A Bullet for Cinderella Read Free Page A

to kill a man. It wouldn’t, in a normal situation. But in captivity minor resentments become of major importance. Fitz wasn’t with us so he was against us. We needed him and every day he proved he didn’t need us.
    At the time of the exchange Fitzmartin was perhaps twenty pounds lighter. But he was in good shape. Many had died but Fitz was in fine shape. I knew him.
    “I’d like to see him,” I told the garage man. “Is the lumberyard far from here?”
    It was north of town. I had to take a bus that crossed a bridge at the north end of town and walk a half mile on the shoulder of the highway—past junk yards, a cheapdrive-in movie, rundown rental cabins. I kept asking myself why Fitz should have come to Hillston. He couldn’t know about the money. But I could remember the slyness of the man, his knack of moving without a sound.
    The lumberyard was large. There was an office near the road. There was a long shed open on the front where semi-fabricated pieces were kept in bins in covered storage. I heard the whine of a saw. Beyond the two buildings were tall stacks of lumber. A truck was being loaded back there. In the open shed a clerk was helping a customer select window frames. An office girl with thin face and dark hair looked up from an adding machine and told me I could find Fitzmartin out in the back where they were loading the truck.
    I went back and saw him before he saw me. He was heavier but otherwise unchanged. He stood with another man watching two men loading a stake truck. He wore khakis and stood with his fists in his hip pockets. The man said something and Earl Fitzmartin laughed. The sound startled me. I had never heard him laugh in the camp.
    He turned as I approached him. His face changed. The smoke eyes looked at me, wary, speculative. “I’ve got the name right, haven’t I? Tal Howard.”
    “That’s right.” There was, of course, no move toward shaking hands.
    He turned to the other man. “Joe, you go right ahead here. Leave this slip in the office on your way out.”
    Fitzmartin started walking back through the lot between the stacked lumber. I hesitated and followed him. He led the way to a shed on the back corner of the lot. An elderly Ford coupé was parked by the shed. He opened the door and gestured and I went into the shed. It was spotlessly clean. There was a bunk, table, chair, shelf with hot plate and dishes. He had a supply of canned goods, clean clothes hanging on hooks, a pile of magazines and paper-bound books near the head of the bunk. There was a large space heater in the corner, and through an open door I could see into a small bathroom with unfinished walls.
    There was no invitation to sit down. We faced each other.
    “Nice to see any old pal from north of the river,” he said.
    “I heard in town you work here.”
    “You just happened to be in town and heard I work here.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Maybe you’re going around looking all the boys up. Maybe you’re writing a book.”
    “It’s an idea.”
    “My experiences as a prisoner of war. Me and Dean.”
    “I’d put you in the book, Fitz. The big ego. Too damn impressed with himself to try to help anybody else.”
    “Help those gutless wonders? You types stone me. You wanted to turn it into a boys’ club. I watched a lot of you die because you didn’t have the guts or will or imagination to survive.”
    “With your help maybe a couple more would have come back.”
    “You sound like you think that would be a good thing.”
    There was an amused sneer in his tone that brought it all vividly back. That was what we had sensed about him. He hadn’t cared if we had all been buried there, just so Fitzmartin got out of it with a whole skin. I had thought my anger and outrage had been buried, had thought I was beyond caring. Perhaps he, too, misjudged the extent of the contempt that made me careless of his physical power.
    I struck blindly, taking him almost completely by surprise, my right fist hitting his jaw