A taste for sin, p.12
A Taste for Sin, page 12
Leaving the drugstore, I saw a calendar. I’d miscalculated. Wednesday was the twenty-first. Not that it mattered. She would lay out special clothes.
There was an item in the morning paper, Monday. Not much. A picture of her and word that she was apparently missing. Her husband had notified authorities. There was a description of the car and of Felice, and people were asked to notify authorities if they spotted her. The photo of her didn’t do her justice
I started to throw down the paper and noticed something else. Krueger. He was married. I’d never figured that and it struck home hard. His wife had worried because he stayed away longer than usual. Jack Solengren was quoted as knowing him. I didn’t like any of it, but maybe that settled it.
Two cars missing. Two people missing.
Roy Taft bugged me continuously about the Astrology bit He obviously was reading a lot. He already knew more than I did, and it was embarrassing.
All I wanted was Tuesday night.
It finally came. But a lot more came with it than I’d hoped for.
I said, “So long,” to Webster and everybody, and the Fishers, and knew I wouldn’t see Allayne again till the night of the thirty-first and then for only a short period.
The phone rang just as I was snapping a grip shut.
I hurried downstairs without answering it. Absolutely nuts.
I drove to Bridgedale. I was eager to see Felice. My hands were sweating on the wheel.
I parked the Chev on a dark side street again, in the shadows, figuring to walk to the bus depot where Felice would be waiting. It was just nine.
I got out and was locking the door and a car pulled up behind mine. The door opened quickly. A man got out.
It was Elmer Bliss.
“Just hold it Phalen,” he said. “I want to talk with you.” He walked up to me.
I stared at him. All kinds of hell broke loose inside me.
“Mind telling me what you’re doing over here?” he said. He was smiling, but he was deadly serious now. The smile was that natural turn of his lips. He wore a dark suit, and his face was pale in the shadows.
“Nothing,” I said. “I was, just—” I couldn’t think.
“You just what?” he said. “You mind stepping back to my car a minute?”
We walked to his car. I tried vainly to think and came up with nothing. He did not have the police car.
“Hear you’re going on vacation,” he said. “Well, I’m on mine. I been on it four days, now. Been having some fun, too. I’m like the old postman on his holiday, see?” He opened the door of the Ford, yanked the seat forward, and said, “Have a look, Phalen.”
The dome light was on. I looked in.
He had the back seat to my Chev, lying there.
He pushed the seat back and closed the door. “Okay, Phalen. Start talking.” His voice was sure different now.
“What about?” I said.
“I’ve got you, Phalen. You’re it for that liquor store robbery. I’ve got you straight down the line. I knew it all along.” “You’re flipped.”
“I talked with Solengren again. He admitted he got rid of Krueger, because the guy was pulling some shady stunts. I’ll tell you something else, you were seen out there, your car, the night of the robbery. I questioned every damned soul at that party—everybody who was there—except for one person.” Felice.
“Three people saw your car and described it exactly. One person saw Krueger and whoever was driving your car, which was you—unloading and carrying it into one of the garages. All I’ve got to do is find Krueger, Phalen. Even so, you’re it. Very much it. I talked to your landlady, Mrs. Fisher, again. And I’ve been doing a lot of checking. Why’d you lie about the back seat of your car, Phalen? You think I didn’t see you that day you went out and dumped it? I’m a cop, Phalen. I always wanted to be a cop, and I’m a good one. I won’t be a sergeant forever. Now, what you doing over here? Where you going?” “No place—nothing.”
I felt it all come up inside me like hot vomit.
“Well, we’ll just run back to Allayne in my car. I’ve got enough to hold you. Y’know? I doubt you got a mother in Davenport, Phalen. You think I’m a dope?” I went crazy.
Twenty…
I went at him fast and hard.
He didn’t have a chance. He was strong and wiry, but there was too much anger inside me, seething. I caught his throat and slammed his head against the door frame of his car. I slammed and cracked till he was a rag doll.
He was out cold before I even took a breath.
I stood there shaking, holding him up. I didn’t know what to do. It was a dark street. I reached in and turned off the headlights to his car. I searched him, then, and came up with a gun and handcuffs.
I handcuffed his hands behind him, trembling, and still not sure what I was doing. I threw him in across the front seat of his car, then went and checked in the trunk of the Chev. Nothing. I checked his trunk. I found a dirty tow rope. I got in the Ford beside him, shoving him across the seat, hoping to hell nobody came along. I tied his feet, and threw him over the back, on the floor, pushing the back seat to the Chev out of the way. Then I tied him to the backs of the front seats of the Ford.
I was panting like hell.
He began to moan. All he had to do was yell.
Inside I was a wreck. And all the time, my mind worked fast. Even though he was on vacation, he’d probably notified his superior what he was working on. A slim chance he hadn’t. But something had to be done.
I found his handkerchief, wadded it, and rammed it into his mouth. He tried to bite my hand. I got his tie off, and bound that around his mouth and jaws, around the back of his head, tightly, so it couldn’t possibly work loose.
He was conscious now. But he wouldn’t make any noise. He watched me.
“You damned fool,” I said.
He just watched me, lying there in the back seat on the floor. I made sure he couldn’t kick, couldn’t make any sound in the car. He made throat noises, but they didn’t carry. I felt kind of nuts with this. I knew what had to be done, though.
One thing for sure. I wasn’t going to kill Elmer Bliss.
Only thing to do was take him with us.
He knew nothing of the bank. All he was interested in was the liquor store robbery. So long as it stayed that way, things would be all right.
I remembered Felice waiting at the bus depot. Well, there was nothing for it. We had to make a trip tonight anyway.
I took Bliss’s keys. I took the back seat of the Chev out of the Ford, and tossed it in my car. I locked the Ford after rolling up the windows.
I stood outside and listened quietly for a couple of minutes. No sound.
I half ran, half walked to the bus depot, after tossing his gun into the Chev.
First I stopped by the garage and picked up the Buick, then drove to the depot. Felice had been waiting over an hour. She looked fine, dressed fit to kill, as they say.
She had on sheer black stockings, red high heels, a red dress that was a knock-out on her with the blonde hair. But I was plenty nervous.
As she slid into the Buick, she said, “I’ve got a little surprise for you. A kind of fun surprise.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll see when we get home”
“Well. I’ve got a surprise for you, too.”
“What you mean?”
I started driving. I told her everything; all about Bliss, from the beginning. I let her have it flat.
She sat there like a rock. Her voice was almost deadly, when she spoke. “Why didn’t you tell me before, Jim?”
“I didn’t want to bother you. I was bothered enough. Now we’ve really got a mess on our hands. But we can handle it.”
“What’re we going to do?”
“We’re going to keep him with us. We’ve got to.”
“We can’t do that”
“We’re going to. He’s not going to die.”
I knew that in my mind. There’d been one death already. Like as not there’d be another. But goddam, I wasn’t going to let Bliss die. There was no reason for him to die. I told her that. “He doesn’t know one damned thing about this bank deal,” I said. “And he’s not going to know anything. It’ll be rough—but that’s how it is.”
“But—Jim! It’s a terrible chance.”
“A chance we’re going to take. Now, you wait here—I want to stop at a store.”
I went into a five and ten and bought yards and yards of heavy dog chain. Then at another counter, I bought six padlocks. I bought five rolls of tape, big ones, then went to the Buick and drove to a drugstore. She didn’t even speak.
In the drugstore, I bought a box of wax and cotton ear plugs, and some gauze bandage, and a large-sized woman’s swim-cap, a good strong expensive one. I returned to the car.
“Now,” I said. “It’s going to be rough, but we’ve got to do it.”
She said nothing, but I knew what she was thinking.
We went back to the spot where the Ford and Chev were parked. I told her, “You drive the Chev I’ll follow. You know where to go.”
“Jim—it’ll take all night, and I had other things…”
“I can’t help it.” I reached over and touched her, then said, “All right. We’ve got to do everything. Now, keep absolutely quiet. I don’t want him to hear you talking. Eventually, he’s bound to hear a woman’s voice. But the way I’ll fix it, it won’t be much. Get in the Chev. When I blink the Ford lights, you take off.”
I unlocked the Chev, and she got in. I got in the Ford and checked Bliss. He was wide awake, now, making noises. His eyes stared at me, grimly. I said nothing, took some of the wax and fibre ear plugs, worked two of them in my hands and jammed them in his ears. I packed them in tightly.
Then I thought of something. I did the same with my own ears, went to Felice. “Say something.”
“Don’t shout.”
“Talk in a normal voice.”
She did. I could hear her, but it was muffled, and faint.
I went back and put hunks of thick gauze over his ears, then taped that tightly on his head. Then I yanked on the bathing cap, pulling it tightly over his head, and strapped it harshly under his chin. If he heard anything at all, it wouldn’t be much. His eyes glared at me, his face very pale with the pock marks showing. His Adam’s apple worked as he swallowed. I put gauze over his eyes, and taped them, so he couldn’t see.
I started the car, and we took off. I followed her all the way to the rock quarry, clear to the top of the canyon again. We parked and switched off the car’s lights.
There was no sign of anybody.
I dragged him out of the Ford and put him in the back seat of the Chev, on the floor again. I tied him down there.
Right then a jet passed by overhead, roaring like hell. I’d been afraid of sending another car down there, for some reason. There was no wind. Not a sound. The moon was bright. When the jet passed, low overhead, I pushed the Ford over the edge and damned near went with it.
Felice watched.
“Now,” I said. “We’ve got to go back to Bridgedale, and do the same thing with the Chev.”
Well, we did it. It was getting late, and I wanted to reach the house in Riverport before dawn. She kept arguing we had to do something with him. I told her we were.
“What you going to do with all that chain? Those locks?”
“You’ll see.”
Well, she drove the Buick and I drove the Chev. She followed me this time. We came back to the canyon. It was desolate and a wind was rising now. All the time, he was back of me, on the floor.
What was down there in that pit of water was really something. This was the last time.
I dragged Bliss out and put him in the Buick, then we sent the Chev over the edge.
“My God, Jim,” she said as we started back toward the Buick. “Jim—I can’t wait. Let’s work it like that first night.”
“No.”
“You brute.”
We took out of there. I couldn’t get it out of my mind what was down there in the deep water in the canyon. Four cars and a dead man. And she’d insisted robbing a bank was easy.
We didn’t get back to Riverport till about five.
I’d had her talk very softly and was sure Bliss couldn’t hear much. But there was something macabre about the whole thing, and especially about how it would be from now on.
If he did know there was a woman, he wouldn’t know who it was. I never used her name.
I got him inside the house. Felice watched with a kind of new bright horror in her eyes. There were two bathrooms. The small attic had been converted into a room, and a bath adjoined it. Possibly the house had originally been used for two rentals, or something. Anyway, I took him up there into that bathroom. There was a solid door on it with a lock. I took some pillows she’d bought, from the couch downstairs, and put them on the floor by the tub. I got all the dog chain and padlocks, and I chained Elmer Bliss. I chained him to the toilet and the water pipes. He could move to the pillows and that was all.
I’d told Felice to make no noise and stay downstairs. His eyes were still covered, and his mouth and ears. I fixed the chains so he could just hop, then another chain around his neck, padlocked to his ankle-chains. Then more chains around the toilet and the pipes. He couldn’t possibly get loose.
I unfastened one side of the bathing cap. He was sure some looking specimen. Then I took the tape and gauze off his eyes.
“All right, Bliss,” I said. “There’s a toilet right here. I’ll unfasten your hands. You’ll get to use the toilet once a day, and you’ll get fed once a day, so you better adjust yourself fast.”
He grunted and moaned and rolled his eyes. I knew he wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to hear what it was right then.
“Your gag’ll be pulled when you eat,” I said. I took off the handcuffs and he thrashed around, but it did no good. I handcuffed him again, showed him where the pillows were, and he sat down. He stared at me, blinking, his eyes bloodshot and loaded with bitter accusation. I knew he was in pain. It was tough, but better than being dead.
I fixed his ear again, and the rubber bathing cap. Then I went out and locked the door and went downstairs. I was really bushed. I kept thinking about him up there. Like a dog.
She got me going, finally.
It was devilish, what with everything else. She got me to chasing her around the house. I was supposed to hit her, and tear the clothes off her piece by piece, and she fought every minute. She had a blouse on under the red dress jacket, and the tight skirt and a black halfslip, and tight scanties and stockings, and a garter-belt, and a bra—she wanted every stitch torn off.
“Be like an ape—rape me! I mean it—really rape me!”
It got mad. A woman asks you to do this, you start going along to amuse her. “Hit me.” I had her skirt pulled up and she’d fight it down. Then she just fought with her eyes rolling in her head. I grabbed her and poured it on. I stripped her naked and dragged her into the bedroom, because I could tell she was worried about that. The dressing table was all set up with the mirror and the pink light and the bed.
So I raped her. And this time she passed out cold.
We lay there. “I told you I had a surprise. You didn’t even notice anything.”
“Like hell.”
She laughed softly. “You didn’t really. I’m really a blonde, now—nobody can say I’m not You didn’t even notice.”
Well, she’d done another little dye job, or not so little, not really. “You’re something,” I said.
“Am I?” She lay back in my arms. The sun shone in the windows. It was Wednesday. The passports.
Well, I went out and checked the mailbox. But the passports didn’t come.
The mail car went by and there was nothing for Mr. and Mrs. Roy Taft.
I sat there, thinking about him, up there, with his chains.
It got to me, plenty. But there was nothing I could do.
Twenty-One…
I sat there.
She went around the house picking up torn shreds of the red dress, pieces of panties and the rest of the stuff. It was everywhere. She’d really led me a chase.
I thought about this going on forever. Chasing her. Tearing her clothes off
Then I thought some more about him, up there.
He had to be fed.
Those chains. It was like a movie on the Late-Late Show.
She cooked a delicious meal and we ate together. It seemed strange, somehow, but good, too.
I fixed him a plate of food, thinking, must feed the dog, and hating myself. I took it upstairs. It was creepy. I tried not to dwell on what was really happening. If anybody saw us, they’d really have a picture, for sure. It would make some story in the papers, with pix.
This is the mirror.
These are remnants of the torn clothing taken from the bedroom in the house of lust and evil.
This is the house where Satan ruled with lewd laughter.
The hapless Sergeant of police was held here.
This is the table where the sadistic fiends ate, building up energy for further wild orgies.
These are the chains and padlocks that bound Elmer Bliss.
Here is the beautiful, evil, sex-starved woman. Here is the woman’s ravenous mate in lust and crime.
Felice hardly mentioned him now, though. It was as if he wasn’t there. I’d told her to forget him, and it seemed she had.
I went into the bathroom. He was hunched on the floor by the bathtub, among the pillows, tugging at his chains. He looked at me, blinking those damned eyes. I put the food on the floor, went over and untied the necktie and took the gag out of his mouth. He sat there. He said nothing. His mouth was probably a mess. I opened one side of the bathing cap, and loosened the tape so he could hear me good.
“Now, listen, Bliss. I know you don’t feel so hot, but it’s a hell of a lot better than being dead. Here’s food. I’ll unfasten your hands, so don’t try anything.”
His lips moved. “Goddamn you, Phalen!” It was a croak.
I handed him water. He drank the water in gulps. He looked at the food.
“You can’t get away with this,” he said hoarsely.
