Kitten with a whip Read online

  Mouth open, David turned his head to stare at the girl. Jody was hghting a cigarette, pretending nonchalance, but her hands were trembling. She bobbed her head to duck the smoke and said, "Lousy picture, isn't it?"

  ". . . with a long record of offenses, the escaped girl was being held in the Hall on charges of possession and peddling of narcotics and was to have been turned over to the Adult Authority today. Anyone with knowledge of Jody Drew's whereabouts is instructed to get in touch with the sheriff's office immediately. She is possibly armed and known to be dangerous." The announcer paused to take a puff on the cigarette that sponsored his program. Jody imitated him. "In Washington, the Pentagon announces that a new—"

  David turned off the set. He rose slowly to his feet. "That story about your father, the petty theft, and all that was a He, wasn't it?"

  "It worked, didn't it?" said Jody.

  *Treah, I guess so. If I'd had any idea of the truth, I*d never have ..." He shook his head impatiently, trying to get the truth in order. He murmured, "They make it sound so duU, the news programs. Yet there's a real woman in the hospital who's been bleeding and wondering if she was going to die and—"

  She got in my wayl" snapped Jody. "You try being locked up some time, see how you like it, big mouthi

  "Just an accidental matter of inches, fractions of inches," he said, puzzled. He didn't know whether he was trying to explain all this to her or to himself. "You could De wanted for murder now. Just a matter of luck."

  "Oh, I'm just plain lucky," drawled Jody sarcastically. *What else do you want to know, where I got the knife? I lifted it at dinner. Why I can't get help from the bosses? Because I rate Hke bat-crap now that I been picked up."

  He walked over to her and lifted her chin and inspected her face. She didn't understand, and what she (fidn't understand scared her. She backed away. He said sofdy, "You know, this morning I thought you were kind of pretty. Not in a sex way, uie way your cheap littie mind works. Just a pretty young girl, like my httle girl wiU be some day. But wnen you know what's inside, well, you're not pretty at aU any more, Jody. It all shows in your face once you know about it."

  *Tlease don't say I'm ugly." Her mouth began to quiver but she didn't cry. She wheeled. "I'm sorry you had to find out, David. It sounds worse than it is, you know? That's why I threw away tonight's paper so you wouldn't read about me. We spent a whole day together now. You must know I'm not bad, really."

  "You don't know how Htde sense you make sometimes. You're disconnected somewhere. What comes out of your mouth has no relation to the facts."

  * what do you mean?"

  He sighed. "It doesn't matter, Jody. The point is I m going to have to txmi you in."

  She grinned suddenly. "No, you won't."

  The door bell rang, as startling as a clap of thunder. In that instant David Patton despised himself. AU his brave talk, all the guts he assumed he had, he could

  feel them melt down inside. All his fine principles— they were for when he was marooned alone with the girl. But with the chime of the door bell came the terrible recollection that there was an outside world of other harsher facts.

  Somehow he made it to the door and opened the brass peephole. His frightened eye stared into the faces of Sid and Helen Wright. "Oh, my God . . ." he mumbled. "I forgot . . r It was eight o'clock and he was supposed to go to Tijuana. This was to be a gay evening out.

  He looked around wildly at Jody. She was still grinning Hke a red-mouthed skull. She twiddled her cigarette and whispered, "Well, lover, here's your chance. Turn me in/'

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  iaften lodyj ushed [youn lal 'See?

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  Chapter Six

  He had to say something to Sid and Helen out there but he couldn't think of anything and anyway his mouth felt swabbed dry. Sid, thank God, spoke first. "Hi, gonna let us in?"

  David caught his breath in a gasp. "1 can't I have to get my pants on."

  Helen smiled at his eye in the peephole.

  He said, *1 was just going to taJce a shower. Can you wait a second? IVe been mowing those damn weeds all afternoon." He closed the peephole.

  Jody giggled. She was coming to open the door and he pushed her back, holding her by the elbows. "Friends of yours?" she whisperea. "Ill make a deal with you."

  "What kind of deal?"

  "See? You're willing to bargain, aren't you? Well, you just go ahead and let your friends in. You want to turn me over to the cops so bad, here's yoin: big diddling chance. I won't run, I won't fight, I won't even he. I'll tell your friends exactly the truth about you and me. You're hurting my elbows, David."

  He let go of her. She leaned fondly against him.

  "But you've got to tell the truth, too," she said softly. "Like you've got to show them your scratched-up chest. And no fair putting any pants on. LfCt them in rignt now. Let's see if your friends got any cleaner minds than my friends." She smiled sweetly and, almost as a casual afterthought, said, "You nice-part-of-town bastard."

  He pusned her half-naked Tbody away from his. She had been undoing the sash of his robe. "For God sakes, let me thinkl" A hundred curdled pieces of thought churned roimd in his brain and he tried to decide nis next move.

  The front door bell rang again and kept on chiming. Sid was leaning against it, kidding around. Sure, he

  could let them in right this minute and start the long explanation of the truth. And while he talked, even providing there was no lying interruptions from Jody, . which he doubted, they would be looking. They^d be ' seeing him in his robe and this voluptuous minor in her underthings and they wouldn't hear a word he was saying. If, instead of the Wrights, it had been the poHce at the door, he thought he might be able to face the consequences in one blind what-the-hell moment. But when he pictured Sid's sly grin, Helen's cool stare, the story they would tell afterward ... He couldn't go through with it.

  Huskily, he ordered Jody, "Get away from the door. Hide somewhere till I can get rid of them."

  Her eyes ghttered with triumph. "Sure you don't want me to invite them in personally, lover? I make a jazzy hostess and we could have a real party-party—"

  In a despairing gesture of surrender, he waved her toward the hallway. Jody took her own sweet time. Before leaving the room—and he reaHzed for the first time that she could think faster than he could—she strolled to the coflFee table. She collected her drink, its glass rim tinged with Unstick, the ashtray that held butts also stained red at me tips, and the second pack of cigarettes. Then she made her way to the bathroom and closed the door.

  Sid's heavy-handed sense of humor was still chiming the door bell relentlessly. David ran for the back bedroom and stumbled into the first pair of trousers he could find. He didn't bother with shorts and he couldn't locate his bedroom slippers and the robe would serve to cover his chest if he kept the lapels in place. Barefoot, breathless, he made it back to the front door and flung it open.

  Sid looked him up and down, grinning. "Boy, if it takes you that long for that result, how do you ever make it to work?"

  David said, "Sorry you had to wait," and stood aside to let the pair enter.

  Helen smiled and said, "Hi," as she passed him. She wore a pale gray dress, a tubular affair that made her look more serpentine than ever. Sid, in his plaid suit.

  on the other hand, resembled a giant version of a well-scrubbed httle boy. He flipped the Hght switch as he came in. "What've you been doing in the dark?"

  "Yeah, I guess it is a httle after sundown. I haven't been keeping track of time today at all."

  "Oh, that's all right," Helen said. "Well wait for you."

  "Well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to back out on this evening. I'm terribly sorry but—well, I've got a bad headache, may be coming down w
ith a cold."

  Sid pursed his hps in disappointment and Helen said, "Ah, that's a shame, Dave." She was drifting around the Hving room as if on a tour of inspection. David watched her uneasily, wondering if she would notice the ring of wet on the coffee table where Jody's glass had stood. Then it came to him that he was magnifying signs and suspicions out of all true proportions. The absurdly tiny matter of the damp circle merely meant he hadnt set his own glass down in the same place. It meant nothing to the Wrights, only to his own guilty conscience, because he knew what was hiding in the bathroom.

  And he was so afraid he wouldn't be beUeved that he stammered slightly. "My own fool fault. I worked aU afternoon out in the heat and I guess the sun was a Httle too much for me. I thought I'd turn in early."

  "Better think it over," Sid advised him. "An evening out is probably just what you need."

  Helen glanced from David to the bottle of bourbon standing so flagrantly on the coffee table. She raised her pencilled eyebrows and said something about, "same home remedy as Sid's."

  "Thanks," said Sid caustically. "Going to start in on him now?"

  Helen gazed coolly at David. "He's always this kind and gentle."

  Their small flare-up came as an inspiration to David. The headache excuse had sounded so hollow, and they —Helen, at least—were ready to think the worst of him. Jody was certainly right so far. He plumped down on the arm of his easy chair and grinned at Aem—he hoped, fooHshly. He made his voice a Httle thicker. "Virginia called. Coining down Monday at five-ten in the mom-

  ing. Actually, I'd just gotten up from a nap when you people came along."

  "What'd you have for lunch, Dave?'* Helen asked suddenly. He shrugged. "Well, let me at least fix you some black coSee." She headed for the kitchen.

  "Nol" David said. "No, really I don t want anything." She could not be allowed in the kitchen where all of Tody's hair preparations were sitting out. Perhaps she had already detected some faint remnant of their acrid odor in the air. To his deep relief, Helen turned back, her expression puzzled.

  Tm feeling fine, really." He walked over to the coflEee table, his gait a trifle imbalanced, and picked up the bottle. "Since I've loused up your evening, let me at least go fix us aU a drink."

  Sid nanded down his verdict in the conventional coded sentence. "Say, I'm sorry you're not feehng well, Dave" He added. "Sure, III join you in one."

  Helen shook her head. "Thanks, no. It's bad enough driving home with Sid after he's had a few. Darned if I'm going to drive down there with him already in a glow."

  Sid grumbled, "You siure make me sound like a lush."

  "That's a heck of a thing," David said. "Can't even pay oflF with a drink. I'm sure sorry I had to butch up the whole arrangement."

  Helen came up to him and patted his shoulder. "Cheer up. I've had a premonition all day this wouldn't work out. When we came up on yoin: porch tonight and I thought I heard voices, I was sure you had company.*"

  "Must've been the television. I had it on." He met her eyes and they seemed probing and insistent. He gave her a slack smile. "A voice in the house, you've heard of that."

  "Uh-huh. Nothing worse than being left alone."

  Sid looked at his watch. "Well, simshine, we'd better be oflF and let this man take his shower."

  *Tm sorry as heU," David said.

  "Just one of those things. Some other time. You figuring on playing handball Monday as usual?"

  "I don't know. It'll be Virginia and Katie's first evening home and—I'll let you know." God knew where he might be by Monday. In jail?

  Helen said, *1 wonder if I could use your bathroom while I m here, Dave? I feel in need of a httle touching up.^

  He tried to think of something to say in a hurry. He couldn't, and prayed the panic didn't contort his face the way he felt it squeezing his insides. No, the bathroom's out of order, the drains are stopped up, he was very sorry—but the flimsiness of such a he would be so obvious since he'd claimed he was taking a shower when they arrived. Or had he said anything about having actually turned on the water yet? He couldn't remember, couldnt keep his hes straight.

  Not that Helen was waiting for his permission. She had already sauntered into the hall.

  Sid said sourly, "Why do they have to try out every bathroom they come to, anyway?"

  David scarcely heard him. He watched Helen open the bathroom door and enter. She turned on the hght and the door cUcked shut behind her. And he waited, sick and frightened, for the uproar to begin. He didn't even try to compose an explanation. None was possible.

  Nothing happened.

  A full thudcung minute passed and David, straining his ears, heard no squeal, no shriek, no scream. Sid continued to talk, about what, David had no idea. He nodded now and then as if Ustening. Then, with a sensation of rescue that made his legs tremble, he saw Helen emerge from the bathroom. She was prosaically putting her comb away in her pmrse.

  "Now can we go?" Sid asked her. "Now do you think you can last until we get to the nearest service station, dear?"

  She ignored him. "Thanks a lot, Dave. I borrowed a touch of Virginia's cologne. It was sitting out. I hope she won't mind."

  "No, of course not." Was Helen inquiring pohtely what the cologne was doing out in Virginia's absence? Evidently, Jody had left it on the pullman. For a second, he was tempted to explain it awa}^ then thought better of it. Better just let it pass. "Well, you two have a good time."

  "I don't know," Helen said. "I don't feel much like going now."

  "Oh, for Christ sokes 1'' Sid exploded. "Come on. You got me all dressed up on the hottest night of the year and I m not going to let it go to waste. See you Monday night, Dav^, I hope.''

  David opened the door for them. On the porch steps, Helen lingered to say, "Have Virginia call me when sne gets back. Well all get together."

  "Sure." After they reached their car, he closed the door. He leaned against it limply until he heard them drive off. He tried to decide if Helen had suspected anything. He'd never been quite able to fathom the woman anyway, but he'd never before had anything to hide. Tonight every word she spoke, every scrutinizing glance, seemed to hold some secret significance. Just my nerves, he told himself tiredly. After all, she had gone into the bathroom and . . . Where was Jody?

  He ran to the bathroom and looked in. The place was empty. He went over and tried the window screen. It was still fastened from the inside. Then he heard her dehghted giggle behind him. She was peeking out from around the opaque door of the shower stall.

  "Oh, so that's it," he said unnecessarily.

  "That was fun, now what'U we playl" She came out whirling, flushed with exhilaration, making the filmy nylon float on all sides of her.

  "Why'd you have to hide in the bathroom, anyway? Why didn't you go into one of the bedrooms where it'd have been safe?"

  "What an attitude!" She patted his cheek. "We won, didn't we? We fooled them. You're getting to be almost as good as I am, David. With the weepy stories, like? I was listening to you."

  "Yeah, great fun. I like to he to my friends, stand them up, humiliate myselE by pretending I've been hitting the bottle all day." He made a disgusted noise and stalked out into the living room.

  A moment later, Jody came trotting after him, bearing her glass and the ashtray and her pack of cigarettes. She arranged the coffee table as before and sat down, beaming at him. "Now you're not going to start brooding all over again, are you?"

  "Why not? Well, I wasn't lying about one thing. I do have a headache."

  Jody laughed. "That woman was sure nosy. I could sort of see her through the glass and she was looking in the medicine cabinet and in all the drawers.*

  Surprised, David asked, "What for?^

  "I don't think anything in particular. Some people just Hke to look." She put her arms up over her head, stretching luxuriously. "I mean, no use stinking up your life with other people's problems. Your own are always plenty to handle." res," was all he replied.

  Chapter Seven
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  David finally took his shower, a long hot soaking with the bathroom door prudently locked. He had expected that the pelting water, the confined Httle world of steam, would make him feel better. It didn't help much. It cleansed his hide of the day's perspiration, the hot sweat of his labor, the cold sweat or the close calls with Jody, but it didn't relax his muscles or unfray his nerves. The headache he had manufactured was now a shooting reahty and he was pinned down by the claws of a depression that he didn't even feel Kke struggling against. This was a nightmare from which he wasn't going to awaken, ever.

  He dressed in fresh clothes, tropical slacks and sport shirt again. At one point he had decided to put on his pajamas and robe and to hell with appearances. That tired flare of anger didn't last long. He wanted to turn in early and forget his troubles in sleep, but no use dressing for it. It might give Jody ideas. So he garbed himself properly and took tihlree aspirin and went to face the prison of his Hving room.

  Jody was quieter than he'd ever seen her. She had turned out the hghts, and the twin decorative candlesticks from the diningroom table were burning on the hearth. There were two fresh drinks ready on the hearth, too, and his brass-bound ice bucket. But instead of the matter-of-fact whisky bottle, there was the cut-glass decanter that Virginia had given him on some birthday or the other. Jody lay stretched out on her stomach on the carpet, the white negligee spread in a great circle around her. Her cat-eyes intently regarded Uie play of candlehght on the intricate surface of the decanter.

  He said harshly from the doorway, "You've been kind of nosing arouna yourself, haven't you."

  Jody rolled over and looked at him with a hurt expres-

  sion. *1 was feeling good. You re just trying to make me feel bad.'*

  "You re a fine one to talk."

  "I was even hoping you d shave. I was only trying to make everything nice."