Helga's Web by Jon Cleary

Author:Jon Cleary [Cleary, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Detective
ISBN: 9780002213196
Google: DyelGgAACAAJ
Goodreads: 5981182
Publisher: Collins
Published: 1970-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

He would give them to Josie. She would get them only by default, but even so he felt better for the thought. If today was the day for goodbyes, it could also be the day for a new start. He might even ask Josie about the seasons.

3

Helga looked at her broken nail, then felt suddenly squeamish as she saw the sliver of skin and the blood under it. Still breathing heavily from exertion and anger, she stumbled into the bathroom and thrust her hand under a tap. She leant on the basin, her hand still under the tap as if she were trying to staunch a gush of her own blood instead of washing off the tiny streak of Norma Helidon’s, and stared at herself in the mirror. There was a slight bruise on her cheek where the other woman had hit her and the collar of the green silk dressing gown had been ripped. I could have killed her! she told her reflection; then all at once her anger went and she was afraid. Afraid of herself and the web she had created.

She had known from the start that the blackmail she had planned would not be easy. Men, even weak men, did not give away large sums of money without some sort of fight; especially self-made men like Walter Helidon and Leslie Gibson. She knew of the mercilessness that lay behind the acquisition of wealth: charity never paid dividends of riches. She had expected to see the worst side of Walter Helidon’s nature; but she had not expected the venomous opposition that Norma Helidon had shown. Walter’s wife, the society matron, the queen of the charities, had come here this afternoon and shown all the alley-cat spirit of the girls Helga had once seen brawling on the Reeperbahn.

“Walter’s been here, hasn’t he, Miss Brand? I saw him down at the car park. No, we didn’t speak to each other,” she had said as she had seen Helga’s questioning look. “He didn’t see me. He looked as if he weren’t seeing anything. I just

hope he gets home safely,” she added, and for a moment her voice softened; it contrasted strangely with the harsh note that had been in her voice from the moment she had entered the flat. Then the harshness came back, as if she could not control it: “I’m sure you wouldn’t want him hurt. Or has he paid you the money?”

Helga leaned against the sideboard, drawing her gown tighter about her. Norma Helidon had sat down as soon as she had entered the flat, as if her legs had been able to carry her only this far and had then run out of strength; but she sat on the edge of the chair, her knees close together, her gloved hands clutching her handbag so tightly that the cream leather of it was dented. She had taken off the sunglasses she had been wearing and there was a pinched dark look to her eyes as if she were in pain.

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