Free You Never Know With Women by James Hadley Chase

Parker.
    “You shouldn’t be here,” he said sharply. “What do you want? You should be in bed.”
    “Has he said anything?” she demanded.
    “Not yet, but he will.”
    He sounded too confident — much, much too confident.
    “Is he conscious?” she asked.
    “I don’t know and I don’t care. Go to bed.”
    She came back to stand close to me. She had changed out of her white dress and was wearing the canary-coloured slacks again. I looked up at her. She was pale and her eyes were over-bright. For a brief second our eyes met, then she turned quickly away.
    “He’s still unconscious,” she said to Parker. “He looks very bad.”
    I felt a tingle run up my spine.
    “Not half as bad as he’ll look when Gorman gets back. Go away. You shouldn’t be here.”
    “Where is Cornelius?”
    “He’s gone to Brett’s place to see if he can find out anything.”
    “But what can he find out? The police will be there, won’t they?”
    “How do I know?” His voice snapped at her. “Go to bed. I don’t want you here with him.”
    “You’re not angry with me, Dominic?”
    I moved my head slowly so I could watch them. She was standing over him, her slim fingers playing with the cosh, her eyes on his face.
    “No, I’m not angry,” he said. “But go to bed. You can’t do anything.”
    “Do you think he’s hidden it?”
    Parker clenched his fists.
    “I don’t know. That’s the trouble. That’s where he’s been so smart. It could have been destroyed. All this trouble: all these plans, and now we don’t know.” He thumped the arm of his chair. “Cornelius was crazy to trust this cheap, tricky crook.”
    “Yes.” She was swinging the cosh idly in her hand now. “But Cornelius won’t be able to get near the house, will he? I don’t understand why he has gone.”
    “He can’t do anything. I told him that, but he wouldn’t listen. He can’t rest until he knows. If he doesn’t find out anything he’ll kill Jackson. I don’t care what he does. I’m past caring.”
    She pointed down at his feet.
    “Is that something of yours?”
    It was well done, casual and quiet; an ordinary everyday question. It fooled Parker; it nearly fooled me. He leaned forward to look. The back of his head was a perfect target. He spread out on his face on the floor. He didn’t even groan.
    She stepped back, dropped the cosh; one hand went to her face.
    “I liked your follow through,” I said.
    She turned swiftly to look at me.
    “What happens now?” I asked.
    She continued to stare at me.
    “There’s nothing else I could do, was there?” she said. Her words tumbled over themselves. “I couldn’t let them torture you.”
    “That’s right,” I said. “How about cutting me loose?”
    She moved quickly to the sideboard, found a knife and came over to me.
    “I have a car outside. If only I knew where to go,” she said as she sawed at the ropes.
    “You mean you want to come with me?” I knew she couldn’t stay here after sapping Parker, but I wanted to hear her say she would go with me.
    “What else can I do?” she asked impatiently. “If Cornelius ever finds me after this — I don’t know what he’ll do to me.”
    I threw off the last rope, got unsteadily to my feet.
    “That’s fine,” I said, feeling my throat with tender fingers. “The moment I saw you I knew you and me were going to tie up. We’ll make a fine partnership.” I tottered over to the sideboard, poured myself a large drink. It hurt as it went down but it did me a power of good when it was down. “We’ll talk when we get out of here. I can’t go like this. Where does Parker keep his clothes?”
    “The door facing the top of the stairs. Will he be all right?”
    “Sure. He’ll sleep for hours. Wait for me. I won’t be long.”
    I went over to Parker, turned him over, relieved him of his gun and stuck it in my hip pocket.
    “I’ll be right with you,” I said and left her.
    It took me ten minutes to wash and change into one of