Read Online The Price of Murder by John D. MacDonald - Free Book Online Page A

worth the squabble we have about it. But this time it’s important. Get that through your head. This time it counts. When did you see Danny last?”
    “Just like I told Mr. Keefler. The day after your birthday.”
    “Come off it, Lucille. You’ve seen him since then. And I have to know about it. Right now.”
    She looked at him and she saw the clear purpose in his eyes. She realized, with consternation, that she would have to tell him something. It was unthinkable that she should try to tell him the whole thing. It had to be just enough to satisfy him. And there would have to be enough detail to make it sound right. She felt, for the first time, a really sharp stab of guilt for what she had done with Danny. It was really a terrible thing. It was his own brother. You couldn’t twist it all around like in a movie and make it seem better. It was something she hadn’t done before, and hadn’t planned to do. Ruthie talked about it a lot, but with Ruthie it was all talk. In a way it was Lee’s fault it happened. He seemed to think he could stick her in this crummy little house on Arcadia Street and keep her on a silly budget and have her be happy forever. When you were used to a lot of things going on, a lot of laughs and so on, you couldn’t be expected to adjust to a life where a faculty tea was a big deal.
    “Come on,” Lee said insistently. “Out with it.”
    Her mind moved quickly, sorting, editing, discarding. “Well, I did see him. But I made a promise.”
    Lee sighed. “The whole story. Come on.”
    “Well, it was two weeks ago yesterday. I only saw him that one time. It was in the morning and I was ironing and he came to the back door. He seemed worried about something. I told him you weren’t here and he said he wanted to ask a favor of me. He said he was in some kind of trouble. He wanted me to keep something for him, to hide it here in the house. He said he didn’t want to ask you to do it because you’d have a lot of questions and so on. So I promised him I would.”
    “Did he come back for it, whatever it was?”
    “No. He was just here that one time. I’ve still got it.”
    “Go get it.”
    She stood up, thinking of going to the kitchen, to the canister of flour, and she remembered how insistent Danny had been about not opening it, and his promise about what he would do if she did. So she turned instead toward the closet, pushed the clothes aside, took the envelope of money from the brown purse and, in a sudden rage at her own stupidity in not taking any of the money out, she flung the envelope at Lee. The money spilled in the air and fluttered down around him, on the bed and on the floor, and she wanted to laugh at his dazed expression.
    He picked the money up slowly, counted it and put it back in the envelope. “A thousand dollars,” he said. “What for?”
    She sat on the bench again. “He said he was in trouble and it was getaway money if things didn’t work out right. But if they did, we could keep it. And if he got killed, we could keep it.”
    “He didn’t say what kind of trouble?”
    “You know how he is.”
    “And that was all?”
    “He gave it to me to hide and told me not to tell you about it and then he left.”
    “Did he park his car in front?”
    “No. I don’t know where he left it. He came to the back door. I was in the kitchen ironing. He went out the back door when he left.”
    “Have you told anybody about this? Did you tell your friend Ruthie?”
    “No. I haven’t told anybody.”
    Lee sat, frowning, and he rapped the envelope against the knuckles of his other hand. It was the same gesture Danny had used.
    “What are you going to do?” she asked.
    “I don’t know. I’m trying to guess how Keefler would react if I told him what …”
    “But it’s your own brother!”
    “I’m aware of that, Seel. I’m very aware of that, believeme. But I have to be sure Keefler won’t get on the trail of this … incident. I guess we have to take a