how can I explain anything when you insisted on lugging Nickie along?’
By then I was so tormented by curiosity that I abandoned any attempt to keep up an illusion of ignorance any longer.
‘If it’s anything to do with Mother being at your house when Norma plunged,’ I said, ‘don’t mind me. I know all about that.’
They both swung on me simultaneously. Ronnie looked green, presumably the shade Pam had described. Mother merely looked firm but indulgent.
‘Nickie dear, what are you talking about?’
‘Pam told me. At least I got it out of Delight and then made Pam tell me the whole thing.’
‘Delight?’ echoed Ronnie. ‘Who conceivably could be called Delight?’
‘Don’t be silly, Ronnie,’ said Mother. ‘You know Delight, the lovely girl who was with us at the funeral, my secretary. She’s perfectly divine.’ She put a butterfly hand on my knee. ‘So you know, Nickie dear. Perhaps it’s just as well.’ She sighed and then turned back to Ronnie. ‘There, dear. You see? There’s nothing to worry about. Now tell us. Sylvia knows — what?’
Ronnie groaned. ‘Sylvia knows you were at the house that night. And not only that. She knows something else, too. It’s incredible. I can’t conceive how. But she does.’
‘But, Ronnie dear,’ said Mother, ‘how could she possibly know?’
‘When I went to the studio to cut off the phones in the house, somebody called. I told you that. Well, it was Sylvia.’
Mother started looking vague again. Ronnie’s face turned a most undebonair shade of pink.
‘Anny, darling, I hadn’t been seeing her. You know it. After you’d saved me from her unspeakable coils. I hadn’t even set eyes on the degenerate, scheming cobra. She just - well, that night she just happened to call. I might have known she would sooner or later. She’d just been biding her time.’
As I watched him with one of Mother’s 'keen' glances, he went on, ‘And you can’t imagine what it was like. She was crying and sobbing and whimpering and moaning. How could I have abandoned her? Didn’t I realize I was the only Real Thing in her life — the only Pure, Honest, Straight Thing she’d ever known. She’d been in agony, absolute agony, and now this was the end. Now she was going to slash her wrists, put her head in a gas oven, take sleeping pills, jump off the Malibu pier.’
Ronnie thought about reaching over me to clutch Mother’s hand but didn’t quite dare. ‘I knew it was phony, of course. That woman is one hundred per cent guaranteed unadulterated phony. But I couldn’t hang up. I mean — think if she really had done it, leaving suicide notes all over the place. So I started to argue. It didn’t do any good. She just went on and on and on. Did I know she had no contract, that no studio would touch her, that she was penniless, that she would be forced to sink back into the gutters of Birmingham from which she’d so valiantly struggled? Then, on top of it all, she got on to you. It was all the fault of that dreadful Anny Rood, who had poisoned my mind against her. If it hadn’t been for that frightful Anny Rood…’
Ronnie paused to find some more breath from somewhere and then plunged on. ‘That’s when I felt myself snapping. Anny, darling Anny, you know how I snap. Something happens inside like the wrong things happening to an elastic band — and I snap. So I snapped and I heard myself yelling into the phone, ‘Okay. End it all. Go ahead. But before you do, I’d like you to know that Anny’s here right now, and all this time, while you’ve been gluing me to this phone for a full twenty minutes, she and Norma have been having a terrific pitched battle. By now one of them’s probably murdered the other, so at least you’ll find a dear old friend waiting for you in the Great Beyond.’ ‘
He broke off, appalled, as well he might be, at the memory of that most unfortunately phrased sentence. But he couldn’t have been more appalled than I because, as
By then I was so tormented by curiosity that I abandoned any attempt to keep up an illusion of ignorance any longer.
‘If it’s anything to do with Mother being at your house when Norma plunged,’ I said, ‘don’t mind me. I know all about that.’
They both swung on me simultaneously. Ronnie looked green, presumably the shade Pam had described. Mother merely looked firm but indulgent.
‘Nickie dear, what are you talking about?’
‘Pam told me. At least I got it out of Delight and then made Pam tell me the whole thing.’
‘Delight?’ echoed Ronnie. ‘Who conceivably could be called Delight?’
‘Don’t be silly, Ronnie,’ said Mother. ‘You know Delight, the lovely girl who was with us at the funeral, my secretary. She’s perfectly divine.’ She put a butterfly hand on my knee. ‘So you know, Nickie dear. Perhaps it’s just as well.’ She sighed and then turned back to Ronnie. ‘There, dear. You see? There’s nothing to worry about. Now tell us. Sylvia knows — what?’
Ronnie groaned. ‘Sylvia knows you were at the house that night. And not only that. She knows something else, too. It’s incredible. I can’t conceive how. But she does.’
‘But, Ronnie dear,’ said Mother, ‘how could she possibly know?’
‘When I went to the studio to cut off the phones in the house, somebody called. I told you that. Well, it was Sylvia.’
Mother started looking vague again. Ronnie’s face turned a most undebonair shade of pink.
‘Anny, darling, I hadn’t been seeing her. You know it. After you’d saved me from her unspeakable coils. I hadn’t even set eyes on the degenerate, scheming cobra. She just - well, that night she just happened to call. I might have known she would sooner or later. She’d just been biding her time.’
As I watched him with one of Mother’s 'keen' glances, he went on, ‘And you can’t imagine what it was like. She was crying and sobbing and whimpering and moaning. How could I have abandoned her? Didn’t I realize I was the only Real Thing in her life — the only Pure, Honest, Straight Thing she’d ever known. She’d been in agony, absolute agony, and now this was the end. Now she was going to slash her wrists, put her head in a gas oven, take sleeping pills, jump off the Malibu pier.’
Ronnie thought about reaching over me to clutch Mother’s hand but didn’t quite dare. ‘I knew it was phony, of course. That woman is one hundred per cent guaranteed unadulterated phony. But I couldn’t hang up. I mean — think if she really had done it, leaving suicide notes all over the place. So I started to argue. It didn’t do any good. She just went on and on and on. Did I know she had no contract, that no studio would touch her, that she was penniless, that she would be forced to sink back into the gutters of Birmingham from which she’d so valiantly struggled? Then, on top of it all, she got on to you. It was all the fault of that dreadful Anny Rood, who had poisoned my mind against her. If it hadn’t been for that frightful Anny Rood…’
Ronnie paused to find some more breath from somewhere and then plunged on. ‘That’s when I felt myself snapping. Anny, darling Anny, you know how I snap. Something happens inside like the wrong things happening to an elastic band — and I snap. So I snapped and I heard myself yelling into the phone, ‘Okay. End it all. Go ahead. But before you do, I’d like you to know that Anny’s here right now, and all this time, while you’ve been gluing me to this phone for a full twenty minutes, she and Norma have been having a terrific pitched battle. By now one of them’s probably murdered the other, so at least you’ll find a dear old friend waiting for you in the Great Beyond.’ ‘
He broke off, appalled, as well he might be, at the memory of that most unfortunately phrased sentence. But he couldn’t have been more appalled than I because, as
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