This Way for a Shroud

Too late, Gollowitz realized he had given himself away. He twisted his face into a forced bland smile, but he saw the look of horror on Frances's face.

"Don't you want to take Weiner along with you as well as Miss Coleman?" Conrad asked quietly. "I doubt if he'll come, but at least you can ask him."

His eyes glittering with rage, Gollowitz turned to Frances.

"Come along, Miss Coleman. I'll get you a cab."

"Don't go with him!" Pete shouted. "He belongs to the organization. Stay here where you are safe! Don't go with him!"

Gollowitz put out his hand and laid it gently on Frances's arm.

"I don't know who this fellow is, but he sounds crazy to me," he said. "Let's go, Miss Coleman."

Frances shuddered and jumped back.

"No! I'm going to stay here. I don't want to go with you. I won't go with you!"

"I'm afraid you are being rather a foolish young woman, Miss Coleman," Gollowitz said. The silent threat in those black eyes turned Frances cold. "Are you coming with me or aren't you?"

"Oh, tell him to go!" Frances cried, and sat down on the couch, hiding her face in her hands. "Please tell him to go!"

Gollowitz looked at Pete, then he walked quietly from the room.

No one moved as he crossed the outer room. They watched him open the door, step into the passage and close the door behind him.

He left behind him an atmosphere charged with threatening danger.

III

"Janey!"

Conrad stood in the small hall and waited for her reply. She wasn't in any of the downstairs rooms, and he had an idea she might be out. Two or three times lately she had been out when he had returned from the office. During the past three days their relationship had worsened. She didn't tell him where she went and he didn't ask.

"Is that you?" Janey called from upstairs.

A little surprised to find her in, Conrad ran up the stairs and pushed open the bedroom door.

Janey was sitting in front of her dressing-table. Clad only in a brassiere and a pair of frilly panties, she was engaged in rolling up one slim leg a black nylon stocking.

"You're early, aren't you?" she asked, without looking up. "It isn't half-past six yet."

He pushed the door shut and wandered over to the window. It no longer gave him any pleasure as it used to do to see her like this.

"I have to go away for a few days, Janey. I'm leaving right now."

Janey gave his broad back a sharp glance as she fixed the suspender grip to the top of her stocking.

"Oh. I suppose I'm not included. Where are you going?"

She reached for the other stocking, her mind suddenly busy. A few days. What exactly did that mean? A week – ten days? She felt a sudden hot flush sweep over her body. Would it be safe to ask Louis to come here? she wondered.

"I have charge of two important witnesses," Conrad said, turning to look at her. "They have to be kept under cover until the trial. The D.A. wants me to look after them."

She adjusted the seams of her stockings and stood up.

"What on earth for? Since when have you become a nursemaid to witnesses?"

"It just happens they are important and in danger," Conrad said shortly. "I'll be away until Thursday. I'm sorry, Janey, but there it is."

She went over to the wardrobe and took out a wrap.

"All right, if you've got to go, you've got to go," she said indifferently. "It won't make much difference to me. It's not as if I see all that much of you. Where are you going?"

"I'll write the address down," Conrad said, taking out his bill-fold and finding an old envelope. "It's out near Butcher's Wood. And listen, Janey, this is important, no one but you may know where I've gone. Don't tell anyone, do you understand?"

"Who am I going to tell, do you imagine?" Janey said scornfully, slipping into her wrap. "You talk as if I'm surrounded by people instead of being left alone night after night in this dreary house."

"There's no need to talk nonsense," Conrad said curtly. "You have dozens of friends, and you know it. It's just that you're not interested to entertain people at home. You prefer to be taken out."

"Who the hell wants to cook and wash up when one can go out?" Janey snapped.

Conrad put the envelope in a small drawer in the dressing-table.

"I'd better throw some things in a bag," he said, side-tracking the way to an inevitable row.

"And who are these precious witnesses you have to take care of?" Janey asked, sitting down before the dressing-table again. "A woman – I bet."

"Never mind who they are," Conrad said shortly. He began hurriedly to pack a bag. "I'd better leave you some money." He put a few bills on the mantelpiece.

"That should hold you until Thursday."

It would be too risky to ask Louis to come here, Janey decided as she made up her lips. Too many prying neighbours, but she could go to his place. Again she felt a hot flush run over her. He had been like an animal, she thought. His lovemaking had been brutal, selfish and insatiable. He had left her bruised and gasping but with an overwhelming desire to be caught up again in his hard, muscular arms.