“I’ve got to be sure. There is certainly some way of switching that gimmick off. She has to provide for possible repairs or replacements.”
“Where would it be?”
“Just one place that matches the pattern of the rest of her planning. Right under her hand, along with die disarming switch and the trigger switch.” He rubbed his other ear; it contained his short-range radio hook-up to McGinty and itched almost constantly.
“Hmm-then there’s just one thing to be done; I’ll have to wring it out of her before I kill her.”
“Well see.”
Just before dinner the following “evening” she found him in their room. “It worked, Joe, it worked!”
“What worked?”
“She fell for the bait. She heard from her secretary about my skill as a masseuse; I — was ordered up for a demonstration this afternoon. Now I am under strict instructions to come to her tonight and rub her to sleep.”
“It’s tonight,’ then.”
McGinty waited in his room, behind a locked door.
Joe stalled in the back hall, spinning out endlessly adull tale to Mr. James. A voice in his ear said, “She’s in her room now.” ” — and that’s how my brother got married to two women at once,” Joe concluded. “Sheer bad luck. I better get these plants outside before the missus happens to ask about ’em.”
‘I suppose you had. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Mr. James.” He picked up two of the pots and waddled out.
He put them down outside and heard, “She says she’s started to massage. She’s spotted the radio switching unit; it’s on the belt that the old gal keeps at her bedside table when she’s not wearing it.”
‘Tell her to kill her and grab it.”
“She says she wants to make her tell how to unswitch the booby-trap gimmick first.”
“Tell her not to delay.’
Suddenly, inside his head, clear and sweet as a bell as if they were her own spoken tones, he heard her.
— Joe, I can hear you. Can you hear me?
— yes, yes! Aloud he added, “Stand by the phones anyhow, Mac.”
— it wont he long. I have her in intense pain; she’ll crack soon.
— hurt her plenty! He began to run toward the temple building. — Gad, are you still shopping for a husband?
— I’ve found him.
— marry me and I’ll beat you every Saturday night.
— the man who can beat me hasn’t been born.
— I’d like to try. He slowed down before he came near the guard’s station. “Hi, Jim!”
— it’s a deal.
“Well, if it taint Joey boy! Got a match?”
“Here.” He reached out a hand-then, as the guard fell. he eased him to the ground and made sure that he would stay out.
— Gail! It’s got to be now!
The voice in his head came back in great consternation:
— Joe! She was too tough, she wouldn’t crack. She’s dead!
— good! get that belt, break the arming circuit, then see what else you find. I’m going to break in. He went toward the door of the temple.
— it’s disarmed, Joe. I could spot it; it has a time set on it. I can’t tell about the others, they aren’t marked and they all look alike.
He took from his pocket a small item provided by Baldwin’s careful planning. — twist them all from where they are to the other way. You’ll probably hit it.
— oh, Joe, I hope so!
He had placed the item against the lock; the metal around it turned red and now was melting away. An alarm clanged somewhere.
Gail’s voice came again in his head; there was urgency in it but no fear:
— Joe! they’re beating on the door. I’m trapped.
— McCinty! be our witness! He went on:
— I, Joseph, take thee. Gail, to be my lawfully wedded wife —
He was answered in tranquil rhythm:
— I, Gail, take thee, Joseph, to be my lawfully wedded husband —
— to have and to hold, he went on.
— to have and to hold, my beloved!
— for better, for worse —
— for better, for worse-Her voice in his head was singing… — till death do us part. I’ve got it open, darling, I am going in.