Slack tide (9 page)

He adjusted his dark-rimmed glasses and again considered the girl. After a moment he said: "We'U have to go over your story again, Mrs. Kingsley, with a stenographer, but what I'd hke to know now is how long you were married to your husband, and why he kept you locked in that room." He paused, his gaze intent. "Unless you'd rather wait until—"

"Oh, no," she rephed at once, her gaze serious and her tone no longer defiant. "I think I'd like to. It's been so long since I've talked to anyone and—I'd Hke you to understand." She glanced down at her clasped hands, and when she continued, her voice was subdued but distinct.

"I worked in a travel agency after I got out of college," she said, "and last faU I had a chance to take a six weeks' cruise to South America, as a hostess and assistant to the cruise director. Oliver came aboard just before we sailed, using an assumed name. He had just finished getting his second divorce and there had been a lot of publicity, most of it unpleasant, most of it his fault—as I learned later."

She glanced up. "He could be very charming when he wanted to be. He was big and good-looking, and he seemed very considerate and attentive and—well, he was hke no

one I had ever known, and I suppose I fell in love with him. It doesn't seem possible now that I could ever have felt that way, but I must have. I married him."

"Not under the assumed name?" Terry said.

"Oh, no. He used the name because of the divorce pub-Hcity. He kept using it until he knew I was in love with him, because he said his other two wives had married him for his money and this time he wanted to be sure. Oh, he was very convincing," she said, bitterness for the first time showing in her voice.

"We were in St. Thomas and we'd hardly come back to New York when I knew I'd made a mistake. So long as he had his own way he was aU right, but the moment someone crossed him he became furious. There were fights in night clubs, and fights between us when I tried to reason with him, and other women, and days when he wouldn't come home at aU. It was an obsession with him that he have his own way, and it was only his money and Neil Ackerman's persuasiveness that kept him out of jail."

She unclasped her hands and flexed her fingers. "There's no point in going into details now," she said. "After the first few weeks there was nothing between us. I suppose it was pride that made me stay as long as I did. I'd made a mistake, and I tried to make the best of it, and finally I got sense enough to know it was futile. Last month I told him I was going to Reno and get a divorce, and when he saw I meant it he was wild.

"Maybe it was this obsession that made him want to hurt anyone who dared to disagree with him. No one could divorce Oliver Kingsley; no one could leave him. If there

was any divorce he would get it. He did the same to the first two wives, not because it was easier—in fact it was much more di£Bcult for everyone—but because he wanted it known that he was the one who was doing the leaving. This time, when I wouldn't agree, he locked me in my room. He'd come in every day and rage at me—he never struck me, but in a way the things he said and did were worse. Finally he came with a doctor. He said I'd had a breakdown and,"—she glanced up as she hesitated—"maybe I had. Anyway, I was given an injection, and after that I'm not quite sure what happened. I know there were other injections, and pills, but I reaUy don't remember too much about it. I don't beheve I was really aware of what was going on until I found myself in the corner room."

She looked in the direction of the island, but MacLaren understood that the things she saw were a lot farther away than the house that stood there. And suddenly he felt very much better. For he beheved the things he had heard, and he was certain now that she had married Ohver Kingsley not for his money but because she had been genuinely in love with a man whose past and reputation had been skillfully hidden from her until she had been thoroughly sold on the charm and the personahty of the man Kingsley could be when he wanted to.

"I was left with nothing but a nightgown and a toothbrush and a robe," she said. "The shutters were locked. There was nothing to read, nothing to do." She paused, her voice hardly a whisper now and edged with some inner horror. "Three times a day Harry Danaher brought a tray

and came to get it. From one side of the room to the farthest point in the bathroom was fifteen steps."

The quiet way she spoke and the simphcity of her words was all the more e£Fective because she did not try to dramatize them. It left a brief spell upon those who were hs-tening, and when Terry spoke, his voice was no longer aggressive.

"What," he asked, "was he trying to do to you?"

"Drive me crazy, I think."

"He must have talked to you. What did he say?"

"He said he would keep me in that room until I could be committed to some sanitarium, or until I signed the papers Ackerman had drawn up."

"So he could get the divorce on his own terms?"

She nodded. "He said if I did that he would give me a small cash settlement and everything I wanted to keep me comfortable on the island while he went to Reno and made sure I didn't contest him."

"And you wouldn't sign?"

"No," she said simply. "I think I might have in another few days. I think I would have done almost anything—"

She did not finish, but MacLaren knew what she meant. Heretofore he had been attracted to her physically, and now he was aware of something equally important—respect. There was very httle guile in this girl, but there was inteUigence, and a spirit that Kingsley had been unable to break.

Terry let his breath out audibly and glanced at Lunt, who grunted softly and came up with a question of his

own. "How come a guy like that could keep anybody with him at all?"

"Because he was never mean or vicious if you did the things he wanted you to do. Or imless he was very drunk." She leaned forward in her earnestness. "He was often very considerate, and he was generous to those who co-operated with him. A psychiatrist might know how to describe his complex; all I know is that if you stayed with him long enough something happened to your character. Take Neil Ackerman," she said.

"Neil knew Ohver at Harvard for a while—I think Oliver only lasted a year—and he went to New York after law school, and he wasn't doing very well. He just happened to run into Oliver one night at a party and they got a Httle drunk and Ohver got into one of his fights. Neil handled things so well there was no publicity, and Ohver was grateful and gave Neil a job. I don't know what the job was in the beginning—I imagine Neil thought he saw an opportunity to get a start—but what happened was that he wound up as sort of a companion, handling Oliver's personal afiFairs rather than business matters. Neil likes nice clothes and the things money will buy, and Oliver paid him well and took him everywhere—he had a house in Palm Beach and a small place on Sea Island—and I suppose Neil likes to live that way."

"I guess it wouldn't be too hard to take," Lunt said.

"Now," she said, "he drinks a great deal, though he's never drunk, and he has had nothing to do except keep Oliver out of jail and manage his personal accounts and go along with whatever Oliver happened to want to do at

the time. Because of those years, I doubt if Neil has any ambition now to do anything else."

"Certainly not any hard work," Lunt said dryly.

"And Carla," Ruth said, as though she had not heard, "Carla was an airline hostess when Ohver met her, and I guess he made love to her hke he did to me, and she probably was just as flattered. But he was married at the time, and because he wanted Carla around, he hired her as a secretary. I guess probably she thought she might be the next Mrs. Kingsley." She shrugged faintly. "If she did she got over it. I suppose she figured she could do better with Ohver than anywhere else—she has charge accounts in aU the big New York stores—because she's a determined woman and tougher than I am, inside I mean. Also, I im-derstand Ohver assigned some stock to her. She gets the income from that instead of a salary."

"And how about the guy with the butch?" Lunt asked. "This artist fellow. What makes him hang around?"

"Earl Harwell? Oh, he had a contract with Ohver."

"A contract?" Lunt scowled at her, his gaze perplexed. "You mean Harwell paints just for Kingsley?"

"Well, in a way. I only know what I've heard, but I understand Oliver met him down in Greenwich Village at one of those sidewalk shows the artists have. Earl had been painting hke mad and he was practically starving. I suppose it was just another of Ohver's whims, but somehow he got the idea he'd subsidize Earl, and being Ohver he couldn't do it in a normal way; he had to have some hold on Earl. Earl had been thinking about turning to illustrating and Ohver said he'd subsidize him—Ohver really does

know something about art and painting—for two years provided Earl stuck to serious art and forgot about illustrating."

She paused and Lunt prompted her. "Harwell was going to stay with your husband for two years, painting what he was told?" His tone suggested that such an arrangement was beyond his comprehension, but he persisted nevertheless. "Well—what did Harwell get for all of this?"

"Oh, there was a regular contract. Neil Ackerman drew it up. Ohver was to pay Earl a hundred dollars a week, but only twenty dollars in cash. The balance was not to be paid until the end of the contract."

"Then," said Lunt, "Harwell gets room, board, and cigarette money. At the end of two years he gets around eight thousand dollars if he's a good boy; if not he gets the air, right? . . . How long does the contract have to go?"

"I think it's about six months."

Limt grunted again and glanced at MacLaren. "The guy must have been nuts," he said. "And so were the people that hung around him. If he hadn't been loaded he'd have been in jail or an insane asylum long ago."

He seemed about to rise when another thought occurred to him. "What about Harry Danaher?"

"I don't know much about him," Ruth said. "He has only been with Ohver since last fall. I only saw him a few times."

"You don't think your husband bothered him much?"

"No. I think perhaps Ohver was a little afraid of him."

Lunt nodded and pulled himself out of the chair. He looked over at Terry, one brow cocking slightly, and a silent message of some kind must have passed between

them, because he digressed when he spoke to the girl again.

"When you went back to the island last night and changed your clothes," he said, "did you bring a bag or anything hke that with you?"

"Yes, I did." She stood up. "An overnight case."

"Could we have a look at it?"

"Certainly. It's in here."

The green eyes seemed a bit perplexed, but she did not hesitate, and when she started for the bedroom, Lunt followed. For another second or two MacLaren was just as perplexed as the girl, and then the answer came to him as he remembered the ten thousand dollars in cash that Neil Ackerman said was missing. He could hear Lunt say something to the girl and they remained inside for perhaps another minute. When they reappeared, Ruth had her jacket over her arm, and Lunt, looking again at Terry, gave a small but noticeable shake of his head.

"I guess that will be all for now," he said. "Unless you have something else on your mind."

"Nothing that can't wait," Terry said. To MacLaren and the girl he added: "We want to get this on paper, so you'll have to come down to the barracks with us. You can wait with the sergeant while we go over to the island and collect the crew over there."

"Will it take long?" MacLaren asked.

"It'll take awhile," Terry said noncommittally. "It'll depend on what we find out and what the state's attorney wants to do after he has checked the statements."

"What I meant was," MacLaren said, "should I call a lawyer?"

"Do you think you need one?"

He did not wait for an answer but started for the stairs, followed by Lunt. MacLaren, wondering if he had spoken out of turn, looked at the girl and said that he doubted if they would need a lawyer, but, in case they did, there was a local man he could get. He took her jacket and held it for her, and she smiled at him before she turned and shpped into it. To Wyre he said:

"Is it okay if she rides with me?"

Wyre put on his hat, considered the question, and shook his head.

"Maybe it would be better if she rode with me," he said. "You can follow in your own car if you Hke. Chances are some of you will be down there longer than others anyway."

He moved aside to let MacLaren and the girl go ahead of him. When they started down, he closed the door and followed.

9

THE SESSION with the state's attorney was not as bad as MacLaren had expected. The station itself was a remodeled farmhouse, and the office of the lieutenant-in-charge was on the immediate right as he entered. Opposite

this, and extending for half the depth of the building, was what looked not unhke a bank. There were counters and grills and windows behind which were several business machines and teletype equipment. Except for the fact that the men and women who worked there were in uniform, it might have been a commercial enterprise rather than a pohce station.

In back of this was the radio room, and across the hall were three connecting rooms, the first being sort of a waiting room, while the other two were for interrogation, at least that morning.

MacLaren was the first to be questioned, and a uniformed pohcewoman took down his statement. While it was being typed, the state's attorney made it clear that he did not approve of MacLaren's lack of co-operation the night before. He was told not to discuss the case with newspaper people, and it was intimated that certain charges might still be filed against him.

He had no chance to be alone with Ruth Kingsley and the best that he could do was to draw her aside in the waiting room and ask if she intended to go back to the island or whether she would hke a room at the Inn. When she said that she would prefer to stay at the Inn if they had room, he said he would make the reservation for her. Then, because he was not sure when he would see her again, he said: