Chapter 10
By six in the evening the sun was blacked out by another heavy swirl of storm clouds which blew in from the west. Within a matter of an hour the threat of rain was again imminent.
Throughout the afternoon, Alice remained on the divan, much too depressed to move. Her mental capacity was blurred into haunting visions of the past month and how her daughter had been trapped by an unprincipled individual. She did not blame Frieta. It was all her own fault, and she was the one to stand the consequences. McShane had warned her against the man, but she had foolishly refuted him. Naturally it was very easy for the hoodlum to have Frieta if she was suffering from a sexmania. Alice never imagined that her daughter could be a nymphomaniac. She had often come across various waitresses who related to her that they were that type who found it impossible to go for more than two days without a man. Once the man had kissed them the spark within them was quickly kindled and they found themselves unable to hold their bearings. Their morbid and ungovernable sexual craze must be appeased or they would find themselves in a tantrum of madness. Frieta must be saved.
At six-thirty Alice rose from the divan and went into the bathroom to wash and refresh herself. Then she returned to her bedroom and dressed and applied powder and saw to her makeup.
Noticing that the day had grown quite dark, she imagined that another rain storm was due. However, she did not imagine a rainstorm would disrupt her plans.
She opened the bottom dresser drawer and felt underneath a batch of linen until she found the .38 Caliber revolver. She thrust the gun into her purse. After getting a raincoat from the closet, she left the room.
Upon looking in on Frieta, she found her daughter asleep, so she closed the door softly and left the apartment.
Alice walked slowly down the stairs and left the apartment building. She turned east on Kansas Avenue, strolling along very jauntily. The wind was blowing, and already she felt the dampness in the air which meant that another rainstorm would come down within a matter of hours.
Her thoughts were not entirely her own. Certainly she never had any reason to commit murder before, despite what other individuals had done to her. She had never sought revenge before, not even when she had found herself pregnant many years ago in Waco, Texas. After all, the baby could be born and, somehow, survive the ugly conditions in which it had to live by being without a father. And she would never allow Frieta to have a child by Eddie LaRose. It would have been better for her to have his child than her own daughter. Even now, she could also be pregnant. Then that would make two of them which Eddie was guilty of. Mother and daughter.
Alice did not know why she wanted to murder Eddie LaRose. She could not deny the extreme hatred which she felt for him, and still she did not feel that she would be entirely satisfied by murdering the scoundrel. She felt a mean jealousy, for some reason. It cut into her soul, making her sick and bristling with animosity. She could not detest Frieta. She wasn't to blame. How many girls her own age would have refused a thousand dollars just for a few minutes of sensual love? Very few. And not any who felt their sexual desires ungovernable.
The main issue was that Eddie LaRose was nothing but a filthy rat, and in Alice's opinion no rat was fit to five in a decent society with individuals. She knew it would have been more appropriate to call in the police, but it was her own fight, and not theirs. Besides, the police would hardly do anything to Eddie for what he had done to Frieta. She had submitted to him, and she was no mere child. Frieta was quite grown.
Alice felt she had to kill him herself.
Within twenty minutes she had reached Third street and Kansas Avenue. The tavern was on the opposite side of the street. It was called Cowboy Inn. Eddie practically lived in the joint when he wasn't gambling. She knew he would be there. Yet her luck was even better. He was there at that particular moment.
As Alice paused to stare across the street at the joint she observed Eddie's green Ford parked directly in front of the tavern. She could hear the music vendor playing. Some honky-tonk tune, it was.
She clutched her purse underneath her left arm and went across the street. A few drops of rain had commenced falling.
When Alice reached the car, she went over and looked inside. Just her curiosity, nothing else.
Nothing of interest was inside the car. A black pair of leather gloves were lying carelessly along the front seat, and a neatly wrapped package on the rear seat. The black gloves did not interest Alice, but the package did. To her it looked like nice gin, all labeled and bottled. Her kind, no doubt. Eddie always bought her kind. But her taste wasn't for gin right now. Not his. She wanted his blood, his life. She wanted to see him lying flat in the street, just like the rat he was. That was the only thing which would satisfy her at this particular moment.
Undaunted, she turned away from the car, taking slow steps towards the tavern door.
Alice pushed the paneless door and entered the tavern.
The joint wasn't very crowded. Most of the drinkers were seated in back booths. A couple were along the lower section of the bar, and two men were up front near the door, closer to her. She did not see Eddie anywhere. Maybe they gambled downstairs. If so, that's where Eddie was.
She went over and slipped on a stool. The barman's name was Luke, and he knew her. Why shouldn't he. She had been there many times with Eddie, drinking.
Luke was fat with a slouched belly and little pig eyes. He always carried a stubby cigar between the right side of his mouth. It was there now.
"Well, my friend, Alice," he grinned at her, drawing a wet towel across the counter before her.
Alice looked at his soiled jacket and stained apron. She forced a dry smile.
"How'dy, Luke," she said.
"What'cha gonna have, baby?" he asked. "But if yuh jest lookin' for Eddie, he's downstairs." He paused, leaned forward and whispered, "In a game."
She didn't reply to that. She just eyed the fat bartender and said, "Gimme a rye and soda, Luke."
"Sure will, Baby," he said, and turned to fix the rye and soda.
Luke had Alice's drink before her in a jiffy, and she paid him. He rung up the money and started dumping some ice on the bottled beer. Alice contented herself to wait. She sipped the drink very carefully. Luke kept looking at her, obviously, noticing her darkened eyes, and that she appeared to have been involved in a row of some kind. But that wasn't anything unusual for the dames he usually met at the bar. Some of them were in much worse shapes after they had come off drunks and their old men had given them a working over with his fists.
Eddie came up quicker than Alice had calculated. Before she had half finished the drink, he was easing on the vacant stool on her left side, and laying an arm about her shoulders in a tenderly gesture.
"Well-well, Alice," he spoke nicely. "What a break, sugar. I was jest thinkin' 'bout you, baby."
She looked round at him, getting his strong masculine odor. Her heart fluttered, yet she was not discouraged by his presence. His hard eyes seemed more evil, and his features harmed by extreme dissipation. He didn't look clean one bit, and she imagined he had been hurt as much as she had by their savage brawl.
"I don't want anything to do with you, Eddie," she said. Somehow, she felt herself grown warm at the last minute, when she wanted to spit in his face, pull the weapon and blow his brains out.
"Alice, sugar," he said, more apologetic now. "God, I'm sure sorry 'bout what I did. Honest, babe. It's drivin' me nuts. Mah conscience's been botherin' me ever since. I cursed mahself night and day. Drunk for a week when I left the can. I hurt bad for what I done, Alice."
She frowned at him. "Save your grief for your old lady," she said coldly. "All I come in for was a drink. Then I'll get outa your sight."
She felt that her disinterest in him would suck him in. She wanted him away from the tavern, so she awaited her chance. He must never know that Frieta was pregnant. Never!
"Alice, please, babe," he groaned. "Look at me. I been sufferin', I tell you. I have. Honest."
"You're breakin' my heart," she snarled. "If you was so sorry why didn't you phone and apologize?"
"I wanted to. Really, babe. Honest."
She studied his unshaven face, his long hair and animalish expression. Indeed he looked more a bum than ever before.
"What're you after now? A skirt. You want your kicks, is that it? A free piece. Your lies don't stick with me, Eddie."
"Please, Alice. I admit it. I do. I'm no good. Rotten and dirty. I'm punished. Can't you forgive a person?"
"Sure. If you was a person. But you ain't. You're a rat. A dirty low-down rat. Now, beat it!"
He looked pitifully at her, and she felt her heart quiver for need of him. Did she actually want to murder Eddie? Now a different feeling had her heart. Murder was not really the thing she wanted. Despite what he had done to her daughter, and even to her, she loved him. He could actually have her again, despite all that had happened. Her heart melted at the very sight of him. She was a loving woman, not a brutal murderous one. What would she do if she had no one, when the feeling came on her again? Would Duke Wayne actually fall for her? Could she trust him? She didn't actually feel that she even wanted a cop for a lover. Some reason she didn't find them as free-hearted as other men. They had rules which had to be kept, and obligations, as well. Such would have to respect the law, and she didn't feel that she would be as free as she had been most of her life.
She looked at him, blushing, feeling composed as she had always been towards him.
"You know I was so kind to you, Eddie," she said regretfully. "Of all the guys I ever knew, well, I loved you th' most. You treated me real bad, real nasty. You didn't ever love me. You lied in order to satisfy yuh kicks."
"I'll beat it," he said, realizing that she had him all measured out. "I'll scram." He turned to leave, but she caught his arm.
"I'm not workin'," she told him. "I got fired. Maybe t'was my own fault, maybe not. I don't really know. If you was to help me along now and then, maybe I'd believe that you meant to do right this time. That is, if you care to patch things up and make a try at it again?"
He grinned slyly, unmindful of such clairvoyance of her.
"Alice, I love you, babe," he grinned, thinking she had turned soft towards him again.
The bartender came over and spoke to Eddie. Eddie nodded at him. The vendor stopped playing. Eddie put another quarter in the counter machine and the music started again.
"Don't hand me that bull," Alice sneered. "It makes my guts turn over when I hear you tellin' such a damn he as that."
"You don't believe me, babe?"
"How can I believe you? Every time you open your mouth you're tellin' a goddamned he."
He grinned at her. "Are you broke, now, babe?"
"Does it make any difference?"
"I've got fifty bucks."
"On you?"
"At my room?"
"Where's that?"
"Same place. Eighteenth and Kansas."
"Little good it'll do me at your room."
"We can go there, Alice."
"That a suggestion?"
"You need the money, don't you?"
"That's right. But I don't trust you."
"I promise you. Just ride over with me and I'll give it to you."
"There's no catch in it?"
"On my word, babe."
"Can I trust you, Eddie?"
"Do you want it or not?" He was adamant now.
Alice had been smoking. She looked up into his dark eyes and felt her heart throb for him as it always had. She mashed the cigarette out and caught his arm.
"All right, I'll go," she said.
They left the tavern, entered the Ford and he drove her directly to his room on Eighteenth and Kansas. She remained in the car while he hurried inside to get the money. In a few minutes he returned to the car, climbed behind the wheel and tossed five ten's on her lap. Alice took the money and smiled at him. She stuck it inside her bosom, not wishing to open her purse for fear he would spy the revolver. The money gave her a greater hope for their affair.
Eddie did not drive back towards the apartment as she bad hoped he would. Instead, he turned westward and pressed on the gas, sending the Ford along at fifty miles an hour. Rain started dropping hard now.
"Where on earth are you takin' me, now?" she wanted to know. "I have to get back to Frieta."
"Frieta can wait," he said. "Just for "a little spin. No harm, is there? Thought you'd like a little fresh air in the rain. You been in more than two weeks now."
Alice looked over at him, but she did not answer. His suggestion to take a ride was not the least unfavorable. She needed some fresh air, and a view of the country. This time of year it was beautiful. Things were growing. Farmers would not appreciate all the rain, however. It would ruin many of their crops, complete washouts.
Eddie was telling her how he obtained the liquor which he had in the back seat. Four fifths. Scotch. And he had won it gambling this morning. Some jerk had stolen the stuff from a drugstore and gambled it against five bucks at a crap game. He'd won the money and the fifty-dollars, besides.
After traveling five or more miles straight west on Highway-32, Eddie turned the car to the left off the highway and proceeded along a gravel road which wound and twisted through a corn field on the right side just off from the Kaw River, and there was a high bluff on the left side which boasted three wide layers, each higher than the other. The steep elevation twisted with the road, as it wound back southwards, curving slightly back east as they proceeded. There was not a house in sight. Only the corn field, the river beyond on the southwest, and the high weedy bluff which extended ninety or a hundred feet vertical. Many shrubs were along the bluff, and heaps of weedy substances which at various sections were taller than the average man.
On both sides of the gravel road were deep gullies, and it took an expert driver to keep to the road. It was slippery due to the rain, and Eddie cursed for having not used his senses on such a nasty rainy evening. He had brought Frieta out here some while back, and he found it a very pleasant view to relax and watch the river. Here, the mind could dismiss all the vicissitudes of life and find consolation in nature's riot pleasures.
The rain was beating down now. Eddie had to stop the car before he reached the curve which to turn around. He parked and swore again.
Alice looked round, making a comment on how high the Kaw River was. Then she noticed the com field. The corn stalks were nearly twelve to fifteen feet, and so dense and sodden that it seemed impossible to be penetrated.
"I thought we could talk better out here, Alice," he said to her, reaching over the seat to get the package of scotch.
Alice had forgotten her first intention to murder the man. In fact, she did not have any inclination to harm him at all now. She had relented to her impulse to try to forgive him. Taking a human life was not in her system. Some way she and Frieta could manage. She knew Eddie would never be of any use for her any more when it came to marriage. And Frieta certainly would never marry him, not after she had taken her to a good female specialist and had her administered for her mania for sexual desire.
"How 'bout a drink?" he asked, ripping off the cap of one bottle. He placed the remaining bottles of liquor back upon the rear seat.
Alice grinned, and took the liquor. She tilted the bottle to her lips, taking a gulping swallow. When she removed the bottle, she gave a luscious sigh and smiled softly over at him.
"Boy, that's real gone, honey," she commented pleasantly. She handed him the bottle, and he took his share and relaxed.
"Drink some more," he said politely, returning the bottle to her a second time. Alice took it and took another drink. He took another, until the bottle was empty. Then he lowered the window and hurled the empty bottle into the gully. It splashed in the water along the gully and sank.
Eddie leaned towards her, pulling her over into his arms. Deeply, he kissed her.
"Still mad at me?" he asked slyly.
"Not as much as I was at first."
"You feel good?"
"I'm okay."
He ran a hand along her left thigh. Then felt her breasts. He kissed her again. Alice felt herself trembling, and desire springing inside, a burning in her stomach made her sigh and she felt him, caressingly.
Now his hands moved along the bareness of her thigh. She didn't wear any stockings, nor panties, just a girdle. Her thighs were firmly held by the elastic material. The warmness of her body made her anxious to spread out for him so he could reach all of her.
"It's been three weeks, Alice," he whispered to her. Three horrible weeks. Think of that!"
She looked at him, shivering as his hands found the edge of the girdle. He jerked it free from the side of her thighs, and she felt a cold breeze moving along her warmness. His palm was between her, forming a friction against her. She squirmed in the seat, rotating her hips nervously.
"Oh, Eddie. I want to....I want to, but please ... I don't know." She pushed him away, thinking what a wretched fool she was. "No, Eddie....No, please." She looked down again at what he was showing to her. She felt miserable as the pressing lust overwhelmed her.
He reached for her again, contacting her arms and drawing her against his body. Before she could withdraw he had unfastened her blouse, and eased her brassiere from around her breasts. Her clothing shifted. Her body yearned for his contact. Her soul bled for sensual pleasure.
"No, Eddie," she said cruelly. "Don't be ridiculous!"
He shoved her over on the front seat, taking time to adjust himself, forcing, her thighs apart. She struggled to get herself back upright. He contacted her. Then she struck him. She shoved him back. Her body went suddenly cold, repulsive, hard, uncivil, averse to him.
"Please, Alice," he rasped. "I need you. Oh, baby, don't be that way."
She adjusted her clothes, pulled her brassiere back over her breasts and started fastening her blouse back up. He was still feeling along her thighs, hoping she'd relent and satisfy him.
"Turn this rattle trap round and drive me back to town," she said bluntly. "I ain't no free pickings for you any more, Eddie. Don't feel on me. I can't do it. I just can't!"
Upon seeing her adamant disposition, he reached another bottle of liquor. He opened it and handed it to her. He had to get her drunk to make her act sensible.
"Take another drink," he said.
She shoved the bottle back. "Save it for yuhself," she said indifferently. "Take me back home."
"Don't be that way, Alice. God, I'm no bear."
"Please, Eddie, take me back to town."
She was overcome by the brutish manner which he had beaten her. Also, she was thinking about Frieta at the apartment. Pregnant. Carrying this dirty bastard's child. What a stupid idiot she was. What a sex-crazed bitch. She suddenly hated herself. Tears formed in her eyes. She felt nauseated as thoughts of her giving herself to him again pounced into her mind.
Eddie made no effort to start the car. In fact it was raining so hard that he couldn't have moved it one way or the other, anyway. He took several drinks, staring disgustedly over at her, hoping he wouldn't have to do what was in his mind to do in order for her to give herself to him.
Alice remained silent also. She imagined he was angry because she had repulsed him. She had found her nature entirely different than she had been before for him. The flame was gone, and could not be rekindled.
She looked over at him. He was drinking silently, hardly paying any attention to her.
"Listen," she said, "I'll walk back, if you don't mind. I'll climb out in the rain and find my own way back to the highway. Maybe somebody'll give me a lift into town. Sorry to have bothered you. Thanks for the money. I sure need it. Don't be angry at me, Eddie. I just can't do it any more. I'm silly, I guess. I had frightfully cold chills when you touched me a moment ago."
When he gave no answer, she opened the door and started out. He dropped the bottle, reached for her. He jerked her back into the car.
"Don't be a sap, Babe," he snarled. "I'll take you back as soon as I can turn the car round." It was merely a tricky statement, in order for him to get her back inside of the car.
Alice believed him. Perhaps he was on the level. He couldn't have reverted himself so suddenly. Actually, she felt that he could still be sorry and repentant for his past misdeeds. She had really forgiven him. Her first intention had been to murder the rat. However, her heart had conceived to mercy, and such a thought did not occupy her mind any longer. Certainly any other man, in his place, might have done the same thing to a girl in such a morbid sexual state as Frieta had been.
As Alice turned back to the seat and closed the door, he reached for her. His seizure was contrary to gentleness which had been in his voice. Brutally, he jerked her back into his arms. Her head crashed against his chest. For a moment, she saw stars, yet she struggled to free herself. She turned startled eyes on him.
"Eddie; for heavens sake!" she cried. "What's th' matter with you?"
"I never drove out here to be put off," he snarled. Before she could answer, he had ripped her blouse open, trying to peel her rain coat from her shoulders. She beat at his mad hands, repulsing him as much as she could.
He pulled her off the seat. She sprawled backwards on the floor, her skirt pulled back along her thighs. The girdle had already been torn free of her legs, therefore he had complete access to her if he once got her in a sprawling position.
The enclosure in the front seat was much too small in order for him to take her properly. But he shoved her head towards the floor, and pulled her legs up towards the seat. Otherwise, Alice suddenly found herself nearly on her head. Her rain coat and skirt dangled over her face and arms. Her thighs were free. She could feel the cold air licking at her exposed flesh.
"Eddie, stop it!" she demanded. "Please, don't hurt me!" She tried to kick his arms, but he held both her legs to both sides of his body. She had a glimpse of him with his trousers peeled down. He was making the contact. But his nose was bleeding. His tongue was licking the dripping blood which flowed freely from his nose. She had not realized that she had scratched and bruised his nose until she had spied the blood. She realized he might be angry enough to kill her now.
Even while he contacted her, pressing himself until she could feel sensual pangs, sweetness surging into her soul. Yet the evilness of his past and present, surged forth into her brain. He was actually raping her, taking her against her will. What a dirty bastard he was, she thought. The previous fracas she had had with him pounced into her memory, making her soul cold and effortless to his present undulations against her body.
Fear, intermingled with hatred, made her dizzy and rebellious. She didn't think he intended to let her back to town alive. That was why he was attacking her.
Had Eddie actually lured her out here with the money in order to murder her this time?