I Would Rather Stay Poor by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online Page B

impatient movement as she said, ‘I intend to sell this house and leave here. With the money I get from the house, I’ll be able to drop out of sight. Then I can spend what I like.’
    ‘That’s where you are wrong. It is a difficult thing to drop out of sight. But that’s neither here nor there,’ Calvin said. ‘If you leave, then I can’t. It would look very odd, wouldn’t it, if we both suddenly left town?’
    ‘I don’t see why. We don’t have to leave together. You could leave a few months later: what’s wrong with that?’
    ‘You are not being very bright this morning,’ Calvin said. ‘I am the manager of the bank. I have no other means of earning a living. I couldn’t suddenly resign and leave town. The Federal agents would want to know what I was going to do: how I was going to earn a living. They would be interested especially as there has been a big robbery at my branch. Do you see that?’
    ‘That is for you to work out,’ Kit said. ‘I know what I’m going to do.’
    ‘If you are stupid enough to believe you would be safe to splash your money around you’ll find yourself in trouble. In every town there is a Feder al agent who keeps track of new comers. He’ll wonder where your mo ney is coming from. He’ll make in quiries and he’ll find out you are from Pittsville , the town that has had a payroll robbery. He’ll start checking and then you’ll be in trouble … so will I.’
    ‘I can take care of myself,’ she said. ‘I’m not scared. All I want is the money.’
    ‘If the money is no good to you when you have it, there is no point in taking it,’ he said mildly.
    ‘Just what are you driving at?’ she demanded, facing him, her brown eyes angry. ‘What is it?’
    ‘There is only one safe way for us once we have the money. I stress the word us because there isn’t much point in it being safe for you and not for me since neither of us can take the money without the other. It isn’t unnatural that you should think only of yourself: nor for me to think only of myself, but since neither of us can do without the other, we must think of this thing as a combined operation.’
    She walked over to the kitchen table and sat on it, swinging her long legs, her arms folded tightl y across her breasts.
    ‘Can’t you say what you want to say? Must you go round and round the point. What is it?’
    ‘You and I are going to get married,’ Calvin said and smiled his charming smile. ‘That is the only safe solution.’
    She stiffened. Her eyes showed her startled, shocked surprise.
    ‘Oh no! I’m not marrying you! I’ve had one husband … that was plenty!’
    ‘I feel exactly the same as you do, but it is the only safe way. It needn’t be permanent. Just long enough to be convenient.’
    She studied him, then because she had already learned to respect his shrewdness, she said more quietly, ‘I don’t want to marry you, but I’ ll listen. Why do you say it is safer?’
    ‘It would be the most natural th ing in the world for me, staying in your rooming-house, to fall in love with yo u and want you to be my wife,’ C alvin said. ‘We have to be sure that every move we make is a natural one. Every move we make could come under scrutiny. It would also be natural, after we were married, for you to sell this house, and for me to resign from the bank. We would say there is no future in Pittsvil l e for either of us, which is true. We are using your capital and my small savings to go south where we hope to find a more profitable rooming-house and run it together. That story would be accepted and both of us could leave here without arousing any suspicions.’
    ‘All right,’ she said, shrugging, ‘but are you suggesting we should buy another rooming-house? I’m not risking so much to get this money to be landed with another rooming-house … get that quite clear.’
    Calvin shook his head.
    ‘You and I will have our honeymoon in Las Vegas. It is an exciting place: a honeymoon