for.’

Travers looked thoughtfully at her, then with a little shrug of resignation, he said, ‘Come along, Val. You go to bed. You won’t sleep, but you’ll probably rest. They’ll find him. While they are finding him, we’ll sweat it out together’.

Val put her hand affectionately on his arm.?‘I just wanted to be sure you know how it is between Chris and myself. I’ll go to bed. Thank you, darling. I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

She walked quickly across the room and into her bedroom. Travers moved to the window. He stood for a long moment staring out into the darkness, a frown on his face, then abruptly, he tossed his half-smoked cigar down on to the terrace where the newspaper men waited.

*****

The smell of grilling ham made Terrell hasten with his shaving. He had stayed with the search for Burnett until three o’clock in the morning, then weary and discourage he had handed over to Beigler and had gone home.

As he finished shaving, he thought bleakly that Burnett couldn’t have been found otherwise Joe would have telephoned. He thought of that nice Mrs. Burnett, and he felt sorry he had so far failed her. But what more could he have done? he asked himself.

When he entered the morning-room, he found his wife, Caroline, a large matronly looking woman, reading the newspaper headlines.

‘Is it right this poor man is a mental case?’ she asked, handing Terrell the paper.?‘I guess,’ he said and sat down. ‘Trust the papers to get hold of the details. Now they will be scaring everybody out of their wits.’

‘But he isn’t dangerous?’

Terrell shrugged.?‘He’s a mental case.’

He sat and read, and finally tossed the paper aside in disgust.?‘Where the hell can he have got to?’ he said more to himself than to his wife. ‘What’s he been doing all this time?’

As if to answer these questions, the telephone bell rang. Terrell put down his cup of coffee and hurried across the room. He lifted the receiver.

‘Chief? This is Joe.’ Beigler’s voice sounded tense. ‘We have trouble out at Ojus. A murder reported.’

Terrell scratched his forehead. A murder! He hadn’t had a murder in his territory for the past eight months.

‘Any details, Joe?’?‘The owner of the Park Motel phoned through. He reports a dead woman in one of his cabins. She’s been badly cut up.’

‘Okay. Come out for me. Any news of Burnett?’?‘The boys are still searching,’ Beigler was obviously bored with Burnett. A murder was much more important to him. ‘I have the team together. We’ll be out for you in ten minutes.’

Terrell hung up and returned to the table to finish his coffee. He told Caroline about the murder, but this didn’t interest her. She wanted to know about Burnett.

‘He’s still missing,’ Terrell said irritably. ‘It’s my guess he’s miles away from where he smashed up the car. He must be. He probably had a blackout and has just gone off into the blue.’

As two police cars pulled up outside Terrell’s bungalow eight minutes later, and as Terrell was putting on his jacket, the telephone bell rang.

‘Chief, this is Williams. We’ve found Burnett. He was wandering along the North Miami Beach highway. We have him here in our car. What shall we do with him?’

Aware that Beigler was standing in the doorway, scarcely restraining his impatience, Terrell said, ‘How is he?’

‘Well, he acts as if he’s been knocked on the head. He doesn’t know where he’s been nor what he’s been doing.’

‘Stay right where you are,’ Terrell said. ‘I’ll call you back.’ He broke the connection and then dialed the number of the Spanish Bay hotel. As he waited, he said to Beigler, ‘They’ve found Burnett. I have to fix him first. You go on to the Park Motel. I’ll come on after you.’

Beigler nodded and hurried down the flagged path to the waiting car.

When Terrell got to the hotel, he asked to speak to Travers.?‘Mr. Travers? Police Chief here. We’ve found Mr. Burnett. He seems in a dazed state. He is right at this moment in a police car out on the North Miami Beach highway: that’s about thirty-five miles from you. I don’t think it would be wise to bring him back to the hotel. He’d have to face the newspaper men who are waiting there. I suggest my men drive him straight to Dr. Gustave’s sanatorium. Mrs. Burnett and you could meet him there. What do you think?’