برونو انجامش داد

Chapter 6 Bruno Did It!

Guy sat back against his bed in the hotel and watched Anne turn over his drawings of their house. He kissed her hair and then her face.

‘I want it to be a big house,’ Anne said.

‘Yes,’ Guy said. He had the job in Florida again, which would bring him a lot of money, and then there would be more valuable jobs. He was very happy.

‘Are you hungry?’ Anne asked. ‘Let’s order some food.’

As they ate, the phone rang.

‘Guy?’ It was his mother.

‘Hello, Mama,’ he said.

‘Guy,’ she said. ‘It’s about Miriam. She’s dead, Guy. Murdered, last night. . .’ She started to cry.

Guy put the phone down and told Anne about Miriam. He started to pack his suitcase while Anne ordered his plane ticket.

‘Guy? Are you all right?’ Anne asked.

Guy was staring at his drawings, but there were no houses on the paper, they were all drawings of Bruno’s smiling face with his red, tired eyes.

♦

‘What if Bruno did it?’ Guy thought on the plane. He tried to remember every word they had said. ‘Did I tell him to do it?’

At Metcalf the police asked him some questions and then Guy went home to his mother. He found a letter waiting for him. Inside was a card from a Metcalf taxi company and on the other side, some writing:NICE TOWN METCALF .

‘That doesn’t mean anything,’ Guy told himself. ‘It could be anyone. Lots of people come to Metcalf

At the inquest a lawyer asked Guy about Miriam.

‘You wanted her dead, didn’t you?’ the lawyer said. ‘You arranged her murder. You thought she wouldn’t give you a divorce, and you didn’t want her to go to Florida. Isn’t that true?’

‘Yes, but I didn’t want her dead,’ Guy said. He looked at Miriam’s boyfriend, Owen Markham. He was a dark, good looking man who looked at Guy with large brown eyes.

In the end the inquest decided that some unknown person had murdered Miriam.

The next day a telegram from Bruno arrived: ALL GOOD WISHES FROM THE GOLDEN WEST . ‘It’s from Anne’s parents,’ Guy told his mother. ‘It’s nothing nothing.’

A few days later Guy went to Florida to start his new job. Every day he worked he felt good, he knew he was doing the right thing.

The sports club would be a perfect building.

One evening in August he got a letter from Bruno: I phoned your mother for your address, hut she didn’t give it to me. Look, Guy, don’t worry. I’m going to he very careful. Write to me soon.

Your friend, Charley Bruno

Then Guy knew. Bruno did it, Bruno did it; he could not stop thinking those words, Bruno did it. His life was different now, his job, his mother, Anne, everything was different now.

When Guy spoke to his mother on the phone he said, ‘Uh, do you remember that man who phoned you for my address? It was a friend, Phil Johnson. He works in Chicago, and he wanted to see me. Isn’t that nice? Don’t worry about it.’