Better to Eat You (19 page)

Malvina was standing, not three feet away, against the corridor wall.

Chapter 16

She didn't move. She looked speechless with anger.

David said nothing. He took the paper from Sarah's quick hand, made a gesture that tried to express hope and good cheer and a need for silence. He closed Sarah's door and heard her lock it.

He took one swift step and got Malvina by the forearm and rushed her, pushed her, simply took her along the corridor and into the big room. She said furiously, “So you're going to elope with little Sarah? What a fool you are! She's not even sane!”

“Shut up,” said David “Listen.”

If Malvina had obeyed at that moment, he would have had no words for her to listen to. But Malvina said angrily, “All I have to do is tell the man at the gate and you won't get out of the state, you know. You won't elope.”

“Are you jealous?” he insulted.

“No.” She whipped the word back with anger.

“Then what's the matter with you? You don't want to get Sarah where she ought to be?” Now he had a glimmering of what he could say. “Don't you think,” he said with his hands rough and unkind, “she ought to be in the hands of a psychiatrist?”

“Are
you
a psychiatrist?” she sneered.

“Listen, Malvina, if you can calm down. You and I both lied, trying to convince Maxwell to lock her up somewhere. But he was not convinced, was he? All right. Listen. This elopement is Sarah's idea.”

“Sarah's?”

“Yes. Sarah's. So, let her try to run away. Who do you think is going to be waiting for her on the highway?”

“What do you mean? What are you doing?” Her eyes turned. She'd believe in a plot.

“I'm getting Maxwell to wait on that road,” he told her.

“But why?”

“Because once she's caught trying to run away, he'll be convinced. Don't you understand?” He shook her, covering with vehemence this desperate scramble for a good lie to tell her. “And don't go running to your grandfather and get
him
excited.”

“As if I would!” she cried. “That's what I'm avoiding.”

“So am I. Get the point, will you? The quickest and easiest way to get Sarah out of here and let there be peace, is for me to agree to her plan.” (Let this double-crosser believe I'm a double-crosser, prayed David, so I can get Sarah safely out of here.)

Malvina leaned back, hanging on the strength in his hands. “I don't believe you,” she said contemptuously. “I think you're a romantic. You want to ‘save' Sarah,” she sneered and he wished he could hit her.

“I don't care what you think as long as you keep quiet,” he said. “You know and I know that girl is trouble, isn't she? Doesn't make any difference why. Trouble and tragedy wherever she goes. She is a Jonah. Do you want to get it out of this house and spare the old gentleman? Or don't you?”

“I do. I do. But …”

David kept holding her but now the range of his vision, that had been concentrated on her face, widened, and he realized that both Gust Monteeth and Moon the Chinaman were standing in the dining room and listening to all he had been saying. He looked behind him. No, Grandfather was not there, as he had half expected, listening, too, with his head cocked.

“Where's the doctor?” he said. “Gone?”

Malvina's face showed no more than a flicker of the eyes but he had hold of her forearms and to his fingers, through the flesh, came the news of her inner earthquake. He felt the deep shock that hit her, the heart leap, the blood pounding.

“Doctor?” Malvina said with only a faint frown showing on her face.

“I called a doctor to see your grandfather, of course. Wisest thing. Don't you agree?”

Malvina began to stand on her own balance. She tried to pull out of his grasp. “I hadn't thought of it,” she said. “Why, of course I agree. That was good of you, David.” Her eyes glistened. The smooth mask was closed. But he could feel in his fingers the skip and flutter now, the scared heart trying to swing steady. He let her go.

He said to Gust, “Has the doctor left?”

“Yes sir, Mr. Wakeley. Left a few minutes ago.” Gust stepped through the wide opening from the dining room where he and Moon had been doing Mrs. Monteeth's chore, setting the table for dinner. Gust said, “Should I call the man from the gate, Miss Malvina?”

Malvina said, “No, Gust. No. I'll take care of this.”

She turned her back on them all and walked toward the fireplace where, as was customary at this pre-dinner hour, a fire had been lit.

David followed her. “You'll do as you please. He's your grandfather,” he muttered. Malvina's neck arched as her head went down. “But I thought …”

“She wants to elope with you? She asked you to do that? Crude of her.”

“Ah,” he said, “the poor kid. Doesn't know what she's doing. Better let her go of her own volition, I thought. Who knows what she'd do, if anyone tried to take her away forcibly.”

Malvina said, “I think you are in love with Sarah.”

“I told you, I'm sorry for her. But Maxwell wouldn't listen to me.”

“You didn't try to make him listen when I wanted you to go to the village …” Malvina smouldered.

“I had
been
trying,” David said. “I knew he wouldn't listen. Don't forget, he thinks
you
may have poisoned Edgar. That's no fault of mine.”

Malvina sighed. “Why eight o'clock?” she asked.

“Oh, Sarah says low tide,” he muttered. “Well?”

She was rubbing her forearms as if she were cold. “I don't know, David.” Now her voice mourned her indecision and she turned to let him see her innocent face.

“Do you think Sarah poisoned Edgar?” David asked her.

“I … can't see what else. Since I didn't.” She let her eyes fill with tears and David marveled.

“Don't you want a murderess out of this house?” He stepped closer. “Let her think she is eloping. To get her away.”

“You may be right. I … must see how Grandfather is.”

David took out a handkerchief and gently he dried her eyes. “The old man will surely die,” David said sadly, “unless somehow, quietly, the source of all this trouble leaves his house.”

“I'm afraid so,” Malvina said, tears spilling. “I'm sorry, David. Perhaps I didn't understand. She's … unpredictable just now, isn't she? She might do anything. Might even …” Malvina shuddered.

“Kill herself?” said David. “Is that in your mind, too?”

“Oh yes, I am afraid. Oh, that would be the end of Grandfather.” Her mouth was shaping into her smile! “Thank you for all you are trying to do to help us,” she said.

Then she left him and went toward Grandfather's room.

David sat down in the inglenook. House of liars, he thought glumly, and he himself was getting to be as swift and facile a liar as any. Malvina might yet stop the plan. He didn't see why she should. She had worked hard and told lies to get the Sheriff's Deputy to believe Sarah guilty and take her away. She should be tempted by this suggestion. But if, instead, she raised a row … why, let her.

He no longer cared if any excitement hurt the old man. He only cared for Sarah and her safety. If Malvina raised a row why he, David, would simply raise it louder. He would then bodily tuck Sarah under his arm and carry her away.

Malvina was thinking of suicide. For Sarah, that is. Malvina was shocked because there had been a doctor. Now what was the reason for that? What could the doctor have seen or found out? Sitting here, David could see down the corridor where no one moved and no one knocked at or entered by Sarah's door. Still, from the telephone, he could see just as well.

Malvina had hidden behind the mask of her face but he had been touching her. He had felt the blood jump. He wondered
Why
?

So he would telephone the doctor.

“Fool!” said Grandfather viciously. “You have no brains. My son was a fool and he married a fool and a fool was produced of their union.”

Malvina knelt by his chair. “Sarah can't go. If she gets away, you know, everything … everything could collapse.”

“If you would sometimes,” the old man's eye was lightning, “do as I say.”

“But Grandfather …”

“Blunders,” he spat at her. “Those lies to the Deputy, Suppose he had taken her off and called a psychiatrist? As no doubt he would. Those people
inquire
into memory and childhood. It is the last thing that must happen to Sarah. What a risk you took and to no purpose. Aaaah, you are a fool!”

“Did you want
me
in jail, then?” she said sullenly.

“You were not in danger. You had done as I said. How did you fail to get David away?
There
might have been a most excellent chance. I still have some of the same poison. And a police officer to witness Sarah in the very mood for guilty suicide.”

“She …” Malvina bit her mouth.

“And even David seeming to betray her, or so you told me.”

“Sarah wasn't …
in
that mood …”

“Of course she was,” the old man raged. “
Why
didn't you take David to the village? Why did you fail?”

“The man, Maxwell, made me go with him. What could I do?”

The old man glared. “And above all, now, in this crisis, you make the colossal blunder. You send me a doctor!”

“No. No, I did not. It was David who sent him.”

“You are lying, Malvina.” He was evil and furious. “Don't tell your stupid lies to me.”

“Am I mad!” she whispered, in her eyes the only truth of her life, her wish for this old man's approval. “Did he see …?”

“Of course, he saw. How could a doctor examine me and not see my scar?”

“Did he ask …?”

“Yes, yes, of course. I told him how I fell on the rocks, as we faked it. And how Edgar and the Neppers took care of me. Aaaahh,” the old man made a sound of deepest disgust, “blunders, blunders. And Mrs. Monteeth saw it, too, and David permitted to do such a thing!”

“Can anything be done, Grandfather? If Sarah elopes with David, who is a friend of Consuelo McGhee. And the doctor has seen it. It will all pull together.”

“I know. I know,” the old man said. “Don't tell
me
what danger we are in!”

“Even if he isn't lying to me, if he intends to give her to the police … then a psychiatrist …”

“I know.” The old man's eyes were cold. “The solution is what it always was, Malvina. Without Sarah, we are in no danger. Without Sarah, there is nothing to fear.”

“What shall I do, Grandfather? Tell me what to do.”

Grandfather brooded.

“We have until eight o'clock. Isn't there some poison?”

“Poison,” said Grandfather. “Oh yes. Buried in the border along the sea walk. Or I might have put it in her breakfast coffee.
You
told me the police would search this house. Another of your blunders.”

“Shall I get it?” She half rose.

“No,” he said.

“No?”

“You are to do nothing.”

“
Nothing?
”

“When I told you my plan, you sent Edgar off in Sarah's car.” He was like a sulking child.

“I had to.”

“Do as I say,” he snarled, “if you can do anything so easy and simple. Tell Sarah I am better. I am coming to dinner. Tell David to join us. Sarah must come to dinner, too. All must be as usual.”

Malvina now rose to her feet. “Yes, Grandfather,” she said dubiously. “But how will you poison Sarah and not be in danger?”

“What I will do I will not tell you,” he said angrily. “Do nothing, Malvina.”

Someone rapped on the door. “Who is it?” Gibberish answered. “Ah, Moon. Yes, come in.”

The Chinaman entered with a tray. “No tray,” said the old man. “I have changed my mind. Tell Mrs. Monteeth I shall be at table. Cocktails? Yes, it is nearly time.”

The Chinaman bowed. He backed out and closed the door.

“Now do as I say,” said Grandfather to Malvina. “And you are not to think. Go at once and tell Sarah.”

“Will you let her go?” said Malvina throatily. “You are old. For you it is not so important. Sarah loves you. That was your insurance. Don't you care what happens to me?”

“Thinking?” he said nastily. “I'll think for us both, if you will allow me. Now I wish to be alone for at least fifteen minutes. Can you manage that?”

“Yes, Grandfather.” Malvina's face grew innocent.

“Then we shall meet by the fire, as is our custom.”

Behind her mask the tortuous thoughts were working. She assumed he was going to go forth in these fifteen minutes to retrieve the poison from its hiding place. “Suicide?” she murmured. “She could easily be put in the mood for it. If she knew that David was planning to betray her …”

“You haven't the cleverness,” said Grandfather contemptuously. “Leave it alone, Malvina. And leave me, now.”

Malvina's nostrils quivered. “Oh, I understand,” she murmured. She left him.

The old man got out of his chair. He tightened the sash of his brocaded coat. He stepped into the study. From there he stepped out to the sea walk. He bent over the foot-wide strip of soil along the wall but he did not touch the soil where the little bottle lay buried. He grasped a plant supporter, a circle of heavy wire with four wire legs, and he pulled it from the soft earth. He pulled up a second one, also.

Then he walked briskly past the windows of his own bedroom and with no glance toward Sarah's windows which lay beyond the upper end of the beach path, he started down. It was dinner time. The coast was emptied of people. Had he been seen in his dark coat from a distance, he might have been anyone. The old man gave no furtive glances behind or below him.

He was out of the range of any eyes at the house level when he stooped and, working hard, pressed and strained to thrust the sharp wire legs of the plant supporter into the hard soil of the path. It was not easy but with effort he succeeded. The wire contraptions were firm enough to surprise a descending foot. And they were placed strategically. Whoever went down the path in dusk or darkness now would doubtless fall. And fall over.