Now You See It... Part 59

"I know you mink it was horrific what I did. It is. I admit it.

"But you never had this kind of motivation in your life.

"This kind of betrayal."

Now You See h... 193

His right hand jerked up as though he meant to strike Ca.s.sandra, even dead.

"You don't know what she did to me," he said.

"Made me think that it was because of illness that my eyesight was failing, my hearing failing, my hand dexterity failing, my ability to concentrate on stage failing.

"Even my ability to perform in bed/' he finished in a low, venom-ridden voice.

His breath was quickening, his teeth on edge.

"Illness," he said. "That's what she had me believing.

"When all the time it was her.

"Slowly poisoning me."

I stared at him in sickened dread. Not that he could see it, but I felt it.

Poisoning him?

Max shuddered with rage.

"She thought she could do it indefinitely," he said. "That I'd never find out.

"A soupQon of a.r.s.enic in my tea each day. A smidgen of it in my soup, my wine, my salad dressing.

"Just enough to keep me functioning, but weak enough so she could get control of the act. Dispose of my resistance without actually becoming a murderess."

He shouted at her suddenly, making me twitch.

"That's what you planned, wasn't it?" he said. "You stu- pid b.i.t.c.h! You'd have to have a live-in pharmacist to man- age that! You were killing me, pure and simple!"

He shuddered again. "Control," he murmured "Con- trol."

The keystone of our professional and personal life.

How many times had I drummed The Delacorte Motto into his head?

194 Richard Math-on

"Do you understand now why I did it. Padre?" he asked,

his voice controlled now.

I understand but can't condone, I thought. You could have

told the authorities. Poisoning is still a punishable crime.

But that was overlooking pride, and pride's need for re- venge.

And, being honest with myself, I could not say that. had

the same thing been done to me in every respect, I would

not have murdered for revenge also.

Uke Adelaide, my Cara was an angel.

Had I been married to Ca.s.sandra, though...

I was taken from my darkened fantasy by Max's voice.

"Well, now you know," he said. "I regret, more than I can say, that you may have lost respect for me. But I do not re- gret the elimination of this adulterous, covetous, murder- ous b.i.t.c.h."

Pushing to his feet, he walked to the fieldstone wall and

pushed in the stone.

The machinery hummed, the freezer area began to dose,

As it did, he glanced at it.

Stiffening with surprise, he started forward, then

abruptly turned back and pushed in the stone again.

The machinery reversed itself; the freezer area began re- opening.

Max moved over to it and stared at Ca.s.sandra,

What had he seen?

She hung motionless, her face a rigid, gray-white mask.

Max put on his gla.s.ses to look at her more dosely.

What had he seen? My heartbeat slowly, heavily, was pick- ing up momentum.

Max put his face closer to Ca.s.sandra's.

An icy hand damping hard over my pulsing heart.

And Max recoiling with a gasp of shock.

I Ca.s.sandra's right hand had twitched.

Now You See h... 195

"No," said Max. I doubt if he was aware of speaking as he

stared at her.

The hand was still. Ca.s.sandra hung immobile.

No, I thought, my mind-voice like my son's: incredulous, denying. It had only been a physical reaction. An involun- tary muscle spasm caused by the contrast in temperatures between the room and the freezer.