فصل 09

CHAPTER NINE

‘If you don’t pay them, they’ll kill him’

Lieutenant Sam Grossman was the scientist who ran the police laboratory. It was his job to take the cast of the tyre mark which Kronig had made and the tiny bit of grey paint and to find out what kind of car they came from.

Grossman’s job was not always pleasant. Pieces of bodies, hair, blood and bone were things he saw every day. However, he enjoyed his work because he knew that he was helping to send thieves and murderers to prison. Sometimes his job was extremely difficult, but today it was easy. In a very short time he was able to phone Meyer Meyer and tell him that the car he was looking for was a five-year-old grey Ford.

Meyer took the call from Grossman in Douglas King’s living room. While the two policemen talked, King sat silently staring into the fire. He did not look up when Meyer told him that he was going to talk to Byrnes.

He still did not look up when Diane came into the room and stood between him and the fire.

‘All right,’ she said, so quietly that he could only just hear her. ‘Pete told me what you’ve decided. You can’t be serious.’

‘I am serious, Diane.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘I’m not paying. Start believing it, Diane. I’m not paying.’

‘You have to pay,’ Diane said.

‘I don’t have to do anything. They’re just crooks. Why should

I play their game?’

‘Game? It isn’t a game. There’s a little boy involved. If you don’t pay them, they’ll kill him.’

‘He may be dead already.’

‘They told you he was alive,’ Diane said. ‘You know they did.’

‘They may kill him even if I do pay.’

‘And if you don’t pay, they will certainly kill him.’

King got up from his chair. ‘Would you like a drink, Diane?’ he asked.

‘No, I would not,’ she said. ‘Doug, how can you play with a child’s life like this?’

‘Why should I care about this kid at all?’ King said. ‘What is Reynolds doing to help his son? Nothing! Why should I pay for his son?’

‘But he’s just a child!’

‘I don’t care. He’s nothing to me. Do you know, Diane, I don’t even like the kid! Why should I be responsible for him?’

‘They meant to take Bobby,’ Diane said. ‘That makes you responsible for him.’

‘Not at all. It just makes him unlucky,’ King said. ‘In any case, I haven’t got the money they’re asking for.’

‘You have got it, Doug,’ she said. ‘Don’t lie to me.’

‘I need all the money I’ve got for this deal. I can’t give that away. Don’t you understand?’

‘Yes, I understand completely,’ she said. ‘Your business deal means more to you than a child’s life.’

‘The business is my life,’ King said. ‘It’s everything I’ve worked for. It’s a part of me, Diane. Don’t you realize that?’

‘To hell with the business!’ she shouted. ‘I don’t care about Granger Shoe. I don’t care whether you own it or not.’

‘Listen to me!’ King said angrily. ‘Let me tell you what will happen if I pay that ransom. Benjamin and his friends will get together with the Old Man and throw me into the street. I’ll have no job, Diane! I’ll be finished!’

‘You could start again.’

‘Where? How could I? We’d lose everything - this house, the cars, the way we live - it would all go. Why should I do anything? Why can’t someone else pay?’

‘You were asked,’ Diane said.

‘Why me? Because I’ve got money? I didn’t get it by sitting around watching the world go by! I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve got. Why can’t Reynolds pay the ransom for his own son? Because he’s never worked as hard as I have, that’s why! He’s sat around doing nothing, and now he wants me to help him. Well, I don’t want to help him. I don’t want to help anybody except myself.’

‘You don’t mean that,’ Diane said. ‘You can’t mean that. What’s happened to you, Doug? What’s happened to the man I love?’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Maybe it’s my own fault,’ Diane said. ‘All those years, I just stood and watched, as you got harder and crueller and did worse and worse things to people.’

‘How could I -?’

‘Shut up and listen to me!’ she shouted. ‘You’ve destroyed so many men on your way to the top, Doug, and I just watched. You want to destroy Benjamin, too, and the Old Man and throw them into the street. You don’t care about anyone!’

‘That isn’t true, Diane, and you know it,’ King said. ‘Haven’t I always given you what you wanted? Haven’t I been a good husband to you and a good father to Bobby?’

‘The business has always meant more to you than we have,’ she said. ‘You’ve given us money, a home, food, but you’ve never given us anything of yourself. Only the business matters to you, and now you’re ready to murder a little boy to get what you want!’

‘Murder? No, Diane …’

‘It is murder,’ she said. ‘You can call it by other names, but it is murder, and this time I won’t stand by and watch you do it!’

‘What do you mean? What are you talking about?’

‘If you don’t pay the ransom, I’m leaving you.’

‘Leaving?’

‘I’m taking Bobby and I’m getting out of this house.’

‘Come on, Diane, you don’t know what you’re saying. You -‘

‘I know exactly what I’m saying, Doug. Pay the kidnappers, because I don’t want to be anywhere near you if you don’t. I won’t live with somebody who’s rotten and dirty, who -‘

‘Honey, honey,’ he said, reaching out his hand to her. ‘Can’t you -?’

‘Get away from me!’ she screamed. ‘Don’t touch me, Doug! This time I’ve had enough!’

‘I can’t pay,’ he said. ‘You can’t ask me to.’

‘I’m not asking,’ she said. ‘I’m telling. Have the money ready when the kidnappers call tomorrow morning.’

‘I can’t give it to them,’ he said. ‘Diane, I can’t pay. You can’t ask me to.’

But she had already walked out of the room.