It was more than an hour later when John and the well-fucked Alice left his apartment. She fairly glowed with contentment as he drove her home. He'd reamed her pussy good, and a tiny trickle of her menstrual blood was already beginning to flow.
"Did you learn anything else, John? Did Dr. Gordan permit you to speak with Mister Denton face to face, like you wanted?"
"Yeah," he said, his expression turning serious.
Then he stared straight ahead as he drove, and Alice could see the muscles in his cheeks working.
"Well, tell me about it, Darling," Alice urged. "Don't keep me in suspense."
"Maybe you'd be better off that way," he mumbled.
"It's that bad?"
"Could be," he said. "I might've been wrong, Alice. Not about their scheme, though. I'm positive they set out to con you. But it looks bad for both you and my company now."
"Then Mister Denton's back really is broken, after all?"
"Maybe Denton misjudged your speed, or injured his spine when he hit the pavement after he slapped your fender and did a deliberate somersault… or something. All I know about his condition is what I saw, Alice. I stood there and watched Gordan take a long, sterile hatpin and run it clear through Denton's thigh. And then his other thigh, and both of his calves. Denton didn't flinch once, so I know he wasn't faking it. It looks like he's paralyzed, all right. Either that or Gordan gave him a spinal block before I got there. There's one other possibility, of course. Gordan could've induced a temporary paralysis in Denton by using a posthypnotic suggestion, but he didn't appear to be under hypnosis while I was there. All I know is, if they put on that same stunt for a jury, we're dead, ducks."
"Then I'm still going to take care of the poor man when Doctor Gordan releases him from his office."
"I don't like the idea of Denton in the same house with you, Alice. It could be dangerous, if he isn't paralyzed."
"But what if he is, John? And we can't be absolutely sure, can we? No, I've got to do it. I'd never be able to live with my conscience if I didn't. I keep thinking that maybe it really was an accident, in spite of all you've told me, and you've got to admit it could've been."
"Yeah," he grudgingly admitted, "But if it was an accident, it was a billion-to-one shot, and I don't like those odds. And why did Denton call for Gordan? And why isn't he in a regular hospital? No, damn it, it was no accident, even if his back is actually broken. There's no doubt in my mind. Denton deliberately ran out at your car for the express purpose of faking an accident."
"The problem is, how do we prove it? They're taking it to court, Alice. Denton's lawyer rejected our settlement offer. I'm sorry, baby. It looks like I've let you down."
"You did your best. John. That's all anyone can do."
John drove in silence now, and when he pulled up in front of Alice's boarding house, he cut the lights and engine and sat there thinking. "All right," he finally said. "I still don't like the idea of it, but perhaps you should bring Denton back here and take care of him. It'll be months before we go to court, and Gordan should be ready to release him from his office in two or three more weeks. If he's really paralyzed, there's nothing we can do but fight for a reasonable judgment in court. But if they're faking paralysis, with hypnotism or whatever, maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to trap him and get proof of it. I'll get you a miniature recorder and camera. It could be risky, but if you're hell-bent on taking care of him anyway, what have we got to lose? Now, here's what I want you to do, Alice…"
Doctor Gordan, smiling, drove up in front of Mrs. Darling's boarding house with Mr. Denton, who was not smiling.
"I don't like this, Doc," Denton grumbled.
Gordan lifted the smaller man out of the station wagon and put him in the wheel chair. "Widow Darling wants to take care of you, Denty, and I should think you'd be delighted to let her."
"Bullshit. This damned body cast itches me," Denton complained.
With Denton in it, the portly doctor backed the wheel chair up the three steps from the sidewalk, turned it around and started pushing it up the walkway toward the two-story house.
"Forget this crap, Doc. Take me back to your office, and stop by the liquor store on the way. I want a bottle."
They were near the porch by then. Gordan stopped the wheel chair and leaned over with his mouth close to Denton's ear. "Now you listen to me, Denty. You're going in here, not back to my office. That woman feels guilty, and I want her taking care of you. Do you understand? Let her wait on you hand and foot, just like she offered to do. It's your job to play on her sympathies. I want Mrs. Darling feeling so sorry for you that she'll turn out to be our witness when this thing goes to court."
"I'll go nuts in there." Denton muttered. "I'll have to have a bottle."
"Like hell, you will. You'll behave yourself, if you know what's good I or us both. Forget booze, damn it, until after the trial. You'll louse everything up if you get plastered. I'll come by every day, and I'll bring you a little shot, but I'd better not hear of you conning the Darling woman into bringing you a bottle. You don't have to have alcohol, now do you?"
"No, Goddamn it, I'm not an alcoholic. I don't have to have it, I just like it, is all," Denton fussed.
Alice moved her fourteen-year-old son into the room she and little Kitty shared, and made up a cot for him to sleep on. She put the sullen Denton in Hal's room, which was next to hers, so she wouldn't have to run up and down the stairs to attend the wiry little man.
A compassionate woman by nature, it grieved Alice just to look upon Denton. He looked so small and pitiful and helpless, sitting there hour after hour in his wheel chair in the parlor, watching TV. It was even worse when he was in bed reading, or staring blankly at the ceiling, or gazing wistfully out the window. She could see the outline of the bulky body cast beneath the long, hospital type nightshirt he wore. Having him in the house with her was a constant reminder to Alice that she was responsible for his condition, and he looked so wretchedly miserable.
Two weeks passed, with Dr. Gordan dropping by every day to check on Denton. When the doctor confided in her that his patient had recovered as much as he ever would, that Denton would remain an invalid confined to a wheel chair for the rest of his life, Alice was ready to believe it. Taking all the blame upon herself, Alice rejected John's suspicions and cried herself to sleep that night.
One night Alice awakened abruptly in the middle of the night. She'd heard a thump in the next room, and her first fearful thought was that Mr. Denton had fallen out of bed. She lay there for a moment, wondering if she'd dreamed it, trying to shake herself completely awake. Then she heard other noises which didn't make a lick of sense. It was a soft, steady sound, as if bare feet were nervously pacing the floor.
That's impossible! she thought as she swung her lovely legs over the side of the bed and sat up. Mister Denton is paralyzed! He couldn't be up walking around! Could he? But he's awake. I see light under the door!
She had to know for sure. Moving quietly so as not to disturb her children's sleep, Alice tiptoes over to the door connecting the two rooms and knelt to peek through the keyhole. She could see nothing. The keyhole was blocked. Evidently Denton's key was in the lock. This in itself wasn't upsetting to Alice, because the man could get about in his wheel chair, and he often locked himself in his room when he wanted total privacy. She pressed her ear to the door. An icy shiver tingled up her spine.
He is up! I can definitely hear him, and it sounds like he's got his shoes on now! Good grief has John been right all along.
If John was right, this was her opportunity to trap Denton. Alice had the feeling that her imagination might be playing tricks on her, but she couldn't afford to take any chances. Being sued by a pitiful little man whose back she'd broken was one thing, but Alice sure as hell didn't intend to let him take her for everything she had if she actually hadn't crippled him.
She put on her short spring robe, a rather frilly, flowered affair, and jabbed her bare feet into her slippers. Snatching up her purse, which contained the miniature recorder and camera John had loaned her, Alice slipped out through the other door and inched down the hall.
The hallway doors had been fitted with modern locks about a foot above the old-fashioned knob-and-plate affairs which were too susceptible to skeleton keys. Alice had a master key which fit all the newer locks, but she chose not to use it just yet. If she was wrong, she didn't want to make a fool of herself by bursting in on Denton.
Cautiously she dropped to one dimpled knee and pressed her eye to the lower keyhole rather than the narrow slit of the one above, which contained tumblers and was impossible to see through. This one was not blocked. Alice could see right into the room, and what she saw infuriated her.
There on the floor, beside the bed lay Denton's phoney body cast. It had hinges embedded in the plaster on one side, and catches along the other.
Why, you sneaky little bastard! Alice muttered under her breath, realizing now why Denton had taken to locking himself in his room, especially when he went to bed at night. What an idiot I've been! Here I was feeling so sorry for you, and all the time you've been putting on and taking off that damned cast whenever you felt like it!
Denton was almost fully dressed now. Apparently he intended to slip out of the house for a while. Alice couldn't help but wonder how many times he'd done it before, while she and the rest of the people in the boarding house were fast asleep. It galled her to know how thoroughly she'd been duped. But he wouldn't get away with it this time. She got out the miniature camera and stepped back from the door, intending to snap Denton's picture when he stepped into the hallway, and put an end once and for all to the dastardly scheme he and Gordan were pulling.
Five minutes later, she was still waiting, with the camera poised and ready. It dawned on her then.
Denton would not be coming into the hall. All was quiet in his room now, and when she peeked through the keyhole again, she saw that the lights were out.
"Damn it!" she muttered, and knocked on the door, calling his name.
When there was no answer she got her master key from her purse and let herself into Denton's room. She switched on the lights. Denton was nowhere to be seen. Alice kicked angrily at the hinged plaster cast as she moved past it toward the open window. Just as she'd suspected, the screen was unlatched and hanging loose from the top of the window frame.
Silently Alice cursed herself. It was she who'd given Denton the downstairs room thereby making it easy for him to slip out the window late at night and come and go as he pleased. Having no idea whether he would be gone three minutes or three hours, she stamped back to the light switch and plunged the room into darkness once more.
She thought of calling John but decided against it, reasoning that if Denton returned while she was on the phone it would ruin this chance to get the goods on him. Because of Denton's small size, she had no fear of being physically harmed by him. All he wanted was the hundred-thousand-dollar insurance money, and everything she owned in the world, besides.
"Well, you're not going to get a dime, you miserable little runt!" she whispered hissingly as she moved back across the darkened room. "John said candlelight was enough for the film in this camera, so that full moon should be plenty bright enough. I'm going to snap a picture of you walking toward the house, and another of you climbing in the window. Then I'm going straight to the police, I'll see you and that suave doctor in court, all right, but the trial won't be a lawsuit!"
It was easy, even for Alice, to get out through the window. All she had to do was back into it and push open the screen, then let herself down till her feet contacted the ground. Camera in hand, her purse hooked over her forearm, she concealed herself in a squatting position behind a low evergreen shrub and waited.