400305fae7a17859425ba18bb90b40bb by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub

13

For the next couple of days I was like a man in a pressure cooker. Not only was I tense in the presence of Judith, but also now with Jeb. It was as though he had only to look at me to know that I had possessed his wife, and that he was patiently waiting for me to break down and tell all. I assured myself that his attitude, if it actually existed, was directed only at my general amnesia. Nevertheless, I was conscience-stricken and nervous about every word I uttered.

After having lunch with Jeb on Friday, I got home shortly after two exhausted. Judith was out, as usual, and I could hear Mirabelle, our daily cleaning woman, rattling plates in the kitchen. I walked in and asked when Judith was expected.

Mirabelle brushed a springy rope of hair from her black forehead and looked at me through thick-lensed glasses. “She said two, Mr. Marriott. Past that now.”

The phone rang next to the stairs. I sauntered to it and picked it up.

“Hello,” I said.

There was no answer. Just the sound of breathing.

“Hello,” I said again. “This is Mr. Marriott. Who is this?”

Dead silence. Then I heard a soft click, as if the connection had been broken by the slow pressure of a finger. I said hello twice again, just to be sure, and hung up. Doubtless someone had dialed a wrong number. But why not say so?

I hiked up the stairs, on my way to the bedroom to get into something loose. At the landing, out of sight of the floor below, I heard the front door open and guessed it was Judith. The kitchen door creaked open and Judith’s voice greeted Mirabelle.

“Any messages, Mirabelle?”

“Well, lemme see. Couple of people sellin’ things. And, oh yeah, yeah, some man called. Asked when you’d be home and I said ‘bout two. Said he’d call back.”

Indifferently Judith said, “Didn’t he leave his name?”

“Yeah. Lessee.”

A pause. I waited on the landing.

“Stanton,” Mirabelle said. “Richard Stanton.”

I froze. Richard Stanton—the name Ridge Standish had used at The Hacienda! Something that sounded like a package thudded to the floor downstairs.

It was a moment before Judith’s voice, hushed and tremulous, floated thinly up the stairs. “Did … did he leave a number?”

“No, ma’m.”

I crept to the bedroom and silently shut the door, noticing that I left a smear of sweat on the knob. The full shock of the name hit me as I mechanically slipped off my tie. It must have been Standish who had hung up only a few minutes before. He had expected Judith to be at home but assumed I’d be at the office. Why, on the previous call, had he risked leaving his name? But of course it was not his real name, simply a code name that he knew Judith would instantly recognize. He had to have thought that, even if I heard it, it would be meaningless to me.

I considered that as I dropped clothes onto the bed. If he thought the name

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