Intimately Dead by Stuart Friedman Read online

of the rug had been brushed. There was

  The coroner came in then.

  even a hair from the brush she had used.

  “Suicide, sheriff,” he said. “I The hired man’s wife vacuum-cleaned the inspected for bruises, that would indicate house daily, I knew. Why had the rug been he had been lifted, but there are none on his brushed by hand in the middle of the night?

  body.”

  I knew. Danny had been dragged across

  “I’ll take your word,” the sheriff

  that section, and she had had to smooth the said. “And you, young fellow, better think nap to match the rest of the floor.

  twice before accusing people.”

  If so, he had been killed in bed. I

  “That’s

  official?” I said tightly. looked thoughtfully at the bed, an old brass

  “Suicide, you say?”

  post type, probably antique. I pulled it out

  “Suicide.”

  from the wall, got to my knees in the space between the head of the bed and wall. If my I WOULDN’T believe it. Gloria had killed theory was right, some of the rope must him. Of course she couldn’t have lifted have shredded, fallen to the floor. I was him, but—I went to the door. The sheriff right! I found two or three tiny hemp

  and coroner were just driving away. I went bristles. I inspected the brass bedpost slowly around the house, inspecting the directly above where the rope fragments snow carefully. No. No one had come in

  had fallen.

  the house. It had stopped snowing by the There was a small horizontal strip on the time I went to bed, and any prints would post which looked as though it had been have shown.

  polished vigorously. The rough surface of a As I went back in, she confronted

  rope pulled across it would be abrasive me.

  enough to give the polished effect. I knew

  “I want you to get out of my house

  how she had strangled him as he slept.

  at once. Go get your things.”

  Putting the noose around his neck, she had I walked past her, up the stairs to

  passed the rope around this bedpost. Then my room. I dressed, packed my bag. There she had probably got out of bed, carried the was nothing to believe now but that Danny end of the rope to the middle of the room.

  had committed suicide. The facts were That way, standing up, she could get more plain. She could never have lifted him into force, and also be out of his reach if he a noose without help. No one had come

  struggled. She had merely jerked the rope into the house. The hired man lived in a tight, held it till he was dead!

  small cottage a block away. The only

  But that was as far as I could go.

  possibility—that she had pulled his body Granted that she had strangled him in his up with the rope—was gone. The sheriff

  sleep, then dragged his body into the

  had thought of that.

  bathroom, I could still prove nothing. For if As I went for the stairs I felt I must

  she had tugged the body to its hanging

  Intimately Dead

  7

  position by passing the rope over the to life.

  shower curtain bar, and pulling down, the

  “You—”

  rope would have showed. I went to the

  Then I spotted the fur coat, clear in

  bathroom, stared till my eyes ached. Could the back of the closet. I yanked it out on a he have been lifted somehow that would

  hunch. The lining was slashed at the

  absolutely defy detection? There seemed bottom. I plunged my hand into the

  no way.

  opening. In a moment I came out with the second rope!

  I WHIRLED suddenly as the door from the

  “The original rope,” I said, my

  hall opened. Gloria stood in the entrance, voice deadly. “This is the one you

  her face drained, her mouth a thin slash strangled him with. This is the one you line.

  hoisted his body by.”

  “I told you to get out!”

  I strode to the bathroom. I yanked a

  I didn’t speak, because I had the

  Turkish towel from a rack, wadded it, put it answer. I strode to her swiftly, yanked her in the noose. I tossed the towel in the noose inside, roughly, locked the door, and to the floor.

  pocketed the key.

  I pulled it along, glanced at her.

  “I know,” I said. “I know how you

  “Danny was harder to drag, wasn’t

  did it.”

  he?”

  Her face set rigidly, but it didn’t

  I pulled the towel to the edge of the

  prevent the quick ascent of pink up her tub, tossed the other end of the rope up throat to the tips of her exposed ears. She over the shower bar. Then I backed away, shrugged. Then calmly she walked over to got to the floor, made a half hitch of the a lounge, leaned back and watched me with rope around the drain pipe under the wash amusement. Deliberately she stretched her bowl.

  legs along the lounge, smoothed the

  “You sat and pulled like this,” I

  diaphanous black nightgown against them.

  said, pulling down on the rope, which

  “I’m interested, Master Mind.”

  brought my towel up a few inches. “A few There was only one way she could

  inches at a time. Each time, because of the have done it without bruising his body. I weight, you tightened your rope around this turned my head slowly, scanning the room drain pipe, so Danny wouldn’t slip down for the hiding place. I was positive she’d again. Even so, it was a job, but it could be not had the chance to get it out of this done. Finally he was clear up. You tied this room. I walked to the clothes closet, end of the rope on this pipe, like this,” I plunged in, yanked dress after dress off said, doing so.

  hangers.

  I got up. She was like a woman

  “Stop it!” she cried. She ran across

  hypnotized, and in deadly fear.

  the room, grabbed my arm, digging her

  “Then you brought the second

  nails in my sleeve. “Stop!”

  rope—the one we found on Danny—the

  Fire flashed from her black eyes,

  one without telltale evidence. You tied one and the pulse hammered in the hollow of end of it down there under the wash bowl.

  her throat. Her face was flushed.

  The noose end you passed up over the

  “A girl with a million dollars isn’t

  shower bar. Then you climbed up, put the that concerned over a few frocks!”

  second noose around Danny’s neck, while I saw the anger die; the terror come

  he was hanging. The second rope was just

  Mammoth Detective

  8

  below the first. Then you untied the first as spite. She had told the sheriff I hated rope. His body fell into the second noose.

  her. She would tell a jury. She might make You took the other rope off, hid it, to be them believe I had planned to get most of destroyed later.”

  Danny’s money, and hated her because she got it.

  I COULD almost see the animal

  I knew how beautifully she could

  calculation going on in her eyes. She let her play the innocent, loving wife. Probably robe fall apart, walked to me, her body she could play the persecuted role even revealed in the black nightgown. She better. Combine her acting talents with her started to slip her arms around me, turn her looks, pit that against a male jury ...

  face up to me.

  I could be crafty too.

  “The

  next

  move,”

  I said, taking her

  “Let me think, Gloria,” I said. I put

  wrists, pushing her arms down, “is to show my hand to my eyes. Then I looked at her, me what an attractive woman you are.”

  my mouth lax, as though the w
ill had been

  “You think I’m not—do you think I

  stripped from me. My glance slithered

  am fooled? Haven’t I seen your eyes on

  downward as though helplessly enthralled me?”

  by the shadowed flesh. “No!” I cried.

  “And your fatal allure failing, there

  “Give me time. To think. Leave me alone a is always the money,” I said, my voice

  few minutes—”

  straining more and more. “Half a million for my part—or would you go even I SHIFTED sidewise, stepped around her, higher?”

  almost running. I flung out of the bedroom

  “Everything,” she cried. “Me. The

  as a man pursued. I went down to the

  money. Whatever you say. But my God,

  library, closed the door, caught up the Bill—what good would it do you to send

  phone on Danny’s desk.

  me to prison? Be smart. Please!”

  “Sheriff’s office,” I said, just above

  I laughed at her.

  a whisper.

  “Bill, you could forget you hate

  He wasn’t in.

  me,” she cried, her face suffused. “I could

  “His house, then,” I said tensely.

  show you. I could make you happy like you Seconds later he answered.

  never dreamed ... What did he care for you!

  “She did it, sheriff. Get someone to

  Five thousand he gave you! With all his your house with shorthand pad. Get

  money. He wasn’t your friend—”

  witnesses,” I rushed. “This is how she

  I just stared at her. Then the killed Danny—”

  contempt began to ebb from my face. I was I spilled out the whole story.

  acting like some correspondence school

  “Flimsy,” he said.

  detective. And I was a lawyer! I should

  “Hell!” I grated. “Listen, I don’t

  have known better.

  expect you to believe me, but will you get Gloria was crafty. Maybe the wits

  some witnesses there by your phone?”

  were scared out of her for the moment, but

  “All

  right.”

  smart as she was she could get out of this

  “I’ll make her talk,” I said. “She’ll

  thing the way it stood. There’d be plenty of tie herself up so tight she can’t wiggle out ways for her to slip out of this.... I had of it. Keep that line open—and have

  stated to the sheriff that I didn’t trust her.

  someone taking down every word—”

  That, in front of a jury, might be construed I inserted wadded paper under the

  Intimately Dead

  9

  cutoff receiver bracket of the upright brittle. “You haven’t got a thing on me. If phone. Then I replaced the receiver.

  you think you have, turn me in. And so

  “Can you hear me?” I said, bending

  help me God I’ll drag you to hell with me!

  to the mouthpiece.

  I’ll tell them you’re my lover—the sheriff

  “Not very well,” his voice crackled through thought that anyway.”

  the receiver. “You’ll have to get her pretty

  “I won’t turn you in,” I said. “You

  close to the phone.”

  know that—now. But you couldn’t involve My heart was pounding furiously. I

  me, Gloria. You’re the one who hanged

  felt the bottom slipping out from under my Danny. Alone. The two ropes prove that.”

  scheme. Then I saw in the corner, the home She laughed tonelessly. “You prove

  recording set...

  it!”

  “Simple logic,” I said, bending

  IT WAS ten minutes later that she came

  forward. “If both of us had done it we

  down.

  could have lifted his body. We wouldn’t

  “Have you decided—darling?” she

  have needed the second rope.”

  said. She moved to the desk, slipped her

  “I’ll tell them we tried it,” she said

  body up on it, sat looking down at me in shrilly. “And we weren’t strong enough.

  the chair before her. She’d made up her lips And you hadn’t been sure if we could lift and eyes carefully. I could see the tiny his body, so you brought the second rope, moist circle on the upper part of the just in case. We had to use it.”

  diaphanous black nightgown where she’d

  “Damn you, you know I had

  put perfume.

  nothing to do with it!”

  The phone was back of her.

  “It’s not what I know,” she taunted.

  “Sit here,” I said, my voice hoarse.

  “Sure I did it. But will a jury believe that a Her feet touched the floor lightly,

  poor innocent little widow like me could her body twisting around in a lithe have thought up all those technical points movement. She snuggled into my lap. Her the police would look for? Ha. That’s the fingers touched my face lightly. She had working of a legal mind, Bill Starling.

  perfumed her hands too. This woman was

  You’re the one who knew the police would smart!

  inspect the rope. You’re the one who knew

  “It’s been a shock, darling,” she

  the rope had to show only a downward

  purred. “But I think you are going to pull, or it would betray us. Who could have forget—”

  thought of that second rope except

  That strange smile touched her face

  someone used to dealing in law? All right, briefly. Then she caught my head fiercely, Bill, you can turn me over. They’ll only buried it against her. In a moment I said, give me twenty years— maybe less. I

  “You’re smart, Gloria—and beautiful.”

  won’t like that. But you won’t like

  “It’s a combination hard to beat,”

  hanging! I’ll tell them you were the

  she said. She laughed. Then, abruptly, she Svengali who made me do it. I was just

  jumped to her feet. She whirled and faced poor Trilby!”

  me. “You’d like me to confess, wouldn’t

  “I told you I wouldn’t turn you in,”

  you?”

  I cried. “Like you said, we’ll go away

  Her eyes were suddenly livid.

  together. We can be happy.”

  “But while you’ve been thinking,

  “Fool!” she spat. “You had me

  I’ve been thinking too,” she said, her voice scared. But you’re the scared one now. You

  Mammoth Detective

  10

  wouldn’t dare turn me in. You have no

  she let go the gun. Then I stood over her, hold on me. You think I’d split the profits motioned her to a chair. Her hair was

  with you, now! It was my brains. I did it spilled over her face, and she came as near myself. You’re out. I always did hate you.

  hissing as I’d ever heard any human. She You tried to keep Danny from marrying me was a mad, beautiful animal.

  to begin with. Well, I got what I wanted.

  I went to the desk, reached under it,

  The whole damned estate. In spite of you.”

  brought out the microphone of the home

  “I doubt it,” I said, getting to my

  recording set concealed there.

  feet. “Every word you said went right over

  “Get it all, sheriff?”

  the phone wires to the sheriff’s office—”

  I picked up the receiver of the

  phone.

  SHE laughed. Then she held out her

  “Good work, Starling,” he said

  clenched hand. She unclenched it, looked at excitedly. “My men should be there by

  me squarely a
s she displayed the wad of now. . . .”

  paper in her palm.

  I faced her again.

  “The first thing I did, when I sat on

  “I didn’t need the phone

  the desk, was take this paper out from

  mouthpiece. It wasn’t good enough to pick under the receiver hook. All the sheriff up our voices, anyhow, Gloria. So I had heard was my calling you darling. The line your microphone wired to the out wire of went dead from the time I got on your lap.

  the phone. When you took out the paper, I’m sure the sheriff will be intrigued with you merely cut the line so no one could talk what he heard—my calling you darling,

  in. Your voice and mine went out.”

  Bill Starling.” She began to laugh.

  “Damn you,” she said. “Damn you.

  I lunged toward her, then. She D—”

  stepped away agilely. A tiny automatic

  “But I knew you were clever. I

  appeared from a pocket of her robe.

  thought you’d suspect a trick. So, to keep

  “March,” she said, her lips tight to

  you from searching around too much, I left her teeth. “Upstairs. With your own hands, the paper wadded under the receiver hook.

  you’re going to burn that other rope!”

  Smart, baby. You discovered it. Then

  I hesitated. I turned as though proceeded to talk yourself right into obeying. Then I dived. I spilled her all over another noose.”

  the floor. I almost broke her wrist before