I’ve got to tell you about it.”
“Haven’t you told it?”
“Not what I mean.
Now listen to me, Frank.
All that time I was out there, waiting for the funeral to be over, I thought about it.
What it would mean to us.
Because we took a life, didn’t we?
And now we’re going to give one back.”
“That’s right.”
“It was all mixed up, what I thought.
But now, after what happened with that woman, it’s not mixed up any more.
I couldn’t call up Sackett, Frank.
I couldn’t call him up, because I couldn’t have this baby, and then have it find out I let its father hang for murder.”
“You were going to see Sackett.”
“No I wasn’t.
I was going away.”
“Was that the only reason you weren’t going to see Sackett?”
She took a long time before she answered that.
“No.
I love you, Frank.
I think you know that.
But maybe, if it hadn’t been for this, I would have gone to see him.
Just because I love you.”
“She didn’t mean anything to me, Cora.
I told you why I did it.
I was running away.”
“I know that.
I knew it all along.
I knew why you wanted to take me away, and what I said about you being a bum, I didn’t believe that.
I believed it, but it wasn’t why you wanted to go.
You being a bum, I love you for it.
And I hated her for the way she turned on you just for not telling her about something that wasn’t any of her business.
And yet, I wanted to ruin you for it.”
“Well?
“I’m trying to say it, Frank.
This is what I’m trying to say.
I wanted to ruin you, and yet I couldn’t go to see Sackett.
It wasn’t because you kept watching me. I could have run out of the house and got to him. It was because, like I told you.
Well then, I’m rid of the devil, Frank.
I know I’ll never call up Sackett, because I had my chance, and I had my reason, and I didn’t do it.
So the devil has left me.
But has he left you?”
“If he’s left you, then what more have I got to do with him?”
“We wouldn’t be sure.
We couldn’t ever be sure unless you had your chance.
The same chance I had.”
“I tell you, he’s gone.”
“While you were thinking about a way to kill me, Frank, I was thinking the same thing.
Of a way you could kill me.
You can kill me swimming.