He stopped at the door of the flat and didn't try to enter after her. She turned to face him. "Good night, George. And thanks again, a million."
"Forget it. But listen a moment. My guess that he might be waiting here for you was wrong, but I'm still worried and I guess you are too. Would you feel safer spending the night in a hotel room? You could write a note for Ray—I'd have had to bring you here to do that in any case—and then I could drive you on downtown. It might be the safest thing."
She shook her head. "No, I'll be all right here."
"Okay. But one final instruction—and I don't mean not to open the door except for your husband; you know that. It's this: if you hear anyone trying to get in either door or at a window, if you even think you hear anything suspicious, don't waste time phoning the police—you could be dead by the time they get here. Just open a front window, lean out and start screaming bloody murder at the top of your lungs, loud enough to carry six blocks away. He wouldn't follow through on trying to get in while you're doing that. Okay, good night—and let me hear that bolt slide."
"Good night, George."
She closed the door and slid the bolt, stood there a moment listening to his footsteps going down the stairs and thinking how wonderful he'd been to her and how concerned he'd been about her. And how brave to have come up here alone when he'd really thought that a dangerous criminal, a murderer, might be waiting.
When she turned she saw by the clock that it still lacked six minutes of midnight. Because of the lift, she was home earlier than usual despite all the talking they'd done and the time George had taken to search the flat.
She went into the bathroom and started drawing water in the tub. She was tired, if not sleepy, and a hot bath would be just the thing to relax her body and her nerves.
11:55 P.M.
Ray Fleck looked at his watch again and saw that it was just time for him to leave. He'd sat there nursing his drink ever since the psycho had left—thinking. There couldn't be any possible slip-ups on his alibi and he'd thought it out and covered every contingency.