Bring Back Her Body (6 page)

“I’m a free man,” Cain said gently. “I intend to stay that way.”

But the gentle approach appeared to be without effect. “Only for a little while,” she said. Her eyes said, “Cain, you’re doomed.”

She wanted him, he thought, like she wanted her mountain and a new telescope. He said, “About Paula …”

“I won’t tell you!”

Cain said angrily. “Can’t you understand that your sister’s life may be in danger?”

“I thought so. I don’t now.”

Cain said, “I’d like to tan your bottom.”

She obligingly turned around and bent over. “I’d love it — from you.”

Cain glared at her. “All right, when you get dressed, come to the boat and we’ll talk it over.” He stomped out, slamming doors, not angry but hoping he sounded enough so as to impress her. He was reaching for the handle of his car door when he heard her voice.

“Cain!”

He looked up. She was at a front upstairs window. “I’m hurrying, Cain.”

He swore lustily, wiped sweat from his forehead, and drove off.

CAIN
was still swearing when he stomped onto the dock. He had gone through all the words he knew in English, all those in the Portuguese and Spanish which he had picked up from fishermen and was starting in on Indian when he saw Lisa and shut up. She was still sunning herself but now she was drinking coffee.

“Fresh,” she said. “I made it when I saw you leave the roof.”

Cain glanced up at the trees. She picked his best field glasses up from where they lay by her side and handed them to him. He grinned a little as the gap in the trees swung into view and through it he could see the flat roof and the telescope.

“Two can play at that game,” he said. Returning the glasses, he ducked into the galley and came out with a cup of coffee. He squatted by the rail, sipping it. Lisa stretched luxuriantly in the sun, not speaking, waiting for him to simmer down.

He began to look relaxed. She grinned. “What you said — in Siwash.”

“I know some more,” he growled.

She laughed. “But she is cute, Cain.”

“So’s a baby shark.”

“Man-eating variety, I presume. I mean her figure.”

“I’ve spent years not noticing her figure,” Cain said. “But she’ll be bringing it along soon. Clothed, I hope.”

Lisa said, “Oh,” and got up. “She knows I’m here, I suppose.”

“She had the telescope on us when we arrived with the bags.” He shrugged. “She thinks you’re trying to steal me from her.” Lisa started to giggle but as he told her the whole thing the laughter left her. Cain did not think he was breaking a confidence; he trusted more than that in Lisa’s judgment. “She’s all out of key,” he said.

“I know,” Lisa admitted. “With me it was size. I was tall and gangly and I would have given every A grade I had to be short and cuddly and have a boy friend — any boy. But they were all undersized. Most of them still are.”

He glanced at her, taking in the long, finely shaped legs, the solid thighs, the well-balanced hips and bust. She would never be fat; she wasn’t the type. She was no lightweight but she was well proportioned. There was nothing grotesque about her. And her face was beautiful with its fine bones and wide set eyes and the humorous, warm mouth.

“I like it all,” he said.

“Reaction from attempted seduction,” she laughed. “What are you going to do, Cain?”

“Between us maybe we can get over how important this is. She’s too damned coy.”

“Honor doesn’t like me,” she said. “Between us we’d get zero. I’ll take a walk.”

“Like hell you will,” he said in a panicky voice.

Ignoring him she put on her sandals. “The easiest way, Cain, is to do what she wants. After all, she’s nearly twenty years old. And she’s determined.”

“Why doesn’t she like you?” Cain countered, ignoring the advice.

“Because Paula doesn’t like me,” she said. “Honor only saw me once before. I was obnoxiously drunk.”

“And Paula, why doesn’t she like you?”

Lisa’s eyes were amused. “Cain, you have a one-track mind. I don’t think she trusts me — I worked pretty close to Toby. I don’t really know. Now get busy and think of something to do with Honor.” She stepped onto the dock. “I’ll whistle like a fish or something as I come back.”

“Hey!”

She turned and waved. “Do it the easy way, Cain.”

He was swearing again, trying new combinations in various languages when the speedboat raced around the point and darted into his dock. Honor threw Cain a line and hopped onto the dock and then to his boat. The wind had whipped color into her face. She wore a peasant skirt and a light blouse and apparently nothing else but sandals. But Cain was fooled. As soon as she discovered Lisa was gone she peeled to a less-than-Bikini suit and stretched out on the warm deck.

“This is nice and warm out of the wind. There’s too much breeze on the roof.”

“Coffee?”

“No thanks.” She smiled her pouting smile. “Have you decided, Cain?”

He studied the whitecaps. She had the body of a mature woman, the detached and determined mind of the scientist and the morals of a baby animal. He sighed. She said no more and he glanced at her. She lay with her eyes shut against the light and he saw the naïveté and youth in her features now that she was off guard. An evil grin spread over his bony face.

“Yes,” he said. He sounded fierce, hard. “Get up and come with me.” Her eyes opened wide but she didn’t move. He reached down and got a wrist and pulled. “I can’t wait all day.”

Her eyes grew wider in surprise, “Cain …” He could feel the momentary reluctance of her feet seeking purchase on the deck as he pulled her toward the cabin. He grinned again; it was not a pleasant grin.

He let loose of her and she went down the steps, slowly, and he followed, shutting the doors and drawing the curtains over the portholes, putting them into near darkness. When he turned she was standing by one of the wide seats.

He walked up to her and grasped her shoulders, pulled her against him, kissing her with his mouth hard, hurting her lips. She was rigid a moment and then she yielded, her own arms going up about his neck. But he could feel her trembling and not quite relaxed.

He made huffing sounds like a marine motor trying to catch, ran a hand down her back to the halter strap and pulled. He stepped back, tossing the wisp of cloth to one side. “Come on!”

She crossed her arms over her breasts in sudden and futile modesty. He could see her lips trembling and see her fighting, but despite her efforts two large tears formed on her eyelashes and came tumbling down her cheeks.

“Cain …” It was a wail.

“Damn it,” he said hoarsely, “that’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?” He put out his hands as if to hook them in the sides of her brief shorts where the string held them together. She took a step backward and was pressed against the edge of the seat. The tears were coming openly now and she was sniffling.

“I — I didn’t think it would be this way.”

“What did you expect?” His voice was like a slap.

“I — I thought it would be — be beautiful and — beautiful.”

“Since when is blackmail beautiful?” he demanded.

She stopped sniffling and stared at him, her lips parted. “Why,” she whispered, “I never thought of it that way. Honest I didn’t.”

Cain sneered his disbelief. He took a step forward, grasping her arms, drawing them away from her breasts. “Come on, baby. Let’s get about it. You started this.”

Her eyes, dry now, grew wider and wider as she stared into his face. Her own muscles grew taut and she took a deep breath, fighting obviously for control. Cain had a hard time keeping his face straight. Then her mouth opened. “I’m scared!” she wailed.

Cain dropped her wrists, turned and smothered a laugh with a cough, swung around, glowering at her. “We made a bargain, baby. I’ll keep my half and I expect you to do the same.” He caught her by the waist and lifted her, tossing her onto the wide, padded seat. She lay there, staring into his hard-lined face.

“I’ll keep my part, Cain. You — you don’t have to if you don’t want to, though.” Her voice was weak and far away.

Cain looked at her a moment longer and then started to unbutton his shirt. He was on the second button when there was a flash of legs and she was gone onto the deck. He went into the head and turned on the water to cover his laughing and howled until he was all loose inside. Then, wiping the tears from his eyes, he strode up on deck. Honor was modestly dressed in her skirt and blouse. She sat on the railing with a cigarette.

“Can I have that coffee now, Cain?”

He got them each a cup and handed one to her silently. He filled his pipe and took the chair Lisa had vacated, putting his feet on the railing. She wouldn’t look at him; her eyes were studying something important in her coffee cup.

“I saw her on Whidby last evening.”

“I thought she’d left there.”

“I guess she came back.”

“You had your telescope on her?”

“No, it was too dark. It was a little before you came. I was over there with the runabout.” She looked at him now. “And Toby saw me!”

He let her tell it. At first she was disorganized but soon she had it all in order and it came out easily. She had received a telephone call from her sister. Paula had asked her to bring some clothing to Whidby at a certain time and had sworn her to secrecy. Honor took the clothing to the dock on Whidby at the specified time and found Paula there. They talked a few minutes, Honor trying to find out where Paula had been and why she was hiding but had got nowhere.

“You didn’t learn anything?” Cain asked in surprise.

“Just that Toby was giving a party but Paula wasn’t going,” Honor said.

“Did she say why?”

“No. But if she was hiding, obviously she wouldn’t plan to go.”

Cain let her go on. She explained that she was curious and a little frightened by Paula’s actions and when she left she went around the point and idled there a while. Before long a launch came from the direction of the peninsula and docked. Figuring she was far enough away not to be seen, Honor swung into open water and looked through her field glasses. Toby had come in the launch and he was on the dock, talking to Paula.

“How could he see you?” Cain wanted to know.

“I was right out there in the open,” she said, “and even if it was dusky, I stayed so long that he got suspicious and I saw him put the glasses on me. Like a fool, I ducked and hightailed it for home and that gave everything away.”

“And then?”

“I don’t know,” Honor said. “But he saw me and now he knows I know he’s been seeing Paula.”

“What’s so terrible about that?”

“After he’s been denying he saw her since that party almost two weeks ago?”

“What is her relationship with Toby?”

“I don’t know,” Honor said frankly. “Sometimes I think she’s afraid of him, awfully. But I notice that she hangs around him a lot.”

“What about Munger? Did she ever mention him?”

“Yes,” Honor said. “Not long ago she told me he had cheated her.”

“I can believe that,” Cain said dryly. “It’s hardly news.”

Honor set down her cup. “All I know is that she said, ‘Damn him! He cheated me, but I’ll get it back if it kills me.’ ”

There was no more. Cain asked a few questions but Honor had evidently dredged up all that she knew. Her fear, he saw now, was that Toby had killed Paula last night and had done something with her. Honor’s relief that it had been a wax dummy in the coffin had been obvious.

Cain studied the pinkish-gray cast the setting sun laid over the quieting water of the Sound. Then he said, “Why did you lie to me, Honor? You gave the impression you weren’t sure Paula was around.”

She looked very lost, very much the small girl. Then she lifted her head and looked defiantly at Cain. “Because Paula’s in some kind of trouble and I want her helped. I — I thought if I could get you to start on the problem, we could find some way to help her.”

“Because I wouldn’t do it for Paula alone, is that it?”

“Yes. I guess I made it worse than it was because of that.”

Cain said, “I’m not sure you made it out worse, Honor. Just because Paula hasn’t really disappeared doesn’t mean everything is all right, you know.”

“I know, Cain. Because something is making her hide. Something besides her fear of Daddy.”

“That’s true, then, what you said about her being afraid to come home?”

“Yes.”

Cain thought about it. He didn’t want to worry Honor unduly but neither did he want her to think everything was taken care of. He said, “Munger shows too much interest for everything to be all right, Honor. If you get a chance to talk to Paula again, try and find out if it’s he she’s worried about.”

Honor got up and went to her runabout. “I do want to help, Cain. I’ll do all I can.”

“Keep your eye on your telescope then.” He watched her putt out of sight around the point. He was still standing, looking at the spot where he had last seen her when a sound like an owl with bronchitis turned him.

In a moment Lisa came on deck. “Well, Romeo?”

“I got the information,” Cain told her. He gave her the gist of what Honor had told him. He did not describe the method he had used to get it. When he was done, Lisa did not comment. Instead, she headed for the galley.

“What now?”

“If you’re going back to Toby’s madhouse,” she said, “we’ll need some warm food inside us.”

“Am I going to Toby’s? I’d thought of starting from Munger’s this time and working in another direction.”

She shrugged. “I guess my evening gown can take one more outing. But you’ll need food anyway.”

“I couldn’t eat his,” Cain agreed. “It’s liable to be seasoned with strychnine.”

“You poor idiot,” Lisa said. “But I know better than to argue with you.” She went off to the galley and Cain set a table on the deck. She didn’t argue with him but she did talk and by the time they were through eating, she had made out a better case for going to the farm than to Munger’s.

Cain grinned ruefully. “You win. And maybe you’re right. I would like a better look at that wax image of Paula. And I’d like to know the reason for it. It was too much work for just a party gag. But that doesn’t mean you have to get tangled up any more than you are.”

She mimicked Honor’s piping voice. “Do you think I want to lose you now, Cain?”