Flight to Darkness (7 page)

“
We did,” Redfern said. “Woodruff
was on the other side of the lake digging night
crawlers.”

“
Ah, it’s an obvious tip,” Hartly
said. “Let’s take him in.”

Leda looked at me. “You didn’t drive out with
the car, did you, Eric?”

“
Of course not.”

“
What’s the matter?” Redfern said.
“Can’t you trust him?”

“
She can trust me,” I said. “You’re
not taking me any place.”

Hartly made a face.

“
Just what’s so obvious about all
this?” Leda said.

It was like having the doctors work on your
wounds. You were off someplace, yet you were there, watching it.
What they said didn’t mean anything to you; it was of you, yet not
for you. At the same time, it concerned you altogether.

There was something in Leda’s eyes behind the
smoke; something bright and what the hell. I didn’t like
it.

Hartly was talking. “The tip was phoned in and
radioed to me. The license number and description of the car.
Mercury convertible, gun-metal color. California plates. Probably
the only Mercury convertible of that color with a California
license in this county.” He shrugged. “It was an anonymous
tip.”

“
Where’s this person I’m supposed
to have hit?”

“
The hospital,” Redfern said. “He’s
not dead. Reckon you was scared of that.”

I hadn’t thought about death. Not this
way.

“
We’ll go down to the station,”
Redfern said.

“
Me, too?” Leda asked.

“
Yeah, lady,” Hartly said. “You,
too.”

“
We’ll stop by the hospital,”
Redfern said. “Maybe Allen got a look at Garth.”

“
I’ll have to change,” Leda said.
She ran one hand across her shorts and all eyes followed the
movement.

“
You look all right, Mrs.
Garth.”

Riding into Sordell, no one spoke. The tires
hissed on the wet pavement. Rain drummed on the car’s
roof.

Leda and I didn’t speak to each other. Once
when I glanced at her and she looked at me, I saw that her face was
very pale. She drew close into the rear corner of the seat against
the window.

The antiseptic odor, the stillness, the
whisking, unruffled quiet reached me. A gray-haired, stout nurse
sat at the hospital reception desk in the front hall.

“
Hit-and-run? Oh, yes. Allen.
Gerald Allen. In two-nineteen. Second floor. Just up those stairs
right there, turn right. It’s the second door on your left.” She
was big bosomed and she fussed with a pad of paper. “The doctor
said if you all came you all could look in.”

This was no dream. Maybe the dream was better.
For some reason I thought of Norma, back home. She would have
fought. She would have climbed all over Redfern and spat in
Hartly’s eye.

“
Thanks, nurse.” Redfern took my
arm and the four of us paraded up the stairs.

Outside the door another nurse confronted us.
Slim and too quiet, she spoke in whispers. She was impressed with
her duty, probably a new nurse.

“
I’m Sheriff Redfern.”

“
Oh, yes,” the nurse said. “You can
go right in, but you can only stay a minute. Dr. Morton said he can
talk, but not to excite him. He’s hurt pretty bad, you
know.”

Redfern’s gaze swiveled to me. The nurse
opened the door and we walked in.

The dimly shaded bed light above the
white-painted hospital bed was the only light in the bare room. A
white screen on rollers was to the right of the bed. The blinds
were drawn and the man in the bed was detectable only as a hump
beneath the tautly smooth white covers.

Bright-eyed, he watched us enter. He lay very
still. Redfern drew me over beside the bed. The man’s right arm lay
in a cast and there were bandages on his chest and shoulder. There
was tape on his jaw and dressings over his left ear.

“
Mr. Allen,” Redfern said. “We
don’t aim to bother you. So if you’ll just say yes or no. Can you
identify this man as the man who struck you with a car early this
evening in Sordell?”

The man’s gaze turned to me. He said
nothing.

Then an odd feeling took hold of me. I turned
to Leda, pressed her hand, started to say something, changed my
mind. I stared hard at Gerald Allen.

I had seen him before. I was sure of it. Red
hair. Not much of it but it was red, all right, and he was small,
too. It was noticeable even in the bed. My mind went back to the
hospital in California. Where a carrot-colored head of hair shone
in sunlight and its owner stood on the hospital steps. Yes. Allen
was the one—he had to be. But how could I prove a thing like
that—and why?

“
How about that, Mr. Allen,”
Redfern said. “You get a look at this guy?”

Allen shook his head slowly. “No.” He closed
his eyes. “I hurt. Leave me be.”

I bent over the bed. “Allen,” I said. “Allen,
were you ever in California? Just lately? Were you?”

Leda pulled at my arm. “Eric, what’s the
matter?”

The door of the room opened. The nurse looked
in. “Your minute’s up,” she said. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to
leave.”

Was it sudden fright, then relief, that I
noticed in Allen’s eyes?

Chapter 5

“
I want to speak with my
wife—alone.”

We were starting down the hall toward the
hospital stairs. Redfern frowned.

“
All right,” he said. “We’ll wait
on the stairs. You been cooperative. You didn’t have to do this,
y’know.”

I just looked at him.

“
Why’d they want to do that?”
Hartly said.

“
Maybe he wants to hold her hand,”
Redfern said. “Come on.” They moved down to the first landing and
stood there, talking quietly.

“
Listen,” I said to Leda. “Did you
recognize Allen? Have you ever seen him before? Think hard,
baby.”

She looked at me. “Eric, what’s all this
about? Are you sure you didn’t leave the cabin and go out with the
car after I went into town?”

I felt anger and bitterness and I couldn’t
keep that out of my voice. “You know better than that. I’d tell you
if I went into town. What’s the matter with you?”

“
Of course,” she said. She looked
at the floor, then at me. “What did you say about
Allen?”

“
Have you seen him
before?”

She shook her head. “No, Eric. I’ve never seen
the man.”

I reminded her about the day at the hospital
in California.

She recalled the men. “But I’m sure you’re
wrong, Eric. It couldn’t possibly be.”

I groaned inside. What use was it? It was like
shouting in a tornado. I might have known she’d see no resemblance.
But it was there for me. I read it and it was there. “Listen,” I
said. “I don’t know what’s up, Leda. I didn’t take the car out. The
fender’s dented and there was blood on it. If they type that blood
with Allen’s and find it’s the same, they’ve got the car. I know I
didn’t do it. Why would anybody want to say I did?”

Leda’s lips were damp and her eyes glistened,
her lids heavy as always. Her hair was moist from the rain. She
touched my arm. “Eric, whatever it is, it can be explained. I’m
sure of that. I didn’t have the car and neither did you. So there’s
nothing to worry about. I just keep wondering about—”

“
What?”

“
Nothing.”

“
It was the same man. I know
it.”

“
Darling, you’re excited and tired.
Thinking of your dreams too much. You get back to the cabin, go to
bed. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

I looked down the stairs toward Redfern and
Hartly. Redfern motioned. “Come on, Garth.”

I nodded at Leda. “Sure—home and bed. That’s a
long way off, baby, and I know it. You better learn it now. There’s
plenty of explaining to do. All I can see is I’m framed for
something I had no hand in. It’s more than just a mistake. Don’t
you see?” And somebody had moved that car—but I couldn’t prove
that, either.

She took my arm. “Come on, let’s go,” she
said. “See if we can’t find what it’s all about.”

We went down the stairs and joined
Redfern.

“
Look,” Leda said. “My husband—”
she glanced quickly at me, “isn’t well. He’s a war veteran. Just
left a hospital in California. We’re going to his home in Florida.
He needs rest. This excitement is the worst possible thing that can
happen to him.”

“
Doesn’t look sick to me,” Hartly
said.

“
Something the matter with him
upstairs?” Redfern said.

I glanced at Leda. “Never mind.” I didn’t want
her to start talking about that. Could be it would make things
worse. This was bad enough.

Hartly watched the tight fleshy way of Leda’s
hips as she walked down the stairs ahead of us. I glared at him. He
turned to me and winked.

Police headquarters was downstairs in the
courthouse. The officer in charge of the desk, Lieutenant Morgan,
was alone in the room of many sins. A row of lockers sloped against
the far wall and there was a low bench at the back. The desk itself
was on a small platform behind which a steel door with a small
barred window shielded the cell block.

Hartly closed the door against the rain and we
stood there dripping. The other cop had remained with the car. Leda
seemed the least affected, but she was pale and her hands worked
together.

Redfern said, “Here we are. A good night for a
murder, too.” He glanced at me shrewdly. “One thing I hate’s a
hit-and-run.”

Lieutenant Morgan rested an elbow on the desk,
planed fingers above his eyes, and stared at us. The fingers of his
left hand drummed on the desk blotter. He had a long thin face with
bad teeth and dark eyes beneath his blue cap. He took off the cap,
laid it on the desk. He was bald save for a fringe of brown hair
above his ears. His nose was bulbous and looked wormy.

Hartly stepped up, put one hand against the
desk, and told Morgan the story. “This is Mrs. Garth,” he finished.
“She claims she was in town, too. She knows nothing of her
husband’s whereabouts at the time of the accident.”

“
I do,” Leda said. “He was asleep
in our cabin.”

“
Are you sure? Did you see your
husband sleeping?” When Morgan spoke, he expelled a great deal of
air with each word, like a dry whistle. “You really can’t be sure
of anything, Mrs. Garth. From what Officer Hartly says, you all
were in the lunchroom after Hartly returned. You didn’t go to the
cabin as you didn’t wish to disturb your husband.”

“
This is all rot,” I said. “You
know it’s rot!”

“
Is that right?” Morgan said. “Can
you prove you were in the cabin?”

“
I was there, that’s
all.”

Morgan lifted a sheet of paper from his desk.
Redfern slumped on the bench at the back of the room. I could hear
him breathing.

Morgan said, “I have here a report from the
hospital lab. Gerald Allen’s blood type and the type of the blood
found on the front of your car, Mr. Garth, correspond. It was human
blood, and that alone is enough. Also, hair found with particles of
human tissue on the bumper, headlights, and grille of your car, has
definitely proved to be hair from the victim—Gerald Allen.
Particles of glass from the headlights of your car were picked up
at the scene of the accident. They’ll doubtless be matched with
what glass remains in the headlight of your car. Thus absolute
verification seems to be the case, Mr. Garth. That in view of the
fact that a witness, unknown but nevertheless a witness, gave us
your license number and description of the car.” He laid the paper
down and folded his hands.

“
I’ve seen the man before,” I said.
I told him of the California car delivery.

Lieutenant Morgan’s gaze shifted to Leda.
“What about that, Mrs. Garth?”

Leda chewed her lip, looked down, then up at
Morgan. “I—I—”

“
Leda,” I said. “Leda, tell
him!”

She turned to me. “Yes, Eric. I did see what
you saw. But we really can’t swear it’s the same man.”

Morgan carefully smoothed the sheet of paper
with both hands. Redfern struck a match against the wall and lit a
cigarette. He tossed the match to the floor, looked at me and
shrugged. He blew a cloud of blue smoke at the ceiling.

Morgan watched Redfern over our heads. Redfern
quietly inspected his cigarette.

Hartly kept rocking back and forth on his
heels. His shoes squeaked. He made many faces.

“
Leda. Can’t you tell them
anything?”

Her lips pressed tight as she shook her head.
She made a vague gesture with her hand, looked appealingly at
me.

Morgan said, “Sorry. We’ll have to hold you.
He reached in the desk drawer, came up with a bunch of keys, tossed
them to Hartly. “Cell number three.”

“
I want a lawyer.”