Zada's terror increased. “What harm has he ever done to you?”
“I didn't say he had done me any harm.”
“Is it because of his wife?”
“Leave her out of it.”
There was the old phrase again. Cheever kept hurling it at her whenever she referred to the third corner of the triangle.
Zada remembered when Cheever had threatened to kill Dyckman if he found him. Now he would be unarmed. He was not so big a man as Dyckman. She could see him being throttled slowly to death, leaving her and her child-to-be unprotected in their shameful folly.
“For God's sake, don't!” she implored him. “I'm not well. I mustn't have any excitement, I beg you—for my sake—”
“For your sake,” said Dyckman, with a scorn that changed to pity as she clung to him—“for your sake I'll give him a couple of extra jolts.”
That was rather dazzling, the compliment of having Jim Dyckman as her champion! Her old habit of taking everybody's flattery made her forget for the moment that she was now a one-man woman. Her clutch relaxed under the compliment just long enough for Dyckman to escape without violence. He darted through the door and closed it behind him.
She tugged at the inside knob, but he was so long that he could hold the outside knob with one hand and reach the elevator-bell with the other.