McNally's Dilemma Read Online Free PDF

Melva was still smoking and Hattie was still crying. “Why, Melva?” I asked, taking an English Oval from my shirt pocket and lighting it. When in Rome, and all that.
    “Why what, Archy? Why did I marry him, or why did I shoot him?” She sounded less hysterical, more lucid. Was the shock wearing off, or the Scotch taking effect?
    I shrugged. “It’s your call.”
    “I married him because I was lonely and he was handsome and charming and the best lay in town. Does that surprise you?”
    It didn’t, but poor Hattie had her fist in her mouth once again.
    “I shot him because I caught him in there, with a woman. A young woman. They were screwing.”
    “He was never faithful, Melva, and I don’t think he ever pretended he was.”
    “But he never flaunted it, Archy. We had an understanding. He could do as he wished as long as he didn’t frighten the horses on Main Street. What I mean, Archy, is that it was something he did in the dark. I was his wife, and he never so much as looked at another woman in my presence. Oh, I heard the rumors, but I could never prove them, and that suited me just fine. It didn’t diminish his looks, his charm, or his performance in bed, and I liked the envious glances of other women when I appeared on the arm of Geoffrey Williams. Then tonight, in our home, he shattered our delicate balance.”
    “Where was he tonight?”
    “A dinner party aboard Phil Meecham’s yacht.”
    That accounted for Geoff’s informal attire. Meecham’s invitations always said, “Don’t Dress,” hoping everyone would take him literally.
    “I refused to go and went to my room to read,” Melva continued. “Geoff made some calls and then came up to tell me Lolly Spindrift was going to pick him up and drive him home after Meecham’s party. He left the Rolls so I wouldn’t feel marooned. Hattie wasn’t feeling well and went to her room to lie down shortly after lunch. I didn’t see her again until—until it happened.”
    “That’s right, Mr. Archy. I was not well. I think it’s the change of climate. I always have to adjust to the new climate.”
    “I heard a car pull in around eleven and waited for Geoff to come to bed,” Melva was saying. “A half hour later, I was still waiting. I never heard Lolly drive off, so I grew concerned. I took the gun from my night table—”
    “Why do you keep a gun?” I interrupted.
    “Why? I don’t know. For just such an occasion as this, I guess. I thought there was a burglar in the house. It was Teddy’s gun. We’ve had it for years. I wasn’t even sure it was loaded.”
    “So you came down here...”
    “Yes,” she said. “Here to the drawing room. All the lights were out and I lit lamps as I went from room to room. Then I heard voices coming from the solarium. I went there and saw them. Geoff and a woman. A very young woman, I believe. They were on the floor and she—she was on top of him, riding him, you might say. I think I screamed. She—the woman—stood up, grabbed her clothes and fled.
    “Geoff turned toward me and started to get up. I was shouting, hysterical, blind with rage. He was laughing. Yes, laughing, as if we were actors in a French farce. The more I ranted, the more he laughed. I was incensed. I heard her car drive off and wondered if she was still naked and what a scandal there would be if she were stopped by the police. Then I think he noticed the gun I was pointing at him. He raised a hand toward me and said something, I don’t know what, all I could hear was my own voice deafening me to any other sound—including the gunshot. I didn’t know I had fired until I saw him fall back, saw the blood...” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. Hattie went to her and stroked her head. When the weeping and trembling subsided she looked up and said, “Veronica.”
    “Veronica,” I repeated. “Where is she?”
    “That’s why I called you, Archy. Veronica. I want you to find her and keep her with you until things quiet down.