A Kiss Before Dying Read Online Free PDF Page A

Municipal—’
    ‘Friday?’
    ‘Baby, it’s Tuesday. Three days won’t make any difference now.’
    ‘I thought we’d go today.’
    He fingered the collar of her coat. ‘Dorrie, we can’t. Be practical. There are so many things to be taken care of. I think I have to take a blood test first. I’ll have to check on that. And then, if we get married Friday we can have the weekend for a honeymoon. I’m going to get us a reservation at the New Washington House—’
    She frowned indecisively.
    ‘What difference will three days make?’
    ‘I guess you’re right,’ she sighed.
    ‘That’s my baby.’
    She touched his hand. ‘I – I know it isn’t the way we wanted it, but – you’re happy, aren’t you?’
    ‘Well, what do you think? Listen, the money isn’t that important. I just thought that for your sake—’
    Her eyes were warm, reaching.
    He looked at his watch. ‘You have a ten o’clock, don’t you?’
    ‘ Solamente el Español . I can cut it.’
    ‘Don’t. We’ll have better reasons to cut our morning classes.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘I’ll see you at eight,’ he said. ‘At the bench.’ Reluctantly, she turned to go. ‘Oh, Dorrie—’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘You haven’t said anything to your sister, have you?’
    ‘Ellen? No.’
    ‘Well, you better not. Not until after we’re married.’
    ‘I thought I’d tell her before. We’ve been so close. I’d hate to do it without telling her.’
    ‘If she’s been so rotten to you the past two years—’
    ‘Not rotten.’
    ‘That was the word you used. Anyhow, she’s liable to tell your father. He might do something to stop us.’
    ‘What could he do?’
    ‘I don’t know. He would try anyway, wouldn’t he?’
    ‘All right. Whatever you say.’
    ‘Afterwards you’ll call her up right away. We’ll tell everybody.’
    ‘All right.’ A final smile, and then she was walking to the sunbright path, her hair glinting gold. He watched her until she disappeared behind the corner of a building. Then he picked up his books and walked away in the opposite direction. A braking car screeched somewhere, making him start. It sounded like a bird in a jungle.
       
    Without forming a conscious decision he was cutting the rest of the day’s classes. He walked all the way through the town and down to the river, which was not blue but a dull muddy brown. Leaning on the rail of the black-girded Morton Street Bridge, he looked into the water and smoked a cigarette.
    Here it was. The dilemma had finally caught up with him and engulfed him like the filthy water that pounded the abutments of the bridge. Marry her or leave her. A wife and a child and no money, or be hounded and blackballed by her father. ‘You don’t know me, sir. My name is Leo Kingship. I’d like to speak to you about the young man you have just employed – the young man your daughter is going with – I think you should know—’ Then what? There would be no place to go to but home. He thought of his mother. Years of complacent pride, patronizing sneers for the neighbours’ children, and then she sees him clerking in a dry goods store, not just for the summer, but permanently. Or even some lousy mill! His father had failed to live up to her expectations, and he’d seen what love she’d had for the old man burn itself into bitterness and contempt. Was that in store for him too? People talking behind his back. Oh Jesus! Why hadn’t the goddamned pills killed the girl?
    If only he could get her to undergo an operation. But no, she was determined to get married, and even if he pleaded she’d still want to consult Ellen before taking such a drastic measure. And anyway, where would they get the money? And suppose something happened, suppose she died. He would be involved because he would have been the one who arranged for the operation. He’d be right where he started – with her father out to get him. Her death wouldn’t do him a bit of good.
    Not if she died that way.
    There