Free 1950 - Mallory by James Hadley Chase

look too closely at the evidence.
    ‘You’re lying,’ he said sharply. ‘None of you would have the guts to shoot Crew.’
    She looked steadily at him, but said nothing as if his outburst didn’t merit an answer. He lit another cigarette, crossed his legs, uncrossed them, made an impatient movement and stood up.
    ‘If you try to pin this on me, I’ll drag you three into it,’ he warned her.
    ‘I don’t think you’ll succeed,’ she said quietly. One slim hand pushed back her dark hair from her face. ‘No one knows we stayed at Crew’s place. We were very careful not to be seen. We shall drop out of sight. There’s nothing to connect us with Crew - nothing at all.’
    Corridon rubbed his jaw as he stared at her, then turned and mixed another drink. While he was doing this, his mind picked over the problem, trying to find a way out.
    ‘You don’t think you’re going to leave here after what you’ve said? All I have to do is to send for the police, get my story in first and hand you over. Perhaps you haven’t thought of that?’
    ‘That wouldn’t be very clever, would it?’ she said and smiled.
    ‘You’ll have to do something better than that. It would be your word against mine. Your reputation is against you. The worst that could happen to me would be a few months in prison; but I’d probably be deported. I could always come back.’
    She was right. He wasn’t being very clever about this, but he admitted for the moment he was rattled. He sipped his drink and brooded. In a way it was inevitable. You couldn’t always expect to win at this game. He had known sooner or later he was bound to slip up. The best way out now would be to admit defeat. He might still outsmart them if they were off their guard.
    ‘All right,’ he said and managed to laugh. ‘It looks as if you’ve pulled a fast one on me. I’ll give you the money back. That’s what you want, isn’t it?’
    ‘No, we don’t want the money. You accepted payment you must finish the job. You are to find Mallory.’
    ‘To hell with Mallory,’ he burst out. ‘I’ve better things to do than waste my time on a wild goose chase. Find him yourself. I’ll return the money tomorrow.’
    ‘You’ll find Mallory or we’ll send the gun and the IOU to the police. You can please yourself.’
    His face set in hard lines.
    ‘Don’t push your luck too far.’
    ‘There’s no luck about it. We knew what you intended to do and we took precautions. You have no alternative. You would be wise to realize that.’
    He sat down again. He was caught and he knew it. If they were coldblooded enough to kill Crew they would have no compunction in saddling him with the crime.
    ‘It looks as if you’re going to get your own way, doesn’t it?’ he said lightly.
    ‘You played into our hands,’ she said, stubbing out her cigarette.
    ‘And Crew? You killed him in cold blood - one of you did. He had done nothing to you.’
    ‘Oh, but he had. He should have left us alone,’ she said stonily. ‘No one is going to stand in our way now we have got so far. We couldn’t trust him; but we wouldn’t have killed him if you had played straight with us. He had to go then. It was the obvious way of getting a hold on you.’
    He wondered suddenly if this was a bluff. He couldn’t accept the fact that Crew was dead: shot down in cold blood. Suppose they had hidden Crew somewhere? Suppose he wasn’t dead?
    She went on, ‘You are to find Mallory. You have the clues and his description. We shan’t interfere with you. You can go about finding him as you think best, only you must find him. We will give you three weeks.’
    ‘And then?’
    ‘If you haven’t found him by then we must decide whether you have tried or whether you have cheated us. We have taken every precaution. The gun and the IOU are with a firm of solicitors who have been instructed to forward them to the police unless they hear from one of us once a week.’ She rose to her feet. Her silky dark head