A Game for the Living Read Free Page B

out, holy Mother of God!”
    â€œDid you hear any sound of struggle in the apartment?”
    â€œNo. Maybe I did. I’m not sure. Yes, maybe I did!”
    â€œGo and call the police, if you please,” Theodore said to her. “I have to stay here to keep people out.”
    A murmuring crowd had gathered in the hall just outside the door, mostly boys from the street, Theodore thought. Some of them had been drinking. He closed the door as soon as he could persuade one of the young men to take his hands from the door’s edge.
    Then he sat down on the red hassock facing the door to wait for the police. He thought about Ramón, his Catholic soul trapped in his passion for Lelia. It preyed on Ramón’s conscience that he could not marry her and could not give her up either. Theodore had heard Ramón say at least twice in fits of remorse, or perhaps in anger at some careless word of Lelia’s: “I swear if I don’t give her up from this minute, Teo, I’ll kill myself!” Or something like that. And between killing oneself and killing the object of one’s passion was not much difference, Theodore thought. Psychologically, they equated sometimes. Well, the beast had killed her instead of himself!

CHAPTER TWO
    The police arrived with a moaning siren. They sounded like an army coming up the stairs, but there were only three of them, a short, paunchy officer of about fifty with a Sam Browne belt and a large gun on either hip, and two tall young policemen in light khaki uniforms. The fat officer pulled a gun and casually pointed it at Theodore.
    â€œStep over by the wall,” he said. Then he gestured to one of the policemen to cover Theodore while he went into the bedroom to see the body.
    The crowd from the hall was oozing into the room, staring and murmuring.
    One after the other, so that Theodore was constantly covered and stared at by two of them, the young policemen also went into the bedroom to look at Lelia. One of them whistled with astonishment. They came back staring at Theodore with shocked, stony faces.
    â€œYour name?” asked the officer, pulling paper and pencil out of his pocket. “Age? . . . Are you a citizen of Mexico?”
    â€œYes. Naturalized,” Theodore replied.
    â€œKeep them out of there! Don’t let anyone touch anything in there!” the officer shouted to the policemen.
    The crowd were seeping into the bedroom.
    â€œDo you admit this crime?” asked the officer.
    â€œNo! I’m the one who summoned you! I’m the one who found her!”
    â€œOccupation?”
    Theodore hesitated. “Painter.”
    The officer looked him up and down. Then he turned to a short, dark man whom Theodore had not noticed, though he stood in the forefront of the crowd. “Capitán Sauzas, would you like to continue?”
    The man stepped forward. He wore a dark hat and a dark, unbuttoned overcoat. A cigarette hung from his lips. He looked at Theodore with intelligent, impersonal brown eyes. “How do you happen to be here tonight?”
    â€œI came to see her,” Theodore said. “She is a friend of mine.”
    â€œAt what time did you come?”
    â€œAbout half an hour ago. About one o’clock.”
    â€œAnd did she let you in?”
    â€œNo!—There was a light. I knocked and there was no answer.” Theodore glanced at one of the revolvers, which moved a little and focused on him again. “I thought perhaps she’d fallen asleep—or that she had gone out to make a telephone call. So I crawled in through the transom. When I found her, I immediately went out to phone the police. I ran into Señora—Señora—”
    â€œSeñora de Silva,” Sauzas supplied for him.
    â€œYes,” Theodore said. “I told her and she said she would call the police for me.”
    The crowd in the room, which had ranged itself so as to be able to see Theodore and Sauzas at the same time,