Now You See It... Part 44

Then Max, breath strained, said in a quiet (bating) voice, "Are you both satisfied now?"

Hands shaking, he began to close the bookcase again.

Ca.s.sandra grabbed his arm and jerked him around.

"You made a shrine to her?" she asked, infuriated. "A shrine?"

Max looked at her in blank surprise (as I did) as she shoved the bookcase halves apart again, so violently that the mannequin began to topple.

With a hollow cry. Max lunged for the figure to prevent its fall. He stood it up again.

Ca.s.sandra smiled now. It was not a wholesome smile.

"To the only woman you ever loved?" she asked.

"Whafs going on?" asked Plum. I would have asked me same question had I been able to speak.

"And she loved you, of course/' Ca.s.sandra said- "Adored you. Worshiped you."

Max's face looked carved from stone. Again, he tried to dose the bookcase halves to shut away what clearly was a shrine to Adelaide. Again, Ca.s.sandra stopped him.

It was impossible to believe mat these two had ever loved each other, so rabid were their exchanged looks. I felt em- barra.s.sed to witness it. Plum seemed to feel the same.

"Time for a little truth. Max," said Ca.s.sandra. "Time to set things straight."

He started to speak. She cut him off.

"You never loved her/or a second," she said.

He tensed. I tensed (I think). Plum tensed (I guess).

Ca.s.sandra's smile was ruthless.

"How could you love her," she said, "when you loved your- self so much?"

152 Richard Mathexon

It seems accurate to say that Max was on the verge of leaping at her, probably to throttle her.

But somehow, he managed to hold back, his expression suddenly confused. What does that mean? I wondered.

"Oh, you thought you loved her/' said Ca.s.sandra. "Why not? She never asked for a single thing."

Her face went hard- "Except a baby," she added.

*"Stop it," said Max. His voice was weak and vulnerable now.

"She spoke to me. You never knew that, did you?" said Ca.s.sandra. "During mat engagement in New York. The night she died."

Her shiver seemed genuine enough.

"Or should I say the night she was killed?" she added.

"Stop it," Max commanded- He seemed to be losing con- trol.

"Oh, no," Ca.s.sandra said through clenching teem. "Not now. I'm sure the Sheriff will be fascinated by what I have to say. I'm sure your father would be too if he weren't a liv- ing sponge." (Gradas, Ca.s.sandra.)

"I'm warning you," Max told her

"Warn ahead," she said, defying him.

She turned to the Sheriff.

"My brother and I were performing at the same theater,"

she said. "I got to know Max's wife. She was pregnant. Oh, so happy to be carrying their first child."

"G.o.d d.a.m.n you." Max's hands began to flex into fists.

''And oh, so exhausted because Max wouldn't let her rest," Ca.s.sandra continued, looking at Max as though dar- ing him to try and stop her.

"She should have been in bed that night," she went on.

"She was afraid she might miscarry. But did mat mean a thing to Max? No. Not him. He didn't want the baby any- way."

"G.o.d d.a.m.n you," Max broke in again.

Now You S- It. 153

"He couldn't stand the idea of Adelaide loving any other person m the world but him."

"Stop it!" shouted Max; it was the agonized protest of a man who knew he was hearing the truth. (A genuine shock tome.)

"You knew she shouldn't have been working that night!"

Ca.s.sandra shouted back. "You didn't give a d.a.m.n, though!

You made her work, regardless! She miscalculated, had the accident-and you're the one who killed her!"

M.

lax lunged at Ca.s.sandra, hands clutching for her throat.

Only Plum's alert move prevented him from succeeding.

"You didn't want a wife!" Ca.s.sandra raged at Max. "You wanted a slave' A smiling, bowing/ sc.r.a.ping, worshiping slave! That's why Adelaide was your dream woman! Be- cause/ unlike me-"

She broke off breathlessly and turned away from him with a convulsive shudder.

"Let me go," Max told the Sheriff quietly.

"Not if you intend to harm your wife," said Plum.

Max replied, "My wife is dead."

My eyeb.a.l.l.s shifted as I looked at Ca.s.sandra.

Not surprisingly, she was staring at Max with as much pain as venom.

Once again, I was compelled to sympathize with her.