Free 1953 - The Sucker Punch by James Hadley Chase Page A

ever looked at a brother the way she looked at me when I said good night, and I knew I could have rushed my fences if I had wanted to, but I held back.
    Ten days crawled past: ten of the dullest days of my life. We went out together every night. She was calling me Chad now, and I was calling her Vestal.
    During those ten days I didn't see a sign of temper from her. She was really rather pathetic; trying so damned hard to rise above her physical disadvantages.
    But why go on? All this isn't interesting, and it isn't important. I'm only telling you a little of it so you shouldn't imagine that all I had to do was to wave a wand and she married me.
    Glorie and I discussed it after twenty long days had dragged by.
    "I'm turning on the heat tomorrow night," I said. "We're going to the Barbecue restaurant, and on the way home, heaven help me, I intend to kiss her."
    Glorie giggled.
    "I wish I could see you do it."
    The next night Vestal was like a seventeen-year old bobbysoxer with me. Glorie had said when she fell, she would fall and fall and fall, and that's what she did.
    I pulled up at the cliff head about three hundred yards from the tall iron gates guarding the estate. We had had a good dinner, md I had been drinking double whiskies all the evening. The moon was shining on the sea. There wasn't a sound to disturb us.
    Vestal was gay and excited and adoring. She didn't even want me to go home.
    I slid my arm around her and when she looked up, I kissed her. It was an effort and a bit of a failure, but at least it was a kiss. She held my hand in her cold little claws while she looked at me as if I were a Greek god.
    "Can't we stay here and watch the moon all night?" she asked.
    "I have work to do tomorrow. It's all right for you. You can be in bed all the morning. I have to earn a living."
    "You don't have to," she said eagerly. "I have enough money for us both, Chad. You must leave that dreary old bank. I want to see more of you."
    Well, here it was; just the way Glorie had said it would happen.
    "You don't know what you're saying," I told her. "Now stop talking before you say something you'll be sorry for later. I shouldn't have kissed you."
    "I wanted you to." Her brittle arms slid around my neck. "Be kind to me, Chad. I'm so lonely."
    I held her against me.
    "I'm crazy about you. If I had position and money, maybe it would be different, but I haven't." I pushed her away. "We'll cut this out. I'm taking you home."
    "I must talk to you, Chad," she said feverishly.
    "Okay, but we won't get anywhere. We shouldn't have started this."
    “You must tell me the truth. Do I mean anything to you?"
    "I don't know what you have done to me," I said, not looking at her. "I can't think of anything or anyone but you. You're in my blood. I'm crazy about you."
    I had to stop. My mind boggled at the drivel I was talking, but it wasn't drivel to her. She sat looking at me, her eyes shining, her pinched little face transformed. They say love can make a woman look beautiful. Well nothing could make Vestal look beautiful, but right at that moment, in the soft light of the moon, she at least managed not to look ugly, and that was quite an achievement.
    "You mean you—you want to marry me?" she said huskily.
    "How can I?" I said curtly. "Let's stop this, Vestal." I started the car engine. "Marriage between us just wouldn't work. No matter how much I love you, I'll be damned if I will live on you."
    I had got that line out of a soap opera Glorie and I used to listen to. I remember how we had howled with laughter when the big ham had come out with it. But Vestal didn't howl with laughter. She put her hand on mine and squeezed it lovingly.
    "I hoped you would say that. I'm so proud of you, Chad. It is really me you want, isn't it?"
    "Let's stop talking about it, Vestal."
    She shook her head.
    "We're not going to spoil our happiness because my money stands in the way," she said. "I'll think of a way out. Come and see me tomorrow. You must leave this to